April 27 – ‘Football’s Designer In Chief’ Born

IF you were building a football stadium in the Victorian era there was really only one man you went to: Archibald Leitch, who was born on this day in 1865.

Leitch was a Glaswegian architect whose early work was designing factories and industrial buildings in his home city and it was only a call from Rangers, the team he supported, that got him into football.

In 1899 the club commissioned him to build their new home, Ibrox. His first football project could have quite easily been his last after one of his new stands of terracing at Ibrox collapsed when Scotland were playing England. Twenty-five people were killed and it could have signaled the end of Leitch’s career as a stadium designer. Instead it was only just beginning.

He was soon working in England where his first project was the John Street Stand at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane.

Thereafter he became the Isambard Kingdom Brunel of football, the great designer of his day in demand from all the top clubs in the land. He is described by Simon Inglis, author of the biography Engineering Archie, as ‘football’s designer in chief’. In total he was commissioned to design part or all of more than 20 stadiums in Britain between 1899 and 1939.

He built Old Trafford for Manchester United, built the main stand at Anfield and at Goodison Park, he designed the West Stand at White Hart Lane, the Main Stand at the Stamford Bridge and helped Arsenal with the move to Highbury (although the listed Art Deco East and West Stands were not designed by him).

He is perhaps best remembered for the work he did for Fulham, Aston Villa and Rangers. In West London, he designed the famous cottage in the corner of the ground and the impressive brick-fronted Stevenage Road Stand, both of which now enjoy listed status. Sadly, the Trinity Road Stand at Villa Park was not listed. With its stained glass windows, Italian mosaics and sweeping staircase, the Villa structure was a masterpiece but that did not stop the club demolishing it in 2000 to make way for a replacement that might best be described functional at best.

The South Stand at Ibrox, built in 1928, was also a candidate for demolition but instead Rangers decided to preserve Leitch’s work at considerable cost.

As well as these examples Leitch had a hand in too many other stadia to mention here but suffice to say the architecture of football would have been vastly different without him.

Also on this day, probably our favourite ever moment in football. Needless to say, Kevin Keegan is involved. Check it out here.