Харрингейский стадион: История лондонской арены для собачьих бегов

Former greyhound racing venue in London, England

Harringay Stadium was a major greyhound racing and motorcycle speedway venue in Harringay, north London. It was built and opened in 1927 and closed in 1987.

Harringay Stadium was the third greyhound racing stadium to open in Britain. It was owned by the Greyhound Racing Association Ltd (GRA). After great success with their first track at Belle Vue in Manchester in 1926, they opened both White City and Harringay stadiums in 1927. The driving force behind the GRA, and its managing director until the 1960s, was Brigadier General Alfred Critchley, who wrote in his autobiography that, when he first learned of greyhound racing, "It immediately occurred to me that this might prove to be the poor man's racecourse". Apparently his interest in how the lower paid classes were losing money by backing horses was born out of concern for his valet who lost large sums betting on horse racing.

The opening night was on Tuesday 13 September 1927 and drew in a crowd of 35,000, and the racing was dampened by persistent rain all evening. The opening race was the Chorley Wood Stakes, and it was won by Baltard Castle over 500 yards in a time of 30.80 sec at 3–1 for trainer Sid Jennings. Another greyhound racing that evening was Ever Bright trained by John 'Jack' Kennedy and although only finishing third he would finish as runner up in the 1927 English Greyhound Derby less than one month later. The original trainers were Kennedy, Jennings, William Spoor, Harry Buck and Reginald Grey. Track lighting was seen as a first time experience by most (football did not have floodlights for another 30 years).

In 1927 the GRA set up the Hook estate at Northaw for GRA trainers to train out off for White City Stadium and Harringay. The 140 acres of park and grassland was used for greyhounds over nine months old and could house 600 dogs. The pups under nine months were reared under the supervision of William Skerratt on farms in and around Blythe Bridge near Stoke on Trent before graduating to Northaw. Bendeemer trained by Jack Kennedy finished fourth in the 1928 English Greyhound Derby final before the Mick the Miller appeared at Harringay for the only time in 1929. He defeated the Billy Chandler (grandfather of Victor Chandler) owned Bishops Dream in a match race on 11 December. Two further Greyhound Derby final appearances in 1931 and 1932 by Brunswick Bill and Fret Not respectively were followed by the arrival of two trainers called Leslie Reynolds and Jack Harvey; the latter would provide Harringay with their first Derby champion in Davesland in the 1934 English Greyhound Derby. The prestigious Pall Mall Stakes was set up in 1935 and became Harringay's feature competition. Shove Halfpenny, the first winner of the Pall Mall, switched kennels to Jack Harvey in 1937, finishing runner up in the Derby final, and Eddie Wright steered Carmel Ash to second place in the 1939 Derby final. second only to White City. In the 1950s the grandstand received a glass front to accommodate a restaurant and offered 14 buffet bars and 10 licensed bars. Such was Harringay's reputation that in the 1950s Sporting Life called the track "the best running circuit in Britain". In 1959 the Oaks was switched to Harringay from White City. In 1961 the track heating system was introduced with electric cables sewn into the track by the tractor and a team of workers about eight inches under the turf. They would prove to be useful until the advent of all sand tracks. The track was able to use two hares, an 'Outside McGee' and 'Outside Sumner' and small hurdle races described as chases. Harringay held Bookmakers Afternoon Greyhound Service (BAGS) meetings from 1967 after being chosen as one of the tracks to host the service. In 1987 the GRA was taken over by Wembley plc, and with the 23 acre site of the stadium valued at £1 million per acre the sale plans accelerated. The last greyhound meeting was held on 25 September 1987. and the last winner was 6–1 shot Davdor Darra. The famous totalisator board was dismantled and parts of it went to the Science Museum at Wroughton, Swindon. The stadium, which was acquired by the local council and McAlpine Homes, was subject to various appeals before being demolished and making way for 220 homes and a Sainsbury's superstore.

A speedway track was laid inside the greyhound track and speedway events began at Harringay Stadium on 29 May 1928, three months after the first speedway event was held in the UK. After four years, with mixed success, the events were discontinued. However, they resumed in 1935 and, after a break during the war, speedway events ran from 4 April 1947 until 1954. During the 1930s, many events were promoted by sports promoter Tom Bradbury Pratt. The home team was known as the Harringay Canaries, then the Harringay Tigers, and finally the Harringay Racers. Australian Vic Duggan was the top star from 1947 to 1950. When he retired Split Waterman took over as Racers star rider. The huge postwar popularity of speedway declined through the early 1950s and Harringay was one of many tracks that discontinued their involvement in the sport in that period. The stadium was last used for speedway when it staged the Provincial League Riders' Championship on 16 September 1961. In 1950, with a gap to fill in their schedule, the promoters of the speedway staged an unofficial "Australian Championship" with the top Australian riders competing in Britain at the time (the field included Ronnie Moore, who although born in Australia, grew up in New Zealand and raced as a New Zealander). Other riders in the meeting included Aub Lawson, Jack Young, Vic Duggan, Bill Longley, Lionel Levy, Graham Warren and Bob Leverenz. Graham Warren won the "Australian Championship" from Aub Lawson and future dual World Champion Jack Young.

BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars Racing was first held at Harringay stadium in 1954–55. After a break of five years, racing resumed in 1960 and continued off and on, until 1979. The first BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars World Championship world final for stock cars took place at Harringay on 24 June 1955, won by Mac McDonnell. The World Final returned to Harringay in 1963, won by Doug Wardropper, in 1967, won by George Ansell, in 1970, won by Jim Esau and for the last time in 1973, won by Dave Chisholm. In 1979 the stadium enjoyed a brief spell of fame of a different kind when a stock car event at the stadium was used as one of the locations for the film The Long Good Friday. Banger racing (in which team tactics and more deliberate interception of opposing cars was permitted) also flourished at the stadium, featuring teams such as the North London Teddy Bears and the "Ahern Rats". The last Banger world final at Harringay took place in 1979.

There were a range of occasional events including the Hollywood Motor Rodeo in May 1955 and local school sports days from the early 1950s until 1964. Eight years later a crowd attending a greyhound racing event ran riot after a second placed dog was disqualified. According to The Guardian, the crowd

In June 1957 another disqualification provoked a further riot at a greyhound racing event. Similar levels of disorder as the previous riot were dealt with on this occasion by firemen from six fire appliances who turned their hoses on the crowd. Apparently the angry crowd was quickly dispersed, but they left quite a trail of destruction.

The popularity of greyhound racing started to decline in the 1960s. Both this and some poor investment decisions by the GRA left the company almost £20 million in debt by 1975. In spite of this, the company was talking about major investment in Harringay as late as 1970. However, it had also been in talks with "a leading supermarket chain" about the sale of the land as early as 1967. In any event the stadium received little investment and as a result became quickly dilapidated. In line with its property disinvestment strategy, the GRA sold the Harringay site in 1985 to Sainsbury's for £10.5 million. Two years later, on 27 September 1987, the stadium finally closed down. The site was cleared and in its place a Sainsbury's store and some new housing was built. The only remaining trace of the stadium is a very small area of open land to the south and east of the Sainsbury's car park, called Harringay Stadium Slopes.