Archibald Leitch Explained
Archibald Keir Leitch |
Nationality: | Scottish |
Birth Date: | 27 April 1865 |
Birth Place: | Glasgow, Scotland |
Significant Projects: | Ayresome Park, Bramall Lane, Goodison Park, Arsenal Stadium, Stamford Bridge, Celtic Park, Anfield, Craven Cottage, Hampden Park, Roker Park, Old Trafford, Villa Park, Ibrox, White Hart Lane, Fratton Park, Valley Parade, Tynecastle Park (Heart of Midlothian), Leeds Road, Dens Park |
Archibald Keir Leitch (27 April 1865 – 25 April 1939) was a Scottish architect, most famous for his work designing football stadiums throughout Great Britain and Ireland.[1]
Early work
Born in Glasgow, Leitch's early work was on designing tea factories in Deltota in the former Kandyan Kingdom of Ceylon, as well as factories in his home city and in Lanarkshire, the sole surviving example of which being the category A listed at Jessie Street, Polmadie,[2] south of Glasgow city centre. In 1896 he became a member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, and later of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.[3] He moved into stadium design when he was commissioned to build Ibrox Park, the new home ground of his boyhood heroes Rangers, in 1899.
Stadium design
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 criss-crossed 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.
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.[4] 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.[5] 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:
- Anfield, Liverpool
- Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, London
- Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough
- Bramall Lane, Sheffield
- Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff
- Celtic Park, Glasgow
- Craven Cottage,[6] Fulham, London
- Dalymount Park, Dublin, Ireland
- Deepdale, Preston
- The Old Den, New Cross, London
- Dens Park, Dundee
- The Dell, Southampton
- Ewood Park, Blackburn
- The Double Decker stand (The Kop), Filbert Street, Leicester
- Fratton Park, Portsmouth
- Goodison Park, Liverpool
- Hampden Park, Glasgow
- Home Park, Plymouth
- Hyde Road Football Stadium, Manchester (General ground improvements 1911–1914 and a planned complete rebuild of the ground to accommodate 100,000; war broke out, bringing a halt to these plans)[7]
- Ibrox Park, Glasgow[8]
- Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield
- Lansdowne Road, Dublin, Ireland
- Leeds Road, Huddersfield
- Molineux, Wolverhampton
- Old Trafford, Trafford, Greater Manchester
- Park Avenue, Bradford
- Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen[9]
- Roker Park, Sunderland
- Rugby Park, Kilmarnock
- Saltergate, Chesterfield
- Selhurst Park, South Norwood, London
- Somerset Park, Ayr
- Stamford Bridge, Fulham, London
- Stark's Park, Kirkcaldy
- Twickenham Stadium, Twickenham, London
- Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh
- Valley Parade, Bradford (Midland Road stand and other extensions)
- Villa Park, Birmingham
- West Ham Stadium, Custom House, Newham, London
- White Hart Lane, Tottenham, London
- Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Many of his works have since been demolished for redevelopment, especially in wake of the Taylor Report and the move to all-seater stadiums.[5] For instance, the Trinity Road Stand at Villa Park, considered his masterpiece, was demolished in 2000.[10] The main stand and pavilion at Craven Cottage, the facade of the main stand at Ibrox (although the stand itself has been remodelled) and the Bullens Road and Gwladys Street stands at Goodison Park survive; they are 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.[11] [12]
Further reading
- Book: Inglis, Simon . Simon Inglis . Engineering Archie: Archibald Kier Leitch –The first ever Steal Tea Factory in hill country of Kandyan Kingdom Deltota Ceylon, Deltota Great Vally Estate was Designed by Archibald Keir Leitch, Football Ground Designer . English Heritage . 2005 . 1-85074-918-3 .
- News: Whitehead . Richard . Man who built his place in history . 18 April 2005 . The Times . London.
- Oxford University Press | Biography
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: The chronicles of Archibald Keir Leitch: Remembering Britain's legendary football architect.
- Web site: Sentinel Works, 61-89, Jessie Street, Polmadie. 17 June 2014. Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland. 20 October 2019.
- Web site: Dictionary of Scottish Architects - DSA Architect Biography Report (November 7, 2015, 2:04 pm). scottisharchitects.org.uk.
- Sheils . Robert . The fatalities at the Ibrox disaster of 1902 . The Sports Historian . 18 . 2 . 148–155 . British Society of Sports History . November 1998 . 10.1080/17460269809445801 . Robert Sheils . 30 October 2017 . 30 October 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081030180042/http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/SportsHistorian/1998/sh182k.pdf . dead .
- Web site: Archibald Leitch: The man who built Britain's football grounds. Steven. Brocklehurst. 25 April 2019. BBC.
- Web site: A Place in History . Fulham F.C. . 20 May 2011. 30 October 2017.
- Athletic News, 9 June 1913.
- Web site: Archibald Leitch – 'Engineering Archie': The Designer of Ibrox . Gersnet, the Rangers Archive . 30 October 2017 . 7 November 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171107061444/https://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/online-museum/history-articles/510-archibald-leitch-engineering-archie-the-designer-of-ibrox . dead .
- Web site: Pittodrie Stadium Aberdeen: A New Discovery. 25 April 2019.
- News: Last rites for the holy Trinity. Inglis. Simon. The Observer. 14 May 2000. 30 October 2017.
- News: Hearts ready go to work on Tynecastle's new main stand . Edinburgh Evening News . 15 November 2016 . 30 October 2017 . Barry . Anderson.
- Web site: Tynecastle Park reinstated . Heart of Midlothian FC . 28 April 2017 . 30 October 2017.