Man who makes Lego models of football grounds builds Ipswich Town’s Portman Road

The Lego version of Portman Road, created by Chris Smith Archant

The home of Ipswich Town can now be yours to own – for under £300.

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Chris Smith with his Lego Portman Road Chris Smith with his Lego Portman Road

However, it might tricky to get inside your new purchase, or even pick out your favourite seat.

That’s because this is a model of Portman Road made entirely out of Lego.

It has been built by Chris Smith from Altrincham and is part of his new business creating football memorabilia from the famous bricks.

The 31-year-old usually makes the models on commission and delivers every one personally so they don’t get broken on the journey; none of the pieces are glued together.

The Lego version of Portman Road, created by Chris Smith The Lego version of Portman Road, created by Chris Smith

However Portman Road, which is available on his website for £299.99, came about largely thanks to a supporter of their arch rivals in Norfolk.

Mr Smith said: “A Norwich fan contacted me to do a Carrow Road so I delivered that to him a couple of weeks later and had in my mind to do Ipswich soon after.

“It’s the seventh or eighth one and is part of a project to do every ground. I’ve worked out it will take years rather than months.

“The idea was to build them, sell them, then go onto the next one.”

The models come fully built by Mr Smith but for fans wanting the same challenge he enjoys the next stage of his business is to offer them in kit form.

He says the stadia are not exact replicas but representations and at 65x45x20cm are big enough to require their own dedicated display space.

So far the business is going from strength to strength thanks to customer reviews.

“Everyone who’s ordered one has been delighted with them,” Mr Smith said.

“Sometimes their wives aren’t too happy, though.”

However the Crystal Palace fan said he did not visit the real Portman Road before making the model. “I deliberately never go to look at the grounds because I’d see them in too much detail and it would drive me to distraction,” he said.

“I just look at loads of photos and at the ground on Google Earth.”