The Demolition of Clincart FarmThis is a page I never thought I would ever need to write. It is a page recording the destruction of the world’s oldest football-related building: Clincart Farm at Hampden Park. I have kept up the page I wrote on Lesser Hampden. I don’t really know why, as it is now a piece of nonsense. Maybe it is to remind me of my own naivety. I am writing this piece, Wednesday 22nd December 2021. I still have not finished processing what happened.
Lesser Hampden has become the permanent home of the Queen’s Park Football Club. They submitted plans which would see the Farm being saved, as a part of a new stadium for the now-professional club. And then I took my eye off the ball. The number of times I have told someone ‘The price of safety is eternal vigilance’. Well - now I know.
In the space of a few weeks, it became apparent that QPFC had done an 180˚ turn and were now going to knock it down. I had set aside last weekend to file my objections. In fact I have just received, this morning, my reference number from the Scottish Government, with whom I was going to engage.
I am keeping these comments brief. I do not know how this happened. I do not know how the demolition was allowed to happen. I do not know how Queen’s Park could go from an organisation rightly proud of the story I have been pushing for the last three decades, to an organisation that could destroy a building which was not just theirs - it is/was part of world football heritage.
Now the stable door has been demolished, I am off to see what I can do to ensure this does not happen again. Yeah - I know. I have written to people and organisations who might have a dog in this fight. I will amend this page, as and when I am able to accurately document the story of the last few weeks.
