Alert: Random Arsenal Shizzle

Wow that’s a serious coup!!

I knew it was going on today. Hope it’ll get published as a non-paywalled Arsecast

 

If there are any other old stadium buffs out there...

This could go under Random Shizzle or Other Teams but I chose the former, because it has to do with Archibald Leitch, the architect of Highbury 1913.

As I was listening to podcasts talking about Goodison Park this past weekend, one of them mentioned how Archie designed most of England's football grounds around that time, including Highbury, Goodison, Anfield, Craven Cottage, etc, etc.

It's an impressive list (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Leitch#Stadium_design) and he was in impressive guy, but it has to be said that very few who remember Highbury would actually remember Leitch's designs, because the more iconic work came about in the 1930's with the addition of our 2 famous Art Deco stands (sadly only small parts of which were preserved in the redevelopment into flats)

Circa mid 1910's?:


Circa late 1980's? (how I remember it):

 

Yes, that's the NW corner (both shots from roughly the same spot actually). And yes if you were at the top (as I was at least once) you'd be quite obstructed. But crowd sizes were kinda low in the mid 70's so I usually got to stand right roughly behind the goal. To this day I prefer that viewpoint for footy, although now I try to go for the front of the 2nd tier.

 

I'm just finishing up the Arsecast+AV Live at Union Chapel. I started on the podcast, but then after the intermission I switched to Youtube to be able to see it, especially because I knew who was coming.

And I have to say I kinda got goosebumps when Mikel came out and his song was sung, and then even a bit more at the end when Stuart took a photo of Mikel w/ the 6 podsters and his song being sung even louder.

Which visually reminded me of the mural on our stadium of players from different eras arm-in-arm. Helluva moment and a strongly recommend you check it out.



Kudos to Andrew, Elliott (and Kate?) who made that moment happen

 

Pretty sure they stay at the Hilton near Angel.

 

Charles Watts talked about this "incident" on his pod today. He was really annoyed about the abuse Saka was getting in some social media circles. Said it was utterly ridiculous as Saka wasn't rude---very polite, just seemed blindsided and didn't want to answer questions.

 

There's an English fellow named Simon Inglis who's done a handful of books on footy grounds and a variety of other types of stadia. One of his books is called Engineering Archie and is about Archibald Leitch and his work. There are chapters on virtually all of his grounds/stands in British football (and rugby). Its very well researched, well written, and (perhaps best of all) very well illustrated.

Any 'old stadium buff' out there would do himself a great service in tracking down a copy. It came out a good 20 years ago, and I can't imagine its still in print, but in the internet age, most anything can be found, no? At any rate, its brilliant, and if possible, worth tracking down.

 

Thanks Pook. Sounds great. And Amazon has a used copy for a mere $169! LOL Ebay, not much better: $130 w/ shipping.

Probably if I lived in the UK (don't tempt me!) I'd be able to find it at the local library?

You got a copy you wanna lend me? I could pay shipping.

p.s. I've still got quite a few old english grounds on my bucket list. Goodison is one of them, and I thought that dream got deleted last month, but now I hear they're keeping it around (for a little while anyway) for their women to use, so maybe I'll step up my game and go watch our gals away at Everton in the coming season(s)... planets would have to seriously align though. And wouldn't be the same noise for their gals as their boys.

p.p.s. One ground that I ticked off my list last year was Fenway... I suppose the last remaining (largely original) old major league stadium in our country? I'm not too much of a baseball fan, but I really enjoyed the outing. Plus it was my daughter's present to me.

 

Goodison's brilliant. And while its a dead certainty that the atmosphere at a women's game wont match the first team, the structure is still the structure, and worth a look.

Most of the good ones are all going away now - or have gone. As to Leitch stands (in addition to Goodison), there are still a few around. The two best are the Stevenage Road Stand at Fulham and the South Stand at Ibrox. Both are brilliant, with Fulham being closest to its original form. Rangers, to their credit, invested very heavily to modernize that stand, while retaining its fundamental character. Ive always wondered how heavily that expense weighed in their finacial difficulties (an understatement, that) some years back - so maybe not to their credit. The South Stand at Hillsborough is good, but is was so modified in '96 (for the Euros) that many of the Leitch-y features are gone. Selhurst Park has a very generic Main Stand, but i doubt it'll be around much longer. Redevelopment is scheduled (if not started). Fratton Park has a pretty decent Leitch stand in use (the South Stand), where you can still see the famous criss-crossed balcony trusses that typified his work. Goodison and Ibrox are best for those, though.

If there are more still in use, I can't think of them. I know he did one of the grounds in Dundee (Dens Park?), but I'm not sure if his stand is still up.* Tynecastle's Main Stand came down about the same time as the East Stand (and the rest of) White Hart Lane ... everything else is even more distant history. We're all getting older, eh? **sigh**


*Ive just looked. It is.

 

And for that reason Highbury was a better stadium than The Grove. Of course it didn’t make as much money and was unable to offer modern amenities, but you can’t compare the fan or player experiences. If you don’t believe me, ask TH14.