Saturday, July 04, 2015

The lesson of our lost city racecourses

Racecourses that once attracted tens of thousands of people now lie beneath airport runways, university campuses and housing estates.
It is now 50 years since Birmingham's Bromford Bridge course shut and it is one of many that vanished thanks to a housing boom and the lure of developers' money.
An article on the BBC News site earlier this week reminded us how demand for housing land can drive out other uses in cities. Something for us to bear in mind today.

The photograph above shows the grandstand at the Hurst Park course near Hampton Court after it had been burnt down by the suffragettes in 1913.

When the course closed in 1962 one of the stands was transported north to Mansfield Town's Field Mill ground.

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