Standing up to be counted over the eras
AHEAD OF TOMORROW’S RETURN OF PLAYERS – IF NOT SUPPORTERS – TO ST JAMES’ PARK, KATIE DICKINSON LOOKS BACK ON ITS EVOLUTION
THE Premier League has returned
– but not as we know it. After a three-month absence due to the coronavirus pandemic, Newcastle United will return to action against Sheffield United tomorrow.
Yet for the first time in its history, the stadium will see a Newcastle first team play without any supporters there to cheer them on.
While this may be a first, the story of St James’ Park has seen plenty of ups and downs.
Up until 1972, there were only 4,500 seats in a near-60,000 ground.
Half of the stadium was unroofed and the bulk of supporters stood.
The grand 1906-built West Stand was finally pulled down and replaced in 1987 in the wake of the Bradford City fire disaster.
By that time, St James’ Park was a hotchpotch of different stands and terraces.
It was not until the mid- to late 1990s the stadium as we know it today came into being.
Across the decades there were many plans and schemes put forward to improve, rebuild or even vacate St James’ Park but the club and the old city fathers would more than often not end up butting heads.
The model pictured above comes from late 1967 and shows plans for a new St James’ Park looking not unlike today’s.
On the left is Barrack Road, and on the right is an envisaged motorway which was never constructed.
We reported how “the £2.6m scheme to turn St James’ Park into a super-stadium would provide room for 63,000 spectators, 31,000 of them seated, and include a sports centre equipped with swimming pools, gymnasiums, squash courts, youth club rooms and lecture halls.”
The scheme never came to pass but the club finally had a super-stadium 30 years later.
More recently, there has been controversy over a £120m transformation of Strawberry Place for high-rise offices, flats and hotels. The giant redevelopment of land around St James’ Park was approved last year - despite objections from hundreds of Magpies fans worried it will obscure views of the stadium and prevent its future expansion.
By 1987, St James’ Park was a hotchpotch of different stands and terraces