Historic photo of the old Kursaal ground

[Sleaford Shrimper]

There's an aerial view from 1928 of the old Kursaal ground on the new Britain from Above website.

Follow this link if you want to have a look.

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw024877?search=Southend&ref=7

 

[Mick]

Interesting. You can also make out Southchurch Hall and the large building on the left is the now demolished St Erkenwalds Church. Must check out some of the other pictures from that era. Thank you.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

There is also a photo of how Roots Hall looked like in 1928, looks like any trace of the old Roots Hall ground had vanished by then. http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw024893

Quite a few other interesting photos on there as well, just takes a bit of time to search and display, probably heavy usage as its a new site.

The cover photo on the site home page of the old Wimbledon Tennis ground is quite interesting, never really knew there was another ground.

Belfairs golf course - http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw024895
Westcliff High - http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw024870 note the old dual carriageway to the right of the school grounds part of which is still in use as a car park. Also note how the road went right past the school at the top, before the new dual carriageway was built.

 

[Beefy]

Just flicked through most of the Southend pics on there. Really interesting stuff.

 

[OldBlueLady]

No sign of WHSG, or indeed of Highlands, which I thought was the original building and which owned the land and of course, became the 6th form "base". I know the boys' school was built first but hadn't realised how many years.

 

[Davros]

always wondered what the old gas works looked like!

 

[Sleaford Shrimper]

You can make some really good comparisons between the 1928 photos and the present day by getting the Google Earth images of the corresponding area and rotating them to the same orientation as the 1928 photos. The image of Roots Hall in 1928 http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw024893 works particularly well.

 

[DoDTS]

The date of the photo is interesting 3rd October 1928 which was a Wednesday, the next day the Southend Standard came out with an important news of a new stand to be built (as below). Originally the Kursaal had two small stands, one still visible in the photo, 1920 the East stand was built, then this new stand replaced this.

Also of note is that the previous season Greyhound racing had been taking place at the Kursaal which overlapped the pitch at the Kursaal the club were threatening with expulsion from the league if it continued but it wasn't until August 1928 that the greyhound racing club were finally evicted. Is it me or can you see in the picture marks were the greyhound track was on the pitch?

UNITED’S NEW STAND
Ground Accommodation increased - Consideration for the “Shilling Supporters” The Directors of Southend United Football Club on Tuesday night decided to proceed with a scheme for the erection of a stand on the western side of the ground, immediately opposite the existing grandstand. The work will be proceeded with immediately and it is hoped it will be completed within a period of two months. The directors of the club are to be congratulated upon their enterprise, for the new stand will meet a long felt need on the Kursaal ground and will provide covered accommodation for an additional 3,500 people. The new stand will be 180 feet long and 40 feet wide with a maximum height of 25feet. It will therefore be almost the same length as the existing grandstand on the eastern side and twice as deep. At the present time the whole of the west side holds fewer than 500 but the new stand will hold 3,500 who will be able to witness the match under cover. Entrance to the stand will be by four staircases at the back of the stand making it accessible from all parts of the ground.
From the Southend Standard 4th October 1928

It was indeed a brave move as the club still had an overdraft and the profit from the previous season would be virtually wiped out by the loss of the rent for greyhound racing. The hope was that better facilities would translate into better crowds, perhaps more ladies would be inclined to attend matches. Their was a small stand on that side of the ground that was the first to be built when the club moved to the Kursaal, but this stand was so small and shallow that it provided little shelter from the weather. When asked if admission prices would increase, the directors admitted that it had been considered, they added that they did not think an increase of two or three pence would be unreasonable, but this was still being considered.