Goldstone Football Ground, Hove

[pomme homme]

The Goldstone saw 96 years of football, 95 of those as the home to Brighton & Hove Albion FC. And now it's a 'retail park'! To which the attached 'before' and 'after' photographs stand testament (source: Wikipaedia).

I haven't been to the new ground at Falmer. It's rather a long way for me! For those who never knew where the Albion played before, probably they would drive along the Old Shoreham Road and think that they were passing just another retail park opposite Hove Park. Me, on the rare occasions when now I do so, I remember many years of standing in the open on the eastern terrace. Happy days!

[pomme homme]

..........I should add, before others raise the question, that I did not spend years standing on the eastern terrace - although the way the Albion played at times, it seemed like it - but that over many years I stood there on more Saturdays (and weekday evenings) than now I care to remember!

[Pete]

And what a tribute to their business sense when the sold it for peanuts to a developer who promptly sold it on for many many times that amount within a couple of weeks

[pomme homme]

It's very odd. I've scoured the web for old photographs of the Goldstone ground and found none which show the ground and its stands. The closest I could get were some delightfully 'period' pre WW1 images of crowds at matches. But sadly these show almost nothing but people. The crowds fill the images to the exclusion of what was behind them!

[Pete]

Have the Argus got a photo archive? There must be some generated around the last match etc

[Pete]

Just googled "goldstone brighton hove albion"   and selected "Images" loads of photos of all eras inc aerial one   

[pomme homme]

Sorry. I should have been more specific concerning what I meant by 'old'. Those I found - which, I suspect, mirrored those across which you came, Pete - appeared to date from the 1980s and 1990s. I was looking for pre-1960s images and, other than those mentioned in my last post, I could find none.

The Argus would seem to be a good bet for such photos. There must have been some to illustrate the somewhat opinionated match reports of John Vinicombe! Curiously, when I googled his name to check that the spelling is correct, I learnt that he died last month aged 82. But I'm now risking going off on a tangent? I suppose that the other source of such photos would be the Albion themselves. However if either or both have archives of such images, they are not available online and I'm rather too far away to call in on them to enquire!

[Pete]

There is one or two old photos come up on image- goldstone fm on the Regency society page  where the new football ground will be built and some  crowd & team photos 1915-30

[John]

An old postcard showing the crowd at the Goldstone Ground, a Cup replay with Oldham in 1914. I know it doesn't show any detail of the ground itself, but it's a nice picture.

[John]

A few more crowd shots from the 1920's.

[pomme homme]

 ............and not one of them felt it necessary to wear a football shirt to spectate at a football match!

[Chiddingly Rob]

............and not one of them felt it necessary to wear a football shirt to spectate at a football match!

...but they all wore hats