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purpleronnie

Filbert Street - The Legendary Home of Leicester City Football Club

By purpleronnie, in Leicester City Forum

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Fox92

Fox92

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Wish they did something after we moved, all of it is a car park and then boarded up, where as Southampton have built flats where The Dell used to be and have named each corner over the past legends and it looked really good when I went round it, what have we done with that space? Fvck all.

Yeah, I agree. Maybe the club could do something late and call every parking bay after a club legend? :dunno: Text on the floor or maybe a sign like doctors have.

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davieG

davieG

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Leicester Til We Die: Filbert Street - 10 years on from the final whistle

There’s nothing there now to suggest what it once was. A patch of boarded-up wasteland. An ugly block of flats. A stop-gap car park, closed on the orders of city councillors.

A newcomer to Leicester could take a stroll along the city’s best-known address, and come away with nothing but an inclination not to visit again.


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In May, 2012, Filbert Street is a very different place to May, 2002.

It’s 10 years since the last game at the football ground that was the beating heart of the city for more than a century.

In that woebegone final season, three Leicester Mercury photographers explored the nooks and crannies of Filbert Street for a book called Leicester Til We Die. Here, a decade after that emotionally-charged match, is a small selection of their striking work, and a glimpse of a lost Leicestershire landmark.

See more pictures from Leicester Til We Die.

WIN

The last league game at Filbert Street saw City beat Spurs 2-1. That’s the winning goal, on the left. Tell us who scored it, and you could win a piece of Filbo history. We have a large framed print of this photograph to give away. Send your answers by noon on Friday, May 11, 2012, to:[email protected]

Usual Mercury terms and conditions apply. The winner must be able to collect their prize from the Mercury offices in St George Street.

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davieG

davieG

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The Week In History: Filbert Farewell

Posted on: Wed 09 May 2012

In the latest of his 'The Week in History' blogs, Club Historian John Hutchinson recalls the day ten years ago this week when Leicester City played their last match at Filbert Street . . .

Ten years ago this week, on May 11, 2002, Leicester City played their last ever competitive match at Filbert Street.

This was a truly historic occasion as it marked the end of era. The much loved ground, which had been Leicester City's home for 111 years, had been the site of some amazing triumphs and disasters. It is no exaggeration to say that generations of Leicester City fans have abiding memories of the old ground which will never leave them.

It was an afternoon of mixed emotions. The sun was shining. The ground was full to capacity. The opponents were Glenn Hoddle's Tottenham Hotspur. Not only was it to be Leicester's last game at Filbert Street, it was also to be their last game, for the time being, in the Premiership after a stay of six years, which had seen four top-ten finishes under Martin O'Neill, as well as two League Cup wins, and two European campaigns.

Peter Taylor, the man most blamed for Leicester's demise that season, had been sacked a month into the season. Dave Bassett, assisted by Micky Adams, had tried to stop the decline. When relegation looked inevitable, Micky Adams had taken over as manager in April.

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As the crowd made its way for the last time to the old ground, many fans got into the mood by buying the special commemorative programme, which contained highlights from the previous 111 years. A whole host of ex-players, many of whom had performed heroics on the Filbert Street pitch, were the Club's guests. These included Gary Lineker who, in his time at Filbert Street had scored 103 goals in 216 matches and had become an England international. He watched the game from the Directors' Box with two of his sons, eight-year old Harry and ten-year old George.

As for the game itself, Leicester City won 2-1, registering Micky Adams' first victory as Leicester's manager. Spurs fans had taunted the Leicester crowd by chants such as "We'll never play you again" and "There's only one Peter Taylor" but the mood of the home crowd, which was determined to make the most of the occasion, was upbeat, in keeping with the sunny weather.

Spurs' Teddy Sheringham tried to spoil the party. Soon after half time, his right-foot shot was acrobatically tipped over the bar by Ian Walker. Then, a few moments later, he scored a 54th-minute penalty after Lee Marshall had clumsily brought down Spurs' Stephen Clemence.

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Leicester responded by stepping up the tempo and six minutes later, Marshall made amends. He stormed into the Spurs penalty area, was tackledby Chris Perry and the ball fell to Paul Dickov, who hammered home a right-foot shot past the ex-Leicester goalkeeper Kasey Keller.

Ten minutes later, Leicester scored the winner. A long throw to the edge of the goalmouth was headed on by Matt Elliott for young Matt Piper to score the last ever goal at Filbert Street. It was a diving header in front of the Kop which, along with the rest of the ground, rose to acclaim this historic strike.

It was hugely fitting that the last ever goal at Filbert Street was the first ever scored by Matt as he was a local Leicester City Academy graduate and Leicester City fan. Sadly this was to be Matt's last game for Leicester as the Club couldn't resist selling him to Sunderland for £3.5million to try to offset the growing financial pressures which eventually saw Leicester City go into administration a few months later.

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Seven minutes later there was another loud cheer as Gerry Taggart came on as substitute, ending a 14-month absence due to major knee surgery.

An abiding memory of the afternoon was the appearance on the pitch of a host of former players, each one introduced to the capacity crowd. The final player to be introduced was 90-year old Sep Smith. He had been a true Leicester legend, playing for the first team between 1929 and 1949. He was capped by England in 1935. When I was growing up, many older fans used to say he was the best Leicester player they had ever seen.

As he emerged from the players' tunnel, blinking into the sunlight, he was greeted with applause from all sides of the ground. Walking onto the pitch, he turned towards the packed Double Decker Stand. He then pointed his walking stick towards the Kop. After a pause he spoke these words into the microphone: "When I first came to Filbert Street, that Stand wasn't even built."

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Those words had a tremendous impact on me. Here was a man whose association with Leicester City was longer than the whole span of time that Filbert Street's famous Double Decker had been in existence. His valedictory words were every bit as fitting as Matt Piper's goal.

Two days later there was another occasion at Filbert Street. This was a special match between Leicester City and an ex-City team. Over 100 ex-players were in attendance. The singing of 'Auld Lang Syne' as the floodlights were extinguished finally brought the curtain down on Filbert Street. For me though, the really significant occasion was the last competitive match at Filbert Street against Spurs ten years ago this week.

One final thought: Within sight of the old ground, in the Fanstore at King Power Stadium, a truly remarkable model of Filbert Street, painstakingly built by life-long fan Micky Bates, and housed in a specially-made bespoke oak and glass cabinet, is on permanent display. It is a reminder of the much loved old ground, prompting the thousands of fans who have admired the model to recall fond memories of afternoons and evenings spent on the terraces.

Filbert Street lives on!

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h1210

h1210

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Does anyone know what happened to this gate at the Filbert Street end?

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I know they're not a good model for heritage at the minute but I'm sure Cardiff moved a similar entrance to their new ground, would be nice to see this re-errected.

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davieG

davieG

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Does anyone know what happened to this gate at the Filbert Street end?

3762683.png

I know they're not a good model for heritage at the minute but I'm sure Cardiff moved a similar entrance to their new ground, would be nice to see this re-errected.

I think it's gone, I did enquire at the time whether it could be included in the new stadium or even just erected in the surrounding grounds, would have made a great entrance to the memorial gardens but it seems those that have run LCFC have no sense of history, tradition or imagination, past players for instance were ignored e.g Banks a legend at Stoke yet won the World Cup whilst at LCFC and was part of the team that won us our first every trophy, the League Cup.

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OzFox

OzFox

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I think it's gone, I did enquire at the time whether it could be included in the new stadium or even just erected in the surrounding grounds, would have made a great entrance to the memorial gardens but it seems those that have run LCFC have no sense of history, tradition or imagination, past players for instance were ignored e.g Banks a legend at Stoke yet won the World Cup whilst at LCFC and was part of the team that won us our first every trophy, the League Cup.

The bit of land where that gate stood is still boards and waste ground isn't it? They could have left it in situ as a monument.

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purpleronnie

purpleronnie

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I think it's gone, I did enquire at the time whether it could be included in the new stadium or even just erected in the surrounding grounds, would have made a great entrance to the memorial gardens but it seems those that have run LCFC have no sense of history, tradition or imagination, past players for instance were ignored e.g Banks a legend at Stoke yet won the World Cup whilst at LCFC and was part of the team that won us our first every trophy, the League Cup.

Such a shame like you said there little reason why they couldnt have kept some of the old grounds historic structures, that irritates me, but it happens to practically every new build.....well new build in this England anyway.

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Webbo

Webbo

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Wembley 1992 v Blackburn

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I've been searching through that picture looking for me. I must have been queuing at the bar for half an hour for 4 cans of warm beer when the photo was taken.

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