Standing in the famous Gallowgate End
MEMORIES OF TOON TERRACES
NEWCASTLE United fans of a certain vintage will remember scenes like these. This was the famous Gallowgate End at St James’ Park on a match day in 1977.
From these terraces, generations of fans watched United’s ups and downs.
The famous ‘end’ began life as an earth bank as the club established itself in the 1890s.
In the 1930s, United pressed ahead with plans replacing the St James’ ash and wood terracing with concrete.
And if Gallowgate End regulars had to cope with whatever the weather threw at them, plans to build a roof in the late 1920s were dropped after endless planning wrangles.
For those of us who stood on the jam-packed Gallowgate terrace in our younger days, it could be exhilarating, raucous and very tribal.
Toon, Toon, black and white army!
There were tribes within tribes, with the “scoreboard” and the “corner” being two distinct gathering places for fans.
If one of life’s best feelings is to see your team scoring a goal, it was even better celebrating one in the midst of 12,000 leaping, rampaging, screaming, bellowing like-minded individuals.
On a personal note, three notable games viewed from the Gallowgate End remain vivid in the memory.
When Kevin Keegan made his Newcastle debut on a day of blazing sunshine in August 1982, his winning goal sent the expectant thousands packed on the terraces into meltdown.
On New Year’s Day, 1985, a Peter Beardsley hat-trick against Sunderland
saw the Gallowgate explode in exaltation three times.
And, in very different circumstances, a late David Kelly strike against Portsmouth in April 1992, effectively saved a struggling Magpies team from relegation to the Third Division. A Champions’ League winning goal would not have been celebrated with greater fervour.
But it’s an age thing. Those of us who leapt around like dolphins in the Gallowgate 30 years ago are probably much more conservative in our goal celebrations these days.
And let’s not get too romantic about it. By the 1980s and 90s, the Gallowgate End was a tatty stretch of terracing well past its sell-by date.
Not content with Dickensian-style toilet facilities, full-on exposure to the vicissitudes of the Tyneside weather, and the pushing, crushing and general argybargy of a terraced crowd, you were on your hind legs for 90 minutes-plus. It was not a great customer experience.
The Gallowgate End terraces finally bowed out after the 1993-94 season and were demolished to make may for the new, 21st century St James’ Park.
The atmosphere at the Toon may have been better then, but give me today’s safe, sanitised, comfortable all-seated stadium any day.