Old Maine Road photos thread

IOWBlue said:
2nd saddest day after the Kippax's last stand. A day that was worse than any relegation. You might lose your wallet whilst out, maybe get beaten up or have lost your job, but the Kippax terrace was always there. Until it wasn't.
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Personally I hated the Kippax (old and new). I struggle to see the nostalgia about its demise, apart from it being replaced by a truly awful new stand.

The sight lines were awful with columns in the way, the bogs stank, and I struggled to see at times despite being 5 ft 11 inches tall because of inadequate rake.

I always stood on the Scoreboard End or occasionally in the Platt Lane end. The only time I was in the Kippax was while the North Stand was under construction. I moved straight back to the new stand once it was opened. The North Stand was great for me, initially standing and later sitting. Clear views with no columns to obstruct views.

Amazingly, the old Kippax was replaced by something even worse. It was massive but held very few and saw the stadium drop to an unacceptable figure of around 30,000 capacity. Along with the rubbish new stand at the Platt Lane end, it made Maine Road no longer fit for purpose and I was very relieved when the move to Eastlands was announced. Maine Road at the end looked like an architectural experiment gone wrong with four stands all totally different in concept and an open-air corner tacked on with zero cover from wind, rain, hail, and snow.

It was that bad it ought to have been renamed the Peter Swales Stadium.
 
IOWBlue said:
2nd saddest day after the Kippax's last stand. A day that was worse than any relegation. You might lose your wallet whilst out, maybe get beaten up or have lost your job, but the Kippax terrace was always there. Until it wasn't.
Click to expand...
Nothing comes close to Luton. (Except Spurs).
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
No, you were right the first time. That picture you posted is the Sheffield Wednesday replay from the 5th Round of the 1934 FA Cup.

We drew the first game at Hillsborough, 2-2, then won the replay at Maine Road 2-0 in front of 68,614.

The Stoke game was the following round which was in front of 84,569, which is this image:

View attachment 165997


Then this image which also gets conflated with the Stoke record crowd game, is actually from the 1936 FA Cup 3rd Round tie against Portsmouth in front of 53,340… both teams wearing their away kits for the game (City in maroon, Pompey in white):

View attachment 165998

In the next round that year against Luton, we got a crowd of 65,978.
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What were City thinking replacing that beautiful roof on the Main Stand?
 
JGL07 said:
Personally I hated the Kippax (old and new). I struggle to see the nostalgia about its demise, apart from it being replaced by a truly awful new stand.

The sight lines were awful with columns in the way, the bogs stank, and I struggled to see at times despite being 5 ft 11 inches tall because of inadequate rake.

I always stood on the Scoreboard End or occasionally in the Platt Lane end. The only time I was in the Kippax was while the North Stand was under construction. I moved straight back to the new stand once it was opened. The North Stand was great for me, initially standing and later sitting. Clear views with no columns to obstruct views.

Amazingly, the old Kippax was replaced by something even worse. It was massive but held very few and saw the stadium drop to an unacceptable figure of around 30,000 capacity. Along with the rubbish new stand at the Platt Lane end, it made Maine Road no longer fit for purpose and I was very relieved when the move to Eastlands was announced. Maine Road at the end looked like an architectural experiment gone wrong with four stands all totally different in concept and an open-air corner tacked on with zero cover from wind, rain, hail, and snow.

It was that bad it ought to have been renamed the Peter Swales Stadium.
Click to expand...
I tried one game in the new platt lane but went straight back to the North stand, a total carbuncle.
 
JGL07 said:
Knowing Swales, the old one must have been on the verge of collapse?
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Talking of which, the Platt Lane Stand was originally for standing spectators and I was one of those when I attended the 1960 Derby when we beat the rags 3-0. What I remembered of that day was being precariously balanced on one of the barriers near the back of the stand, and that the back of the stand being timbers rather than concrete.
Jump forward a couple of decades and what had been a stand converted to all seating became barred to City fans. I well remember the embarrassing sight of a small rump of Wimbledon fans having the entire stand to themselves with oceans of space around them. Eventually the stand was closed off and demolished to be replaced by that embarrassing eyesore that symbolised the small thinking of Swales who seemed to be the only person on this planet who thought that this was really the way forward.
Unless there had been a fire safety order or if there had been significant problems with the timbers then it would all have been a huge waste of time and money. I can't think of anything else to justify why this stand should go.
 
Lost for words said:
Talking of which, the Platt Lane Stand was originally for standing spectators and I was one of those when I attended the 1960 Derby when we beat the rags 3-0. What I remembered of that day was being precariously balanced on one of the barriers near the back of the stand, and that the back of the stand being timbers rather than concrete.
Jump forward a couple of decades and what had been a stand converted to all seating became barred to City fans. I well remember the embarrassing sight of a small rump of Wimbledon fans having the entire stand to themselves with oceans of space around them. Eventually the stand was closed off and demolished to be replaced by that embarrassing eyesore that symbolised the small thinking of Swales who seemed to be the only person on this planet who thought that this was really the way forward.
Unless there had been a fire safety order or if there had been significant problems with the timbers then it would all have been a huge waste of time and money. I can't think of anything else to justify why this stand should go.
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pretty sure it had to come down after bradford, my 1st few years at maine road ( late 60s early 70s ) were spent mainly in the top corner of the platt lane seats with the much greater rake than behind the goal, even then i remember coming down the stairs at the back and seeing all sorts of dusty rubble behind the staircase , it must have been there for decades even by the late 60s

just shown the bradford disaster could just as easily have been us
 
Born Sept 1980. My Dad took me and my brother to our first game in the mid 80s in one of them Watford FA Cup games that had a replay of a replay. I don't remember anything about that game. The first game I remember is when we were at home to Liverpool and got battered 4-0 in 88. Last memorable game I went to there was the 3-1 Goater derby. Always in my heart but Etihad is our home.
 
spinney said:
pretty sure it had to come down after bradford, my 1st few years at maine road ( late 60s early 70s ) were spent mainly in the top corner of the platt lane seats with the much greater rake than behind the goal, even then i remember coming down the stairs at the back and seeing all sorts of dusty rubble behind the staircase , it must have been there for decades even by the late 60s

just shown the bradford disaster could just as easily have been us
Click to expand...
I am sure that the floor of the Platt Lane Stand was concrete? Not much scope for a fire there. It was former terraces which had seats put in because they were cheaper than installing new crash barriers.

The real fire traps were the old wooden stands such as the Main Stand at MR.
 
When the roof was put on the open terracing to create the Plate Lane end, they extended the terracing with timber, making it higher. The stand had two tunnels towards the back which were the original steps down the back of the open terrace, and they then built two sets of very steep steps which were diagonal to the very back of the stand, as a kid they seemed very high.
The Main stand had concrete terracing to my recollection, but I very rarely went in that stand, as once I was old and big enough I went onto the Kippax.
 
JGL07 said:
Personally I hated the Kippax (old and new). I struggle to see the nostalgia about its demise, apart from it being replaced by a truly awful new stand.

The sight lines were awful with columns in the way, the bogs stank, and I struggled to see at times despite being 5 ft 11 inches tall because of inadequate rake.

I always stood on the Scoreboard End or occasionally in the Platt Lane end. The only time I was in the Kippax was while the North Stand was under construction. I moved straight back to the new stand once it was opened. The North Stand was great for me, initially standing and later sitting. Clear views with no columns to obstruct views.

Amazingly, the old Kippax was replaced by something even worse. It was massive but held very few and saw the stadium drop to an unacceptable figure of around 30,000 capacity. Along with the rubbish new stand at the Platt Lane end, it made Maine Road no longer fit for purpose and I was very relieved when the move to Eastlands was announced. Maine Road at the end looked like an architectural experiment gone wrong with four stands all totally different in concept and an open-air corner tacked on with zero cover from wind, rain, hail, and snow.

It was that bad it ought to have been renamed the Peter Swales Stadium.
Click to expand...
I agree and was the same but moved to the open corner standing of the Kippax rather than back to the North Stand with its seating. The old Kippax under the roof area had poor views due to pillars and shallow terracing, so only moved under cover in the Kippax when it was raining.

The new Kippax addressed this although with a layout and reduced capacity that made it pointless. Swales new Platt Lane stand was appalling. I for one welcomed the move to the Etihad as Maine Road was so poor in comparison to other big stadiums at the time. We would never have survived as a top level club at Maine Road. Remember the rumours and talks of a merger.
 
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JGL07 said:
I am sure that the floor of the Platt Lane Stand was concrete? Not much scope for a fire there. It was former terraces which had seats put in because they were cheaper than installing new crash barriers.

The real fire traps were the old wooden stands such as the Main Stand at MR.
Click to expand...
The Platt Lane seating installed was plain, wooden benches painted blue - not conducive for safety in such a large stand regardless.
 
spiny said:
The Platt Lane seating installed was plain, wooden benches painted blue - not conducive for safety in such a large stand regardless.
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Yellow, green and red from my memory.

Think we eventually had a block of blue tip up seats after Leeds? damaged some of the benches.

The main stand for a while had benches at the top and sides with posh seats for the time in blocks B & C as time progressed the benches were replaced with various colours of blue seats, must have been what Swales could pick up on the cheap.
 
JGL07 said:
I am sure that the floor of the Platt Lane Stand was concrete? Not much scope for a fire there. It was former terraces which had seats put in because they were cheaper than installing new crash barriers.

The real fire traps were the old wooden stands such as the Main Stand at MR.
Click to expand...
When the Platt Lane Stand was built it was extended out at the rear with planking, similar to the corners of the Kippax, so it wasn't all concrete.
 
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