That Hampden spirit will live on for all Spiders fans
The news that Queen’s Park look to have played their last-ever game at what is the third Hampden Park prompted renowned stadium portrait artist Paul Town to get to work on his easel and create The Spirit Of Hampden.
Bradford-based Town, who is well-known in Scotland due to his work with Hearts, Hibs, Dunfermline and Raith Rovers, was commissioned by the Spiders back in 2019 to bring alive the first-ever Hampden, which was opened in 1873 and was in use for close to a decade.
He did so, using the only photograph believed to exist of the pavilion that sat at the ground which now forms part of the Hampden Bowling Club.
Town has now produced an atmospheric picture of the 1970s Hampden, proudly displaying the QPFC logo that was on the North Stand and is hoping that fans of Scotland’s oldest club will be able to buy prints from Queen’s.
The SPFL League 2 side, who sold the present Hampden to the Scottish FA in 2018, will play their remaining matches of this season at The Falkirk Stadium after their agreement to play at the National Stadium runs out at the end of this month and cannot be extended due to the EURO 2020 games that are being held in June, with their longer-term home being at a spruced up Lesser Hampden.
On hearing that news, Town felt that he had to produce a painting for the generations of Queen’s Park fans who knew it as home.
He explained: “Hampden is a special place for football fans and I believe that, back in the 1970s, it looked just as fantastic from outside of the ground as it did from inside.
“Hopefully, Queen’s Park fans will agree especially as it proudly displays their club as the owners.”
Painting the 118-yearold ground was an emotional affair for Town, who is a survivor of the fire at Bradford City’s Valley Parade Ground back in 1985, which claimed the life of 56 fans.
Town said: “I was at the game with my dad and, thankfully, we both survived. However, for a long time I bottled up what had happened.
It all came out a few years ago and I started painting to help deal with the anxiety that it caused.
“I was a builder before, so I knew all about structures and I combined that with the painting and started painting stadiums. I paint them as I see them and, in The Spirit Of Hampden, you will notice that it is quite a biblical sky and that is to remember those who watched games at Hampden that are no longer here.
“Also milling outside is a total of 56 people and they are in memory of the disaster I was involved in at Bradford. My paintings usually always involve a 5 and 6 as I feel that they should be there.”