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Similar Academy of Light, Roker Park, Stadium of Light | ||
Newcastle Road was a football ground in Sunderland, England, and was the home ground of Sunderland A.F.C until 1898. It was the fifth ground at which the club had played and their first proper stadium. The ground was located between Newcastle Road, Eglinton Street North and Down Crozier Street. It is also the first ground at which Sunderland played as members of the Football League, their first game being a defeat against Burnley on 13 September 1890.
For a while the stadium held the record of being the 'largest in the UK' when in an 1891 FA Cup game against Everton a crowd of 21,000 was present.
The ground is today most famous for its being featured in a painting of the artist Thomas M. M. Hemy, a brother of Charles Napier Hemy; one of the first paintings of a football game. The painting is now on show in the reception area at the Stadium of Light, the current home of Sunderland A.F.C.
Eventually Sunderland decided to move to Roker Park when it became clear that the area of Newcastle Road was too small for any further expansions.