Super-8 film footage of Easter Road in 1980, taken by a Mr W. Gibson who was obviously on a mission at the time to film as many of the UK’s football grounds as he could.
Apart from the roof and benches on the north terrace this is substantially how Easter Road had looked since the early 1950s. Three years after this film was taken the top tier was sliced off the massive east terrace and by 1985 the present roof had been added.
Ten years later and work began to replace the north and ‘Dunbar’ ends with new stands, and in 2001 the main west stand, which had stood (and decayed) since the 1930s was replaced, and not before time.
It seems probable that the final part of the jigsaw, the east terrace, is about to be levelled and rebuilt, erasing the last vestige of the ground shown in this film and creating a complete stadium fit for the century ahead.
It is well worth having a look at the film of other grounds too, many of which have now either been completely or significantly rebuilt, or in many cases bulldozed and covered in supermarkets or housing developments. Of several that I have visited, Douglas Park, Kilbowie, Boghead and Brockville have all disappeared, although the last two survived almost exactly as you see them here into the 21st century when they barely seemed fit for the 19th. God knows what Frank Sauzee thought when I saw him make his debut for Hibs at that Brockville in 1998. Did he for a moment think that he had fallen through a crack in the fabric of time and was doomed to play out the twighlight of his career in places like that? Luckily he didn’t just rip up his contract and run screaming for the airport then and there.
Hats off to Mr Gibson for his priceless record of our football heritage.
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