ARCHIBALD LEITCH THE ARCHITECT OF ENGLISH FOOTBALL

Archibald Leitch The Scottish architect, most famous for his work designing football stadiums throughout Britain and Ireland. Leitch's stadiums were initially considered functional rather than aesthetically elegant and were clearly influenced by his early work on industrial buildings. Typically, his stands had two tiers, with crisscrossed steel balustrades at the front of the upper tier, and were covered by a series of pitched roofs, built so that their ends faced onto the playing field; the central roof span would be distinctly larger, and would incorporate a distinctive pediment. His first project in England was the design and building of the John Street Stand at Bramall Lane, which provided 3,000 seats and terracing for 6,000 and was dominated by a large mock-Tudor press box. Many of his works have since been demolished for redevelopment, especially in wake of the Taylor Report and the move to all-seater stadiums. For instance, the Trinity Road Stand at Villa Park, considered his masterpiece, was demolished in 2000. The main stand and pavilion at Craven Cottage, the facade of the main stand at Ibrox (although the stand itself has been remodeled) and the Bullens Road and Gwladys Street stand at Goodison Park survive; they have now listed buildings, as was the Leitch-designed main stand at Heart of Midlothian's Tynecastle Park; however, in 2016 permission was granted for that structure to be demolished and replaced. The double-decker 1926 Bullens Road Stand at Goodison Park home of Everton FC. The Johnny Haynes stand at Craven Cottage, home of Fulham Football Club. The concrete Midland Road stand for Bradford City Football Club nearing completion in 1908 The Bill Struth Main Stand at Ibrox, home of Rangers Football Club Leitch's reputation as an architect was damaged as a result of the Ibrox disaster of 1902 when 25 people were killed when a bank of wooden terracing collapsed due to substandard pine being used in the terraces. Leitch, in attendance at the disaster, convinced Rangers to hire him to build the replacement stand. Leitch patented a new form of strengthening terraces for the Ibrox rebuild. Over the next four decades, he became Britain's foremost football architect. In total, he was commissioned to design part or all of more than 20 stadiums in the UK and Ireland between 1899 and 1939, including: #thefootballchannelhd #football #soccer #youtube #google #news #treading #subs #itv #skysports #btsport #fatv #fapl #skybet #efl #ucl #champuionsleague