Landmark Information Group: Football Grounds Through The Years

With the start of the Premier League Football season, it got us thinking about what our data could find out related to well-known existing or former football grounds. Just an initial search on a handful of grounds has uncovered some interesting features, which we would like to share with you.

Our data team initially looked into the following grounds:

Manchester City Football Club – Hyde Road ground
Arsenal Football Club – Highbury ground
Port Vale Football Club – Athletic ground
Swansea City AFC – Vetch Field ground
Wembley Stadium

Manchester City’s Hyde Road:

Looking through historic maps shows a clear connection between industry and football pitches or sporting grounds. It shows that, at its roots, football was always a pastime for the masses and not the billion pound industry that it has today become. Much of the grounds started off life on a piece of waste ground, and in the case of Manchester City’s Hyde Road ground in West Gorton, Manchester, industry reclaimed the site once the team relocated to its Maine Road ground in 1923.

1893 Map:

1908 Map:

1922 Map:

In its early days, the ground had only basic facilities, with the first stand being built in 1888. Changing facilities were then added in 1896 – records show that until then, players had to change in a nearby public house!

By 1920, the club had outgrown the venue and a decision was made to seek an alternative venue. The club moved to the 80,000-capacity Maine Road in 1923, and Hyde Road was demolished shortly afterwards, where it was reclaimed by industry and the land was adapted into transportation depots.

Arsenal’s Highbury ground:

In 1913, Arsenal’s ground in Highbury, north London, was built on open or recreational space that belonged to the local college. Located in the heart of a built-up residential area, Highbury has been developed to fit within a concentrated population (unlike some of the football grounds in the north that have been formed around industrial locations or sites).

Over the years, a huge amount of development has taken place in Highbury. With residential space at a premium, when Arsenal relocated to its brand new Emirates Stadium in 2006, the ground was redeveloped into residential flats, which incorporates two of the stands, due to their Listed status.

The location of Arsenal’s stadium in Highbury in 1871 shows a fair amount of ‘open’ space:

This 1896 map shows the extent of development that had taken place in the area over a 25 year period:

The football ground makes its first appearance on this 1915 map:

In 1936 we can see that even more development has taken place at the stadium:

Fast forward to today, and we can see that the majority of the Highbury stadium has been converted into residential flats. Known as ‘Highbury Square’, the Clock End and North Bank stands have been demolished, while parts of the East and West Stands have remained and have been incorporated into the new housing development due to being Listed structures.

Port Vale’s Athletic ground

Port Vale’s Athletic Ground was located in Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent – an area that was known for its coal mining, clay pits and brick works. This map from 1890 shows the location of the site in relation to the many collieries. Originally built in 1886, it was home to Port Vale for 27 years, before they left to instead play at the Old Recreation Ground in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.

1890 Map:

The Athletic ground remained as a sports venue for many years, with it becoming the local Greyhound Racing Track during the 1960s and 1970s. The ground was then redeveloped in the 1980s and today is the site of a residential care home.

1955 Map:

Swansea City’s Vetch Field:

Opened in 1912, the Vetch Field was a multi-purpose stadium in Swansea, Wales, which was home to Swansea City until 2005. According to historic reports, the site was originally owned by the Swansea Gaslight Company, however surplus to requirements, the gas company handed the ground over to the football club to use. Interestingly, it has been noted that the playing surface was made of compacted coal cinder and so players were required to wear knee pads for the first season of football.

Located in a built-up residential area, Vetch Park was also home to “The Royal Arsenal” with barracks also located on site, showing the diverse use of the surrounding land.

Today, the ground is no longer in action, but has instead been transformed into an “urban utopia” of green space and allotments. Our data shows that over 7,800 ‘points of interest’ that detail gardening, landscaping and tree surgery services are within the vicinity of Vetch Park, while the Local Plan data identifies over 2,100 land allocations for allotments (both existing and proposed). Over 1,800 community projects and networks are also located in the area, showing how the benefit of former grounds is providing to the local residents.

1879 Map:

1899 Map:

1919 Map:

Historic elements 1971, Modern Mastermap 2014:

Historic elements 1949, Modern Mastermap 2014:

Wembley Stadium

One of our earliest map images (1864) depicts the very green open space of Wembley Park, before work commenced on the development of ‘Watkin’s Tower’ in 1891. Watkin's Tower was constructed in iron and was an ambitious project to create a visitor attraction in Wembley Park. According to records, the "Great Tower of London" was designed to surpass the height of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, however it was never completed and was in fact demolished in 1904, however it has been captured in time on the 1896 OS map.

By 1914 the Park has developed into a golf course, which matches with what is known as the ‘English Golf boom’; a shift in social attitudes and the development of the English Middle-class. The figures of the resulting boom are impressive. In 1850 England boasted only one golf club; however by 1914 over 1,200 courses were used by over 200,000 keen golfers.

Our next detailed map is dated 1935, over a decade after the Empire Stadium was built in 1923. What’s interesting to note is the rapid development in the area; the green spaces of Wembley Park were quickly developed in less than 20 years.

The catalyst for this was the British Empire Exhibition, which was a trade/industry expo designed to promote the Empire. Most of what we now know as Wembley was intended to be temporary, although the changes to the area were permanent. The park was never re-claimed and the area is still used for industrial storage and retail.

The Polygon shows today’s location of Wembley Stadium on a 1864 map: