mosaic – Gary James' Football Archive

It’s day 25 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today – the Maine Road cage!

For years the front of the Main Stand at Maine Road was a simple doorway above a set of stairs. There was nothing particularly remarkable about it, although there was a wonderful mosaic above the entrance. However, by the early 1970s vandalism was taking its toll and the doorway was perceived as being particularly vulnerable. Whether it was or not is open to debate but the decision was taken in the 1970s to solve the problem by erecting a cage around the main entrance. These images of John Bond and John Benson show the cage as it looked in 1983.

The ‘Sponsor a Match’ sign covers the original central mosaic. You can read about that here:

Maine Road 100 – Day 12

When City fans demonstrated during the 1980s and beyond the cage doors would be closed and locked to prevent fans from getting in to the offices, though they didn’t always manage it in time as this image shows:

In this image below John Benson and John Bond are stood in front of the players’ entrance which, at this time, was not within the cage (a later development changed that). I find it remarkable that the door for the players to go through was seen as being less important and that the players would not be protected.

For those unfamiliar with Maine Road this photo may help. The main entrance was on the Maine Road side of the Main Stand, above number 1.

Maine Road aerial 1971 from Farewell To Maine Road

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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Day 12 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game. Today is a simple photo of something that became lost after decades of proudly stating the club’s name – the central mosaic.

Created in 1923 for the new stadium the central mosaic was one of three created to proudly spell out the club’s name at their new home. I’ve written a lot about these and you can read more in the second chapter of Farewell To Maine Road (I talk about the people who made the mosaics there):

Farewell To Maine Road – Part Two

The central mosaic was proudly visible to all from 1923 through to the late 1970s when it was covered up by an advertising hoarding. I was told while researching the book that a refurbishment of the Main Stand saw an air conditioning unit get smashed through it, damaging it forever. You can see the advertising board in this photo:

I do know that during Maine Road’s demolition in 2004 part of the mosaic became visible briefly one day. How I wish we’d have been able to salvage it! If I get chance I’ll post that here, along with other demolition images, later in this series.

The central Mosaic at Maine Road, seen in 1968

This image of it is from 1968 and for those unfamiliar with Maine Road he specific location of the mosaic was above the main entrance of the Main Stand (the Main Stand is number 1 on this image) facing Maine Road itself.