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Nigel Tilson charts the development of the home of
Northern Ireland football over the past 102 years
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www.irishfa.comFROM A MEADOW TO
A WORLD CLASS
STADIUM
The site where the National Football Stadium at
Windsor Park now stands was a bog meadow
when Linfield Football Club decide to purchase it in
October 1904.
After playing at various pitches following its
formation in 1885, Linfield’s board members
decided it was time for the club to have a
permanent home and Rev RJ Clarke agreed to sell
them the land which would be transformed into the
home of Northern Ireland football.
Following nearly a year of preparations, the first
match was played at the pitch on 2 September
1905. Linfield took on arch Belfast rivals Glentoran
that day and won the game 1-0 in front of an
estimated 4,000 spectators.
By 1906 the playing area at Windsor Park – the
ground was named after the district in south
Belfast in which it is located – had been fenced and
a dressing pavilion erected at the Railway End. The
following year a seated grandstand took shape on
the south side of the ground.
Another grandstand, created by Scottish designer
Archibald Leitch, was added in 1909 on the
Olympia Drive side of the ground, while in 1911 a
portion of shelter was added to the south stand.
The unreserved stand on the Olympia side was
then extended in 1913.
The Great War of 1914-18 halted development
at the ground. The next recorded addition was a
concrete boundary fence, erected between 1920
and 1923.
Linfield continued to develop Windsor Park largely
thanks to financial support from the board and club
members.
In 1926 the Balmoral stand, which had 1,700 seats,
was bought from the Royal Ulster Agricultural
Society and added on to the South Stand.
A few years later the old reserved stand roof on the
south side was re-erected at the Railway End of
the ground to make way for a new grandstand and
dressing rooms on the southern side of the ground.
The new extension stood alongside the Balmoral
stand, bringing the total number of seats on that
side of the ground to 4,200.
The extension was opened on September 5 1930
with a match between Glasgow Rangers and
Linfield. It ended 0-0 and attracted more than
15,000 spectators.
The basic shape of Windsor Park, which can still
be seen today in the new-look National Football
Stadium, was formed through the opening of the
South Stand in 1930.
Terracing was added at various stages throughout
the 1920s and early 1930s and records show the
capacity of the ground was around 60,000 by the
mid-1930s.
Following World War Two (1939-45) attendances
at football grounds across the United Kingdom
boomed and Windsor Park regularly hosted crowds
of 50,000-plus at Home International games.
Not surprisingly, work on the ground was limited
during the 1940s. In 1951, however, new turnstiles
and gates were added and a press box with
accommodation for 100 reporters built.
Also in 1951 a floodlighting system was erected at
the ground – amounting to six 1,500 watt lamps
– but it was not until 1956 that a full-scale system
was put up.
On October 10 1956 Lord Brookeborough, the then
Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, switched on the
new floodlighting system. And 30,000 spectators
watched the first game under the lights – a friendly
between Linfield and Newcastle United.
Just over a year later the first international match
was played under them when Northern Ireland
took on Romania. According to the archives, some
rather cautious souls actually donned dark glasses
to counter the “incredible brightness” of the lights
that night!
During the 1960s significant developments
included installing around 600 seats under the roof
at the Railway End. The move reduced the potential