Last Stand

[PeterWithe]

Did it cost Rangers significantly more to incorporate their old stand into the new?

[KevinGage]

Quite possibly.  But some things you don't scrimp on.

[brian green]

Absolutely.  If the Arts Council can, rightly, use taxpayers' money to protect that which is most important in the fabric of our civilization,  football grounds in the hearts of industrial cities must qualify to be guarded from the financial bean counters.

[brian green]

I mentioned Gas St Basin.  It was a very close run thing to save that heritage.  When Bill Clinton as US President came to Birmingham where did they take him?  Gas St Basin.    If we had lost they would have had to take him to Baskerville House and show him a photocopy of the cheque National Car Parks paid the council.

[Rico]

Amazing pictures of an iconic football stand. Living in Lancashire now I talk to lots of fans from all of the local clubs, and all of them love Villa Park, and lots of them talk with great fondness of the old Holte End and the old Trinity Road stand. I guarantee you this that if Villa Park was on Merseyside or in Manchester then it would be a national treasure and most likely a listed building.

There is an opportunity though for surely in the not too distant future the North stand will need to be redeveloped. Could it not be done sympathetically with a nod to our past and incorporate a mosaic and made out of brick instead of metal sheeting. Here's hoping. UTV

[DB]

It does follow the pattern in Birmingham of replacing old unique buildings with cheaper box standard versions and tearing up the places that made Brum what it was.

[KevinGage]

The North is probably iconic in its own right now.

Built mid 70s, it was the first (and prob still best) of those brutalist structures. Often replicated, never bettered. Sort the concourses and facilities in the back. In fact completely rebuild the back. Jet washes every few years won't cut it.  Plus if Celtic can manage heated seats in their upper tiers, no reason why the North Stand can't get them. Aside from that, keep.

If there's one stand worthy of demolishing and starting again it's the Doug Ellis. It's ripe for a newer design, with that smaller mid tier so beloved of the corporates.

[DB]

The Wilton really is an awful stand, no character, upper tier concourse is far too small, facade is forgettable. Another Doug classic.

[LeeB]

The North is probably iconic in its own right now.

Built mid 70s, it was the first (and prob still best) of those brutalist structures. Often replicated, never bettered. Sort the concourses and facilities in the back. In fact completely rebuild the back. Jet washes every few years won't cut it.  Plus if Celtic can manage heated seats in their upper tiers, no reason why the North Stand can't get them. Aside from that, keep.

If there's one stand worthy of demolishing and starting again it's the Doug Ellis. It's ripe for a newer design, with that smaller mid tier so beloved of the corporates.

Agreed on both parts.

[sid1964]

I agree the refurbishment of the ground under Doug's tenure is awful

Why we could not have had a 1 tier holte end (I am sure that the architects can tell us) and I hate those boxes that have been added onto the trinity stand at the end by the Holte again awful!

[brian green]

The folk legend, which could remotely possibly be true, is the brutalist architecture of the North Stand came about by HDE demanding that the structure could be added to to incorporate an hotel at some future date.  Like the bicycle kick it is probably a fantasy.

[PeterWithe]

I agree the refurbishment of the ground under Doug's tenure is awful

Why we could not have had a 1 tier holte end (I am sure that the architects can tell us) and I hate those boxes that have been added onto the trinity stand at the end by the Holte again awful!

I think it was said at the time that a one tiered stand would not have fitted into the available footprint given the location of Trinity Road, and that sight lines from the rear would have been poor if it was possible.

[dave.woodhall]

The folk legend, which could remotely possibly be true, is the brutalist architecture of the North Stand came about by HDE demanding that the structure could be added to to incorporate an hotel at some future date.  Like the bicycle kick it is probably a fantasy.

I'm sure that an an AGM many years ago, Ellis or Steve Stride said that by coincidence the North Stand was built in such a way that it could be converted to a hotel. Steve later told me that he couldn't remember, and I've no reason to doubt him.

[Villan82]

At the time I couldn't understand why the rebuild wasn't, at the very least, more sympathetic.

For a start, the new Trinity was built 5 years after the Holte End redevelopment and that stand's facade was a specific nod to the old Trinity. Surely the new Trinity should have, externally, looked like the new Holte End and thereby most would have been relatively happy? Instead the new stand was a mess (though I think it looks well from inside the ground).

[brian green]

The only time at which I personally touched briefly on the potential future of VP was when the firm of architects for whom I worked were commissioned to find hotel sites on or near the M6 by a French hotel chain.  They fancied VP but we could not make access work without a lump of Aston Park.  So we moved on.