Shock Horror There Are Nimbies In London As Well

I'll have to take your word for it Barton as to its location, it was just the story I was interested in, but I would expect there is far more too it.

Still looking at the site as it is now, the Rec site on our seafront looks rather Grand I feel

The opportunity to live with the wonderful Devon and Torbay folk, they were the lucky ones, they got out

www.flickr.com/photos/sarflondondunc/3465284972/

The link leads to a picture of Fulham's Motspur Park training ground. Merse will tell you that's nowhere near Wimbledon, let alone London, though, Dave.

Is this the same place as the former-BBC Sports Ground? as it does not look the same and the pictures I put up I believe were only taken a few weeks ago.

I think the Civil Service Ground at Chiswick is under threat due to lack of use. I'd imagine the value of the real estate is substantial but I'm not sure. The Civil Service sports ground in Birmingham has just shut down - a sign of today's society that is ever changing I would say.

On another note my auntie still lives in Kenwyn Road and my grandmother moved to Newton in 1940 (from Greenwich); not that I'm sure why I want to share that. Other than that my 'friends' down the pub think that I'm a 'cockenee' just because I come from down South, which just goes to prove that the North/South divide works both ways - oh that was another thread... oh well time to kick some ass on Medieval Total War (home alone and loving it - what a sad life I lead!!).

You could well be right..........................I took a look at it only this week after I had left nearby Chiswick House (what a beautiful building in absolutley disgracefully let go grounds) and the grandstand now looks forlornly over a derelict pitch and running track that both hold claims to sporting heritage. The pitch once hosted Fulham Rugby League Football Club and the athletics track used to stage the finish of the once famous Windsor to Chiswick Marathon..................one of the iconic and original "landmarks" of the event that ran from 1909 until it's demise in 1996 when it fell victim to traffic problems and the diversion of attention from totally serious marathons to these ludicrous charity runs in which the dedicated and very top athletes so deserving of our support and interest have to share the stage with attention seeking "Bugs Bunnies" and every other insult to the serious athlete in the shape of fancy dressed no hopers running in their wake merely to get the TV coverage and all important sponsorship.

"The Polytechnic Marathon", to give it the proper name; had it's origins in the 1908 London Olympic Marathon which due it's length from the start beneath the Royal Apartments of Windsor Castle to the White City Stadium over what became the accepted Marathon distance of 26 miles and 385 yards (until then marathons were merely "A very large distance") which was also measurable from the same start to Stamford Bridge SW6 where it finished until 1932.

By then the Polytechnic Club had opened their stadium in Hartington Road W4 and thus the finish was switched to there and so it stayed until those dreaded traffic issues led to it eventually being run around the Windsor area so that it also finished in the Royal Borough from 1973 until 1992.

Although it came back to it's former "home" for a final four years, where the likes of the famous Jim Peters had broken the world record whilst winning it in 1953; it's days were numbered and today the site stands as forlornly as I describe it with the rather shabby two tiered grandstand flanked by some brand new steel clad indoor facilities that appear to house a private health club so beloved of the ipod listening "yuppy" set who have turned "keeping fit" into something approaching a fashion show and as about anything resembling proper sport as ballroom dancing is to all in wrestling.

A real shame to see any proper sporting venue reduced to such embarassing shabbiness and I predict it won't be long before that historic grandstand has to come down so that it doesn't offend the "Ruperts and Jemimas" on their treadmills.