Most of Edinburgh’s nascent football clubs began life on the Meadows before moving elsewhere as the need for a home of their own became crucial
East Meadows
When football first began taking off in Edinburgh in the 1870s, many games were played on the Meadows; specifically East Meadows, with research suggesting that the “main” football pitch was either located on the area now covered by tennis courts, or just to the south-east on ground adjacent to the Boroughloch Brewery.
Newspaper reports of the time refer to both “the Meadows” and “East Meadows” but the received wisdom is that East Meadows is more accurate in terms of where games actually took place.
Somewhat surprisingly, the earliest reference to football taking place on the Meadows was as early as 1855 when The Scotsman reported on Mr Thomas Davies’ plans for the Meadows as a public park, for which he won £50 (around £5,520 in today’s money).
Davies stated: “In laying out the Parks, or Meadows properly so called, this idea has been kept in view, that the eastern division should be devoted to amusements of a more active kind, while the western division should be reserved for the use of those who wish the quieter recreation of walking, and for the amusements of younger children. Thus, in the eastern division, besides the space reserved for bleaching and drying, there is a space proposed to be alloted on the north side of the carriageway for the use of the archers of the Queen’s Body Guard, for football, and for games which do not cut up the grass; while on the south side there is a very large bowling green and a pond, of an area about one and a half times that of Dunsapie Loch which, besides being ornamental and affording a pleasant walk along its margin during summer, may be used for curling in winter.”
But there was opposition to football, with a council meeting in July 1856 hearing of “complaints as to allowing the game of football in the Meadows… a rude and boisterous game, often attended with severe injuries to the players, the lookers-on, or the passers-by.”
There are further references to football being played on the Meadows in 1861, 1863 and 1871 while a letter from “P.M.” published in April 1874 in The Scotsman and addressing plans to revamp the Meadows, makes reference to “a good deal of cricket, football, and quoits [being] played… and on a summer evening I have counted as many as forty lots playing cricket alone while many hundreds are moving about and looking on” which gives us some idea of just how popular the space was for recreation but despite these references, we have to wait until 1874 for a report of an official match taking place.
In December 1874 that match, played between the recently-formed 3rd Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers (later St Bernard’s) and Alexandra of Glasgow took place on the Meadows. Another match between Moray House and Established Normal took place in March 1875 – an annual game, according to the Edinburgh Evening News.
And of course, the first ever Edinburgh derby between Hearts and Hibs took place on East Meadows. Hearts won 1-0 despite playing with eight men for the first 20 minutes.
It wasn’t long before the surge in football matches taking place began causing concern. In August 1879 a sub-committee of the council received a memorial signed by 71 people, primarily householders and proprietors on the south side of the East Meadow, stating that the area had “gradually become a nuisance of the worst sort”.
The Edinburgh Evening News carried the story, explaining: “To the exercise of all legitimate games upon the Meadow, the memorialists state they have no objection, but the practice of the game of football has gradually reached a limit which is simply intolerable. In proper times and season, and by men who had any title to the character of citizens, no one would grudge the free use of the Meadow for football, and it is well used for that purpose. What the memorialists complain of is that in season to a large extent, and out of season altogether, a considerable portion of the Meadow is taken possession of by parcels of roughs, whose conduct and language makes the Meadow forbidden ground to all respectable people. They think that while the Meadow should be freely used for public recreation under proper regulation, they have just ground of complaint, and that against habitual profanity and obscentiy daily brought to their doors they are entitled to claim some protection at the hands of the civil authorities.”
No update was given on the sub-committee’s findings but 14 months later there were considerable numbers of games taking place on the Meadows. One Evening News round-up contained details of no fewer than 12 matches, including Scotia v Lorne, 1st Shamrock v 1st Livingstone, and Pentland v Douglas.
By 1880 clubs that had garnered large followings – Hearts, Hibs, and St Bernard’s among them – had grown too big for the Meadows, but large numbers of smaller teams remained. Unsurprisingly, very few of the clubs that remained lasted for much more than four or five years if that. Some were only in existence for a short time but played at various public parks including the Meadows. It wasn’t a case of having a “home” ground as it were; at this time teams played wherever they could find space.
Easter is a great example of this: although only operational for, at the most, six years between 1880 and 1886, they played matches on the Meadows, Leith Links, Albert Street Park, and Easter Road park.
Edinburgh Thistle was one of the teams that stuck around for longer than average, starting off in 1874 on the Meadows and surviving until 1900. But it is unlikely that they kept playing at East Meadow – most teams had moved on from there by 1882 after the council prohibited games from being played there.
Grange Loan / Craigmount Park
Grange Loan or Craigmount Park was, like so many other grounds used for football matches, primarily utilised for another sport – in this case, rugby.
In the 1870s many games that appeared under the “Saturday’s Football Matches” headline in the city’s newspapers were either rugby games, or encounters played under the “local” rules – that is, a mix of rugby and football rules, leading to scorelines such as “one protested goal and two tries to no goals”.
While it was sometimes difficult to ascertain what code a game had been played under, we do know that at least two football matches took place at Grange Loan between 3rd Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers (later St Bernard’s) and Heart of Midlothian. 3rd ERV moved between Stockbridge Park, East Meadows, and Grange Loan between 1874 and 1880.
The teams had already met at Craigmount Park in October 1875 in a Scottish Cup tie – Hearts’ first-ever involvement in the competition. The match finished goalless and a replay was set for East Meadows, that also finished in a 0-0 draw. As per the rules of the time, both teams advanced to the next round.
The hosts won the second game “by seven goals, two of which were disputed, to nothing.”
Craigmount Park continued to be used well into the 1880s but almost exclusively as a rugby venue. The park was situated on land next to what is now Carlton Cricket Club’s ground.
Parkside
This ground was on the site of the Commonwealth Pool and lay across the road from Nelson’s Publishing Works, known as the Parkside Works.
Lisa Sibbald has done extensive research on Edinburgh’s Southside and in particular, the Nelson Publishing empire but in brief, Thomas Nelson began trading in Edinburgh in the late 1790s, opening a second-hand bookshop at West Bow. His sons WIlliam and Thomas Jr. entered the family business in the 1830s and as the firm grew, they moved to a new printing house on the corner of Gifford Park and Hope Park Crescent, overlooking East Meadows.
These premises were destroyed by fire in 1879 with the operation moved to a temporary site on the Meadows. The two pillars that stand at the east entrance to the Meadows were commissioned by the Nelsons and gifted to the city in the early 1880s as a thank-you gesture for the way they had handled the fire and the aftermath.
While Thomas Sr. had died in 1861, William and Thomas Jr. maintained the day-to-day running of the business with the latter inheriting Abden House where the family had lived.
The house still exists today as part of the University of Edinburgh. Another mansion commissioned by Thomas Jr. and designed by John Lessels – famed for working on Melville Crescent and Victoria Primary School in Newhaven – known as St Leonard’s Hall, today forms part of the university’s Pollock Halls accommodation.
In 1925 St Leonard’s became the home of St Trinnean’s School – the name of which inspired Ronald Searle’s fictional St Trinian’s – until 1939, when pupils were relocated to New Gala House in Galashiels.
By the 1880s the company had relocated to Dalkeith Road, to a purpose-built site on Parkside Terrace. The new building was large and imposing, and instantly recognisable thanks to its Scots-baronial style towers and turrets.
It wasn’t long before Nelson & Sons had become the largest, most successful publishing house in the world. There was a strong emphasis on the Nelson “family” and so leisure and sporting activities were laid on for the employees.
A recreation ground known simply as “The Field” was situated just over the road from the Parkside works, which is where Parkside would have played games.
Was Parkside a works team, or simply a local team that made use of the field? It’s hard to know for sure – the printing works certainly had teams later in the 19th century but there is little information about the Parkside team of the 1880s although, given the number of teams that sprang up from factories and the like, it is most likely that it was a works team.
Nelson’s still exists today as a subsidiary of Harper Collins. The Works and playing field were replaced by the Scottish Widows building and the Royal Commonwealth Pool respectively although Parkside bowling club remains.
Powburn
Best known as Heart of Midlothian’s first ground – although St Bernard’s also played here during their 3rd ERV days – Powburn was, according to Jack Alexander’s book McCrae’s Battalion: The Story of the 16th Royal Scot, “no more than a small cluster of houses and an old tannery on the Liberton road. The area, mainly used for grazing, was awaiting development; the ground was flat, coarse, and needed constant rolling. No pitches were marked out and there were no goalposts; it was effectively an open meadow.”
As more and more teams began using the Meadows, those with more established fanbases – and money – explored moving elsewhere. While it’s hard to know exactly where the “pitch” at Powburn was, the chances are it was in this rough area:
In 1878 Hearts won their first trophy here, beating Hibs in the Edinburgh FA Cup final. Around this time the club moved permanently to Powburn; an unusual step in the days of clubs not really having “home” grounds in the modern-day sense.
Hearts used the school building on Duncan Street to store their goalposts, with brothers Charlie and Willie Ross carrying them down the hill to the pitch and back for every game, according to Alexander’s book.
The following year Hearts had moved on, to Powderhall, and between 1888 and 1891 a steam laundry and the Edinburgh Preserve Works were constructed on the newly-built West Saville Terrace.
Mayfield Park
Not too far from Powburn and situated near the actual Pow Burn was Mayfield Park, also known as East Craigmillar Parks, the Edinburgh Association ground, and Crawfurd Road.
Hibs took out a temporary lease on this ground in 1877 and although they relocated to Powderhall for the 1878/79 season they returned, briefly, to Mayfield Park in 1879.
Incidentally, following the 1887 Scottish Cup final which Hibs won 2-1 against Dumbarton, Vale of Leven lodged a complaint claiming Hibs were guilty of professionalism. The case focused on Willie Groves, who had scored the winner in the final. Groves, an apprentice boot finisher, did ‘not work regularly’ according to one of his colleagues and the suggestion was that Hibs were paying Groves handsomely to account for lost time from his employment.
As part of the evidence, Hibs’ secretary John McFadden made reference to the team training at “Craigmillar Park – the old Edinburgh Association ground’ so there is some suggestion that the ground was still being used by Hibs some seven years after they had moved to Hibernian Park; the first ground off Easter Road.
Mayfield Park was the scene in late 1879 of the culmination of a quite bizarre series of events. Hibs were drawn to play Hearts in the third round of the Scottish Cup – their first involvement in the trophy – at Powderhall, where Hearts were playing home games.
Hearts requested that the match be postponed for a week but when club officials duly arrived at Powderhall a week later, police officers banished them from the ground owing to a dispute with the owner over payment for the lease. The Scottish FA indicated that the tie should take place at Mayfield Park instead. Newspaper adverts confirmed a 3pm start but Hearts turned up at 1pm, kicked off, and scored a goal in the empty opposition net, claiming the tie. Hibs then turned up for 3pm and went through the same process.
The SFA ordered the tie to be completed properly the following week, again at Mayfield, with Hibs running out 2-1 winners in front of a crowd of around 2,500.
Queen’s Park
In the early days of football in Edinburgh, many teams played in large public parks such as the Meadows, Stockbridge or on Leith Links.
The other frequently-used venue was Queen’s Park, or Holyrood Park – but only after a protracted process lasting the best part of a decade was brought to an end.
The earliest recorded reference of football of any type being played there is on St Patrick’s Day 1843, when according to the Caledonian Mercury, a large gathering of Irish natives “took place in the Queen’s Park, to play at foot-ball“.
In 1865 the same newspaper reported that “through the kind interference of the Lord Provost permission has been given to the children to play at football in the Queen’s Park – a great, indeed an inestimable boon.”
The children in question were from the United Industrial School on South Gray’s Close between the Royal Mile and the Cowgate – adjacent to St Patrick’s church, where Hibs were established some ten years later.
In 1871 the North Briton reported on Councillor Wormald’s motion before the Town Council to the effect that “a portion of the West Meadows be set apart for a cricket ground, and for the celebration of interscholastic and University games.”
You will remember from the section on the Meadows that there was much to-ing and fro-ing over the revamp of the Meadows and the population of the Capital were more than happy to get involved in displaying their opposition, with one writing: “I earnestly hope the Town Council will reject this absurd motion. We have no other public park in Edinburgh than the West Meadows, where the aged, infirm, and also women and children, can take an airing with safety. The Links are devoted to golf, cricket, shinty, and football; the East Meadows to cricket, football, shinty, putting the stone, and quoiting; and the northern part of the Queen’s Park to all the above games except golf. There is, therefore, plenty of space for practising these games, without encroaching upon such a quiet retreat as the West Meadows, where anyone may enjoy the air and sunshine without incurring the risk of being knocked on the head by a cricket ball.“
This letter helps us identify where exactly football matches took place in Queen’s Park.
Cricket and shinty were played in Queen’s Park before football became a regular fixture but by November 1881 the council was actively discussing “memorialising Government to give authority to the public to practice football and other games in the Queen’s Park at such times and places, and under such regulations, as may be made.”
But the assistant secretary of the Board of Works appeared to dash any hopes of the public playing football in Queen’s Park, meaning it was still illegal for football to be played and in February 1882 Thomas Scott appeared at the City Police Court charged with “playing football and being disorderly in the Queen’s Park“.
Scott admitted to playing football but denied swearing while two park officers claimed that the “accused and others had often been checked for playing football in the park“. Despite Scott’s father saying he could “emphatically state that he never heard his son utter an oath in all his life“, Bailie Roberts found Scott guilty and imposed a fine of 7s 6d with the option of three days in jail.
By October 1882 football clubs were prohibited from playing on the Meadows, creating a dilemma for many of the capital’s lower-level teams. The following month Mr Renton – likely to be the solicitor David Renton – is reported to have told a large gathering at the Morningside Athenaeum that he “did not see that there could be any objection to playing football under proper regulations on the Saturday afternoons during the winter in that portion of the Queen’s Park between Holyrood and Meadowbank.”
A few weeks later a meeting was held at a building in St Andrew Square, principally to discuss the expediency of an application to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests that would permit the playing of football and other sports on the northern section of Queen’s Park. It was decided to seek the support of both the Lord Provost and Council while a deputation from the Edinburgh Football Association said that the organisation’s office-bearers would assist in maintaining order. It was suggested that the privilege “should be asked for clubs only, and to be used under very stringent regulations… that clubs should be registered, that registration should be open to all clubs under certain regulations, and none except registered clubs allowed to play.”
Fast-forward to the spring of 1883 and the playing of football in Queen’s Park was still a hot topic. A petition was drawn up with more than 4,500 signatures, with the intention of passing it to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests via the Town Council for approval, again asking that the portion of Queen’s Park between Holyrood Palace and Meadowbank be given over for football.
At the time this was going on, there were 37 football clubs in Edinburgh alone who were without a ground, while several others had been dissolved due to a lack of a playing field.
Fourteen of the clubs were members of the Edinburgh Football Association, which amounted to 500 individuals lacking a space to play games. By 1883 Stockbridge Park was the only public space where football could be played, and just four matches could be played simultaneously.
The petition proposed that the Queen’s Park be open to all football players all day on Saturday and from 2pm on other week days. The Edinburgh Football Association or the clubs connected with the organisation would assist in keeping order on the ground.
A year later, there had been no movement. Blackford Hill was put forward as a possibility for the Town Council to purchase, given that it “formed a park larger than both the Meadows and the Links put together by ten acres” and “furnished ample space for all sorts of games… and could be appropriated by the council as they chose“.
Or it was until some councillors went to view Blackford Hill.
Lord Provost Sir George Harrison had earlier described the hill as “fitted for the most popular field games” i.e. cricket and football.
A scathing report in the Daily Review of April 12 read: “But when the Councillors visited the place they discovered that his lordship must have been misled either by a too vivid imagination, or by utterly erroneous conceptions of the conditions necessary to the playing of the games. The Councillors who know what these field sports are at once perceived that more unsuitable ground for cricket and football could not easily be found. There are few children in Edinburgh, above four or five years of age, who would not be able to explain to Lord Provost Harrison that cricket and football are played on plains, not on hills.”
Two days later, a 19-year-old hatter named William Mead fractured his leg while playing football in Queen’s Park – still an illegal act.
Meanwhile, the council continued to debate the merits of Blackford Hill as a public park, if not a place for playing football and cricket. By June 1884, Blackford Park had been acquired by the council but was still clearly of no use to footballers and cricketers.
“The youth of Edinburgh are miserably supplied with football ground and yet there is abundance and to spare in the Queen’s Park,” began a report in the Daily Review of June 19, 1884.
“To get the use of this Mr Buchanan, the senior member for the city, is at present employing his best office with the Government representatives, and it will be observed that he has arranged to ask the First Commissioner of Works a question on the subject. A part of the Queen’s Park could be given over to the football players without doing the slightest harm or injustice to anybody, or affecting in the slightest the interests of the Board of Works.
“The new possession at Blackford is simply of no use to football players or cricketers, and it is necessary that something like adequate provision should be made for them elsewhere. The opening of a part of the Queen’s Park would, to some extent, meet the wants which are now recognised as urgent.”
By the end of June things were starting to look up for the footballers and cricketers.
The Scotsman on June 27 carried a report of an exchange in the House of Commons between First Commissioner of Works George Shaw Lefevre and Thomas Buchanan, MP for Edinburgh. Shaw Lefevre was asked by Buchanan whether he would “take into his early and favourable consideration the unanimous desire of all classes in Edinburgh that permission should be given to the youth of the city to play football in the Queen’s Park during the autumn and winter months“.
Shaw Lefevre replied: “I shall be very glad to give these facilities if they can be done without interfering with the use of the park for other purposes. The Permanent Secretary of the Department will be in Edinburgh before long, and he will institute an inquiry.”
By October 20 1884, a total of 36 clubs with a combined membership of 779 players were regularly playing games in the Queen’s Park, having received permission from the Board of Works. Among the first matches to take place were a 1-1 draw between Leith Thistle and St James; a 6-1 victory for Mayfield against Albert, and a 2-2 draw between Salisbury Thistle and Glenarthur.
Bear in mind that football was still only permitted to be played in autumn and winter. By 1889, however, sheriff-substitute Thomas Henderson Orphoot was in contact with Walter Wood Robertson, Principal Architect and Surveyor for Scotland for public buildings with the Board of Works.
Orphoot was hopeful of gaining an extension to the permitted months for football in Queen’s Park, writing: “For some time past I have had before in the Police Court of Edinburgh numerous cases of young boys charged with playing football, especially in the streets and back lanes of the eastern district of Edinburgh. In dealing with these cases, I had occasion to inquire why football was not played in the Queen’s Park, and I was informed by Mr Linton, Procurator Fiscal of the Police Court, that between March and October football in the Queen’s Park was prohibited.
“Assuming this information to be correct, I desire to bring under your notice one grave result of this regulation. The lads and boys charged belong apparently to the poorer classes. During winter they are, no doubt, working all day, and cannot then play football; while during the whole of the spring and summer – the period of prolonged daylight – the regulation in question stops their playing. They are thus altogether deprived of this healthy outdoor exercise, and of the moral and physical benefit which from it they would derive; and they are driven to such attractions as the streets of their own neighbourhood possess.
“I am sure that, with me, you must feel how extremely undesirable it is that such a state of matters should continue, and I beg to solicit your assistance in order to get the regulation so altered as to allow football to be played in the Queen’s Park at suitable hours in the evening during the spring, summer, and autumn months.”
By June 15, 1889, permission had been granted for football to be allowed in Queen’s Park year-round.
But as with many grounds used for football the military took over the parade ground at the outbreak of World War I and in November 1918 it was announced that the Parade Ground would be “restored to its old purpose“.
A report in the Edinburgh Evening News of November 11, 1918 read: “The ground in Holyrood Park had been held up for four years in the occupation of the military, but had not been made use of for two summers, and in the winter time was absolutely untenanted, though the military were now using the place themselves for football, goal posts having been erected.
Sir Alfred Mond [First Commissioner of Works] had no objection to a portion of the parade ground at Holyrood Park being used as a football ground by lads, subject to the Army having the first claim if the space is needed at any time.
“Sir Alfred Mond has further given instructions for the three small gates on the north side, entering from Croft-an-Righ Lane, Waverley Park, and Spring Gardens, to be reopened on Saturdays for the convenience of those attending the matches.”
By late 1919, the Board of Works was providing six football pitches for use on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons but as the number of football clubs diminished so too did the use of the parade ground for organised matches.
Bathgate Park
This curious ground on the site of an old gasworks next to the Canongate Kirkyard was primarily home to Edinburgh Emmet in the 1920s, although Portobello Thistle and Edinburgh Rosebery also played some games here and it was used for matches in the latter stages of junior-level cup ties.
Leith Athletic also played one home match here in the early 1920s while a Hibs team is recorded as playing an away friendly against Emmet in 1922 which would almost certainly have taken place here.
My great-uncle actually played for Emmet for a period during the Twenties and would have played at Bathgate Park. Had he not, there is a chance that this project would not have existed as much of my early interest in the lost grounds of Edinburgh and the Lothians was sparked by the venues at which he played.
The earliest reference to Emmet in the press is from December 1906, but they are likely to have been in existence prior to this date. From 1920 until the end of the 1926/27 season they played at Bathgate Park. There is sadly little information to suggest where Emmet might have played home matches prior to their use of the old gasworks.
The gasworks had lain derelict for nearly 20 years before being demolished in 1918. The remaining space was known locally as “the old gasworks” and was used for a variety of events before Emmet were granted a tenancy by the Edinburgh Corporation at a rate of £10 per year (around £580 in today’s money).
Emmet are believed to have negotiated the tenancy in 1917 – prior to the buildings being demolished. There is therefore an assumption that the agreement accelerated the demolition process. The side was juvenile until 1918, when they joined the junior ranks.
Senior councillor Bailie Bathgate, who represented the Canongate ward and also served as a magistrate in the Edinburgh Police Court, was instrumental in securing the ground for Emmet.
Ironically, Bathgate’s first case as a magistrate was to deal with two youths charged with playing football in the streets – he let them off.
There are unfortunately very few images of Bathgate Park but one picture that has done the rounds (posted here by Lost Edinburgh) shows the ground was little more than a cinder pitch with a rudimentary perimeter fence. It looks very much as though most, but not all, of the gaswork buildings were demolished with Emmet playing on the area cleared by the demolition.
Despite the seemingly tight nature of the space crowds ranged from between 2,000 and 7,000 according to reports of the time. But, as happened so often with football grounds in this era, the location was coveted by other organisations.
In 1923 the Gas Sub-Committee of Edinburgh Town Council threw out a request from the Corporation Gas Department Welfare Club to takeover the tenancy of Bathgate Park. The club was formed in 1921 but a representative for Emmet pointed out that they had secured the tenancy six years earlier.
The gas workers had also been offered a ground at Granton that they had knocked back, so Emmet held on to the ground for a little while longer.
By the mid-1920s the Edinburgh Corporation had sold a 3.5 acre site including the entirety of Bathgate Park to the Scottish Motor Traction Company for £17,500 (more than £1 million today) and the last report of football being played there was in August 1926.
In a bid to soften the blow the Corporation allocated the club a temporary ground in the Prestonfield area, soon to be given over to housing. While Emmet were pleased to have a replacement ground, club officials were concerned at the distance from the city centre, and they relocated to Meadowbank when building began on the Prestonfield site.
Despite a modest amount of success in the Twenties – they won the East of Scotland Junior League in 1919/20; the Dalmeny Cup in 1921/22; the East of Scotland Junior Consolation Cup in 1923/24, and the East Lothian Junior Cup in 1924/25 and 1928/29 – Emmet gradually slid out of existence and were no more by 1930, with Abbeyhill-based juvenile side Milton applying for admission to the junior ranks in 1932 with a view to using Meadowbank as their ground and effectively replacing Emmet.
Scotland's ghost grounds 
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