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Report - - Walthamstow Stadium - March 2011 | Leisure Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Walthamstow Stadium - March 2011

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msaunder1972

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Taken from The Guardian
For 75 years, the pink and green neon-lit sign that crowns the entrance to Walthamstow Stadium in east London has stood as one of greyhound racing's most iconic symbols.

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In August 2008 the lights finally went out at Walthamstow. Falling profits and attendances forced the stadium's owners, Charles Chandler, whose family had owned the course since it opened in 1933 to sell the land to developers.
In 1984 a nightclub called Charlie Chan's was opened within the foundations of the clocktower. It closed permanently in November 2007. It could be said that if a person from the East End of London refers to "going down the dogs", they were probably going to the dog track at Walthamstow or Romford Greyhound Stadium.
There were 33 greyhound tracks in London, but now only Romford, Crayford and Wimbledon survive. In the final race was held, Meeting 152 on Saturday 16 August 2008 at 23:00, the winner was No. 2 'Mountjoy Diamond'. Alas numerous attempts to buy or lease the stadium back from the current owners have failed.
Taken from Wikipedia
Motor cycle speedway racing was staged at the Walthamstow Greyhound Stadium in Chingford Road in 1934 and between 1949 and 1951. Between 1949 and 1951 the team, known as the Walthamstow Wolves, raced in the National League Second Division with moderate success. At that time all the other London clubs, Wembley, Wimbledon, West Ham, Harringay and New Cross raced in the First Division. The sport left the stadium in the 1950s owing to declining attendance and complaints of noise from local residents. The track itself can still be seen but has been covered in tarmac for easier maintenance of the dog track.
Stock car racing took place at many greyhound and speedway tracks. Between 1962 and 1968 Walthamstow Stadium was home to BriSCA "Senior" F1 and "Junior" F2 stock cars, raced by Londoners such as Rod Dore, Vic Ferriday, Maxie Bacon, Barry Brew, and more
We were well aware of a dog being inside the stadium from previous reports we had read from a few years back and went armed with Nelly’s counter dog devices, a fantastically ingenious pair of devices, which although crudely fashioned would have been suitably successful had their deployment been deemed a necessity.
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The only two questions that ran through my mind were:
How in the names of all things holy would Nelly deploy the device while running from a dog to start with it was knotted at the top? (We had failed to prime the releases before starting the explore)
What self respecting guard dog would stop for a light bite when it could quite happily chew on Nelly’s love tackle? (I chose Nelly as the most likely to be mauled as I figured at a push, or even with a push, I could beat him in a foot race :) )
We had a good two hour explore saw security, played cat a mouse with them for an hour while seeing all we could before beating a sensible retreat to move on to another quarry.

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Walthamstow Leprechaun

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And finally a couple of Pano's:

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Staska_

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Very good! For those who are looking to go the place is redeveloped! The only thing left is the score board, tote prices board and the logo! Also where the dogs stayed, the cages are still standing. They are with security but if you as them nicely they will let you go in and look around! The entrance of the place has now been turned into a car park and behind the place is BETTER gym and residential houses:)
Not at a lot too see but worth it:) you managed to get some nice shots at the right time:)
 
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