A glimpse into a different era
Newcastle United fans who have been around the block a few times will recall this view of St James’ Park.
Behind the gates and old metal signage is the venerable West Stand as seen from Strawberry Place in 1964 – and it was a scene that would remain relatively unchanged for the next two-and-ahalf decades or so.
If, for younger supporters, our view resembles something from distant footballing history, they are not wrong.
Built in the midst of United’s Edwardian golden era, nearly 60 years later the ‘old stand’ – as supporters called it – was still the club’s sole seated area, as well as home to the players’ dressing rooms, the boardroom and press area.
Its construction in 1906, at a final cost of more than £11,000 was part of improvements which would turn St James’ into one of England’s finest and biggest stadiums with a capacity of around 60,000.
Many of the 4,655 who sat here across the decades would have had ‘a few bob’, while everyone
else paid at the gate, and stood watching the match on terracing in the Gallowgate End, the Popular Side, or the Leazes End.
It was only during the 1972-73 season, when the new East Stand opened where the Popular Side had been, that more supporters were able to sit at St James’ Park.
Back in April 1964, when our photograph was taken, the Magpies were approaching the end of their third season in Division Two, having been relegated for the second time in the club’s history in 1961.
This was the Newcastle United of Jim Iley, Alan Suddick, Ron McGarry, Gordon Marshall and captain Stan Anderson.
And there were fresh faces too – the likes of David Craig, Frank Clark and Bobby Moncur would later deliver silverware and evolve into exemplary, long-time club servants.
1950s double FA Cup-winning skipper Joe Harvey was manager, while Wallace Hurford was club chairman.
But the 1963-64 campaign hadn’t been a successful one.
In the FA Cup, in one of the most notorious results in the club’s history, United fell at the first hurdle to non-league Bedford Town in front of 35,000 fans at St James’ Park.
And after a bright start In the league, the Magpies’ form fell away and they slipped to an eighth-place finish, consigning themselves to another season in the second tier, while having to watch bitter rivals Sunderland finish runners-up and gain promotion.
Thankfully there would be joy for Newcastle United just a year later, with the Magpies going up as Division Two champions in April, 1965.
The old wooden-built West Stand, meanwhile, soldiered on until 1987 when it was finally demolished, two years after the Bradford City fire disaster zcaused a major re-think about safety at football grounds, and a full 81 years after it first opened.
A new St James’ Park slowly began to take shape, with major redevelopments in the mid and late 1990s giving us the stadium we know today.