Maine Road 100 – Day 37

It’s day 37 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game and today’s feature is – don’t get too excited – on this corner! I’ve said before that a photograph can say so much if you look closely at it and learn how to ‘read’ images like this. This is true for this simple photo of the corner between the North Stand (left) and Kippax (right). So what does this picture tell us? Well….

This was built as part of the North Stand development back in 1971 but it remained part of the Kippax. It was never roofed – meaning that this corner and the one on the other side of the Kippax were the only areas of Maine Road never to have a roof over them. If you’re counting the Main Stand had 3 roofs/roof developments during its life; the Platt Lane had 2; the North Stand one, and the Kippax two.

This corner was always accessed via Kippax turnstiles and it was always within the Kippax boundary walls. When the North Stand was built the exterior wall behind the stand was removed and turnstiles built into the stand but this corner never had any of that.

I’m not certain why the original corner terracing was ever demolished. Originally this corner had a large tunnel (like those in the other corners) and maybe they demolished that and built the new terracing because they felt it would increase capacity, but the corner is actually a little smaller than the one it replaced.

The rake of the steps is steeper than the rest of the Kippax and is the same as that in the North Stand. This suggests that there may have been plans to carry the North Stand around the corner. Former chairman Eric Alexander, who was primarily responsible for the new North Stand, had a vision of rebuilding the Kippax next but the arrival of Peter Swales as chairman killed that off. Maybe Eric was thinking ahead?

Strangely, there’s a concrete wedge in the middle which looks like newer concrete, roughly where the original tunnel would have been (though somewhat narrower).

Notice the loudspeaker (top right) pointing to this corner from the Kippax to ensure those standing here could hear the tannoy system. They used to test it in an empty stadium and never understood why fans couldn’t hear it in the Kippax on match day!

The floodlit pylon can be seen at the back, left. Also the blue fence on the left trying to stop fans climbing in to the North Stand – I do remember fans sneaking in occasionally.

There’s also the first pitch side fence on the right. This was positioned in front of the Kippax to stop fans getting on the pitch but all they needed to do was climb into this corner and go through the gate in the wall!

The white wall contains a gate where the old police/first aid dug outs used to be (see photo below of the same corner in the early 1960s) and the small seats built into the wall that the police and first aid people used to sit on at the time this photo was taken.

There’s also the corner flag visible.

The following is the Platt Lane/Main Stand corner when first built in 1923. It gives an impression of how the North Stand/Kippax corner would’ve looked at that time too.

The North Stand/Kippax corner was demolished in 1994 and later the ‘Gene Kelly’ temporary stand was located there.

For those unfamiliar with Maine Road this photo may help locate the terraced corner between the North Stand and Kippax. It’s number 9 on this image and you can see the Kippax wall behind it. Note the wall behind the North Stand has yet to be removed from this image, taken in 1971.

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page:

Farewell To Maine Road – Part One

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