A new book revisits England's football grounds as they were in 1988, including all the London stadia.
Back in 1988, Giles Goford and his late father Jeremy embarked on a whistle-stop tour of all 92 Football League grounds in England and Wales. It proved a life-changing experience for the football-obsessed 15 year old and for his dad, who wasn't a football fan but who had a sense of adventure and wanted to bond with his son at a time of personal difficulties.
The hundreds of photos taken on the trip reveal a snapshot of what football was like in that pre-Premier League era of crumbling stadia and muddy pitches – and how a father and son went searching for football grounds, but found so much more.
35 years later, Giles’ rite of passage has been published as Head for the Floodlights. It boasts 200 photos and sets out the full story of the inspirational journey, undertaken only with a map and a copy of Simon Inglis’ classic Football Grounds of England and Wales. Their London and South-east leg took place in July, which meant they had little chance of getting inside the grounds or seeing a match, as they had managed elsewhere. Even so, the photographs and descriptions offer a real insight into the character of London’s football’s grounds shortly before everything changed forever…
1. Crystal Palace
The Eagles were on the verge of great things in the summer of ’88. Wright, Salako, Shaw, plus Gareth Southgate coming through the ranks. Promotion back to the top flight would be achieved within a year. I’d almost made my Selhurst debut back in November 1986, when my English teacher Mr Carpenter (a Palace fan) offered to take me to the Ipswich game. But he never showed up. He probably realised taking a 13-year-old Ipswich fan into the Holmesdale Road End wasn’t the best idea. So I missed out on a 3-3 thriller. Although the gates were locked, dad managed to scramble up some scaffolding to take pictures of the Archibald Leitch-designed Main Stand and the Sainsbury’s behind the Whitehorse Lane terracing. Such dedication to the cause!
2. Charlton Athletic
Due to the Addicks ground sharing with Palace, we were already at our next club; though from today’s perspective the Charlton signage at Selhurst Park appears quite shocking. A detour to The Valley, at that time overgrown with weeds, would have been fitting, but our remit was current grounds only. In 1987/88, Charlton’s average ‘home’ gate was 8,683, only 1,062 less than Palace’s. They stayed at Selhurst for six years, and then new tenants Wimbledon moved in. Midfield general Paul Mortimer recently told me how this “wonderful side, with flair and strength” felt they could take points off any Division One side. “Playing at Highbury for the first time, I did feel like a tourist,” Paul admitted. “In the dressing room before the game one of the lads slipped their shoes off and felt the marble floors. They had underfloor heating! Half the team were lying on the floor face down, taking in the warmth! I was overjoyed to then score a wonderful volley at the far post.
3. Millwall
The Den was a tough place to find. As Simon Inglis mentions in his book, “Its floodlights are so low and inconsequential against the skyline as to be almost worthless homing guides.
Far more consequential was Millwall’s performance on the pitch at the time. Helped by Sheringham and Cascarino scoring 42 League goals between them, Millwall won promotion to Division One for the first time, on 2 May 1988, with a 1-0 win at Hull. Millwall fans had a fearsome reputation in the 1980s, further fuelled by the scenes at Luton that saw police being chased across the pitch and pelted with orange seats in 1985. A trip to play the Lions in their Den had never been a comfortable proposition. It was a tough part of south London, where even the name Cold Blow Lane was ominous, but all was quiet on the Sunday we visited. Sadly we couldn’t get past the iron gates, and didn’t get to see the Archibald Leitch stand that had caught fire during the war and had to be rebuilt without its ornate gable.
4. West Ham United
I’d had an affinity for the Hammers after watching the 1981 League Cup final, where I felt they had been unlucky not to beat Liverpool. Someone, please beat Liverpool! Then, that classic side of 1985/86 finished third, just four points behind, yes, Liverpool. Their signing of Frank McAvennie in the summer of 1985 felt so exotic, this pop-star footballer with the flowing blond locks. He was on the cover of Match that autumn, and I’d bought several copies as it was the first time my name had been printed in the mag, on the letters page. It’s such a sign of the times, seeing the claret and blue portakabin as the main retail outlet for a major Division One club. Where the match programme sold for 80p and George Parris posters flew off the shelves. We only had a view of the rear of the West Stand, which was built in 1925, and didn’t see the ‘Chicken Run’ opposite, which retained its nickname even after the old, shed-like roof was demolished and replaced by a sleek new East Stand in 1969. The last professional match at this raucous, tight ground was on 10 May 2016, when Winston Reid scored a late winner, as West Ham edged Manchester United 3-2. I’m pleased that the iconic Hammers gates survived the relocation to the London Stadium.
5. Leyton Orient
It’s a 15-minute drive from Upton Park to Brisbane Road, and had it been there at the time, we would have passed the 2012 Olympic Stadium. London was a vastly different city in 1988. It was the year construction began on what we know now as One Canada Square, the tallest building in the UK until surpassed by The Shard in 2012. It was a year of change at Brisbane Road too. The club had reverted to Leyton Orient at the start of 1987/88, having been just ‘Orient’ since 1966. Name changes were common for the club. They had previously been known as Glyn Cricket and Football Club, and Eagle Football Club before they became Clapton Orient. So it was new ‘Leyton Orient’ signage that we encountered on our visit, the O’s coming off the back of an eighth-place Division Four finish under European Cup winner Frank Clark. Visible through one corner between the Main Stand and North Terrace was the East Stand. Built in the 1930s, it had seats added to the terraces in 1977 when the Safety of Sports Grounds Act required the crush barriers to be replaced. Having spent just one season in the top division (1962/63: relegated with Man City), Orient share their fleeting claim to fame with Northampton, Barnsley, Swindon and Carlisle of the current League clubs.
6. Tottenham Hotspur
Arriving at White Hart Lane, the first thing that struck me was how the exterior didn’t look like a football ground, more like a hotel, with the glass-fronted offices overlooking the iron gates.
This was one of football’s cathedrals. Archibald Leitch’s three-tier East Stand topped with a golden cockerel was one of the country’s most attractive stands. However, the Lane had been frozen in time since the ’30s, and at the dawn of the ’80s the decision was made to go corporate. The new West Stand was completed in 1982, with two tiers of executive boxes that took the costs to over £4m. In later life, I would experience games inside, packed houses with raucous Spurs fans thirsty for success, but back in the summer of ’88, we just had to wonder whether new arrival Paul Gascoigne was inside, preparing to dazzle in his first season in white. Tottenham’s farewell to White Hart Lane came on 14 May 2017, when Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney scored the last ever goal at the ground, although Spurs won the game 2-1.
7. Arsenal
Highbury was where it all started, with my first ever Football League match. You never forget your first time, and that visit to north London on 27 December 1980 is forever seared into my brain. Even at seven years old, I could appreciate the beauty of the stadium. The cream-coloured pillars, the art deco signage, this felt like visiting a temple in ancient Greece. And I wasn’t even an Arsenal fan! Watching back the highlights all these years on, if Frank Stapleton had taken even half of his chances, the Gunners would have romped to a win – and I could have been an Arsenal supporter for life. What fine margins life can turn on.
Everything that day was magnified. The noise of the crowd, the simple beauty of the white sleeves and collar on the Arsenal shirt, and the immense throng of fans as we left Highbury. There was no stadium tour available in July 1988, so we couldn’t witness together the iconic marble halls, the famous North Bank or the Clock End, never mind those unique white managers’ dugouts that looked like something from a Ted Moult Everest double-glazing advert. Highbury’s final League match was a 4-2 win against Wigan, on 7 May 2006. Fittingly, one of the Gunners’ greatest players, Thierry Henry, scored the final goal, completing a hat-trick and kissing the turf.
8. QPR
Dad was in his element in London, and driving west from Highbury down side streets, through Camden and Notting Hill, this felt like a whole new world was opening up. I had felt a little scared of London previously, with too many places to get lost. But Dad’s guidance on this day made me appreciate the charms of the capital, and with Bob Marley’s Exodus playing on the car stereo, I was taking in all the sights on the way to Loftus Road. Unlike many clubs at the time, QPR had a large club shop next to the ground. I’ve always been a sucker for memorabilia and merchandise, and not just for the clubs where I have an affinity. I’m as happy to drink coffee out of a QPR mug as I am an Ipswich one, although there are some clubs where I would draw the line. Exactly seven years on, Loftus Road would be visible from the BBC Sports Library on the fifth floor of Television Centre, where I started working, at first as an intern from university. It’s a totally unique ground, where I was surprised to hear Rangers only finally settled in 1963, having flirted with moves to the nearby White City Stadium in 1931 and 1962, both of which proved only temporary.
9. Brentford
For my 30th birthday, I hired out Griffin Park for a game with friends, complete with access to the changing rooms and post-match bar. It was a boiling hot day, and we soon realised how the enormous pitch would drain our energy. I loved the experience, even if the qualified referee did pull me up for a foul throw. Come on ref, it’s my birthday! When the repercussions of the Bradford fire reduced capacity from 37,000 to 9,500, the club responded by selling off a car park for apartments, and replaced the old Kop, the Royal Oak Stand, with a narrow two-tier affair. Fans called it ‘the Wendy House’. Brentford ended up being my local club for a while when we lived in Hounslow. Both our house and the ground were under the Heathrow flight path, giving UK visitors a bird’s-eye view of a ground – and its canny, vast rooftop adverts. The last first-team match was played on 29 July 2020, sadly behind closed doors due to the pandemic. Brentford beat Swansea 3-1 in the Championship play-off semi-final second leg, with visiting striker Rhian Brewster scoring the final goal at the ground.
10. Chelsea
Back in 1988, the only club sign we could photograph was obscured by the team bus. The photos also capture the rusting hulk of the huge, three-tiered East Stand that almost put the club out of business in 1974, over-running by a year and £600,000. And the rear of the Shed End, one of London’s legendary stands in the days of bovver boots. I was never fortunate enough to see Pat Nevin play at the Bridge. One of Chelsea’s great entertainers, he scored 45 goals in 247 appearances from 1983-88. But, more recently, I’ve been lucky to spend some time chatting with Pat about his successful career and his passion for music. And there aren’t many more qualified to describe the Bridge than ‘the Wee Man’. “After signing from Clyde, I went down half expecting this gigantic organisation, Chelsea Football Club, to be soulless,” Pat recounts. “Not a chance. I knew everyone working there within a few days. I used to hang out with Jimmy Hendrie, who drove the bus to training. He was from Glasgow, like me; he looked after the kit and was the physio, too! He drove me back to the Bridge so I could do some extra training on the pitch. This was the home of Charlie Cooke and Peter Osgood, and I wanted to impress the fans, especially those in the Shed. I scored my first goal there against Cardiff, in only my second start at the Bridge. Stadiums are so important to the local communities, like cathedrals. I love it when imagination is put into a design, but far too many new builds these days feel like Lego stadiums. Very few are built with a soul.”
11. Fulham
In Mike Bayly’s beautiful photographic book British Football’s Greatest Grounds, Craven Cottage was voted by the public as their second favourite of all time (to find out the first, you’ll need to buy it!). Football fans, and not just those following the Cottagers, can romantically wax lyrical about the Thameside ground, which first hosted Fulham matches in 1896, and I always associate the ground with love, or the pursuit of it. Having dated A, from Illinois, for all of six months, I decided the next sensible step was to ask her to marry me. She said yes, and a winter wedding was planned. On her next visit to the UK, in August 1998, my next obvious step was to take her to a League Cup tie between Fulham and Cardiff City. It was a balmy evening, Kevin Keegan was in charge and Peter Beardsley was on the scoresheet. What more could a girl want? Not more of this, evidently. Three months on, with A safely back on US soil, she called me (I’d just got back from a game at Loftus Road) to call off the wedding with immediate effect. Just like a manager’s sacking, I was left to ruminate on what might have been. I’m sure many people have discovered lasting love under Archibald Leitch’s main stand, now renamed the Johnny Haynes Stand, and the iconic Pavilion next door. Just not me!
12. Wimbledon
In many ways, Wimbledon FC epitomises the essence of our trip. They were the stars of the 1987/88 season in my young eyes. The Dons’ remarkable FA Cup win fascinated the nation. How could a club that had been in Division Four as recently as 1983 rise up and take down the elite? Beasant, Sanchez, Fashanu and Vinnie Jones became iconic national figures, where five years previously the club had been playing away at Torquay and Rochdale. Sadly, Wimbledon proved victims of their own outrageous success. Plough Lane had served the club well for decades in non-league football, but the Premier League all-seater deadline could not be met by a ground with a 16,000 capacity and 2,000 seats. It waved goodbye to League football on 4 May 1991, when Crystal Palace ran out 3-0 winners thanks to an Ian Wright hat-trick.
A move to Selhurst Park gave the club a short-term solution; but then the much longer step to Milton Keynes in English football’s first (and last) franchise move eventually saw Wimbledon disappear. I ended up living half a mile from Plough Lane in 2004, and would often think of that small band of loyal fans who had witnessed the club’s remarkable rise. Out of non-league in 1977, winning five promotions, top-ten finishes in Division One and that unforgettable Wembley triumph, with Princess Diana handing over the Cup. It was an ’80s success story of underdogs achieving against all odds. And, like a Brat Pack movie of the era, it even had a happy ending. Neutral football fans everywhere were overjoyed to see the phoenix club AFC Wimbledon return in 2021 to a new Plough Lane, just 200 yards from their former home.
Head for the Floodlights: Around the 92 in the 1980s, by Giles Goford is out now from Conker Editions.
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