When Parkinson’s disease began asking difficult questions of Bob Crampsey, he was stuck for an answer for the first time in his life.
A school headmaster and Associate of the Royal College of Music, the erudite Scottish football broadcaster, historian and author was an accomplished pianist and Stephen Sondheim fanatic. The 1965 Brain of Britain, he reached the semi-finals of Mastermind, earned a doctorate in sports journalism, penned the ‘Now You Know’ sporting questions column in the Evening Times for 34 years and provided trust and authority on STV’s Scotsport, Radio Clyde and BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound. Reading the eulogy at his funeral in 2008, his son-in-law compared him to Google before Google and Wikipedia before Wikipedia.
“I have never really told anyone outside of family this before,” confides his daughter Siobhan now. “But the last time my dad went out walking before he passed away was when he came over to my home for Sunday lunch.
“Dad was shaky on his feet by then and after lunch I asked him if he could manage a wee walk?
“On the way back from Queen’s Park Recreation Ground he asked, ‘could we go to the rose garden?’”
When father and daughter took a seat, Crampsey surprised Siobhan by informing her that Kingsley Rose Gardens was the site of the original Hampden Park.
“I had never realised that it was the national stadium or the world’s first purpose-built stadium or that the passing game had been invented there,” she recalls now.
“I had grown up in Queen’s Park knowing nothing about this. But we sat there and dad gave me all the facts and figures as well as a history lesson on Andrew Watson, Scotland’s first black international footballer.
“He was such a laugh and in such great form that day. And when I took him back to the care home that night he took ill, was transferred to hospital overnight and never came out again. Fourteen weeks later, he passed away.”
A footballing oracle, Crampsey understood the significance of the site which served as the first home of Queen’s Park, hosted Scotland’s 5-1 win over England in 1882 and hosted every Scottish Cup final between 1873 and 1883 until the construction of the Cathcart Circle Railway line forced the Spiders to move to their second home at Cathkin Park.
In May this year the archaeological remains of the First Hampden pavilion in Kingsley Rose Gardens were designated as a national monument by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) in acknowledgement of their monumental role in football history.
It was too late by then to protect the Hampden Bowling Club which stood on the site next door for 121 years. The club closed its doors in March and efforts to prevent a footballing heritage site from falling into unsympathetic hands became more urgent.
Siobhan Crampsey is now a leading figure in First Hampden CIC, a collective of local residents leaning on the support of heritage, sporting, and community organisations. The group’s goal is to protect, restore, and celebrate a historic landmark by creating a community space with installations to educate the public on its footballing past.
The task has been made harder than it should be by the lack of engagement with landowners City Property Glasgow Investments.
An arm’s length company owned by Glasgow City Council, CPGI is obliged to market the site for commercial use or development and have already received expressions of interest from elsewhere.
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Despite First Minister John Swinney being quizzed on the matter in the Scottish Parliament, CPGI have declined to engage with the group over what it might take to prevent the First Hampden being lost to an act of cultural vandalism.
“The site is owned and managed by City Properties Glasgow and we have been working with David Cook of the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust to commission and carry out a feasibility study, in close consultation with the community, exploring how the site can be used in the future,” adds Crampsey.
“We have funding for the feasibility study now via grants from the Architectural Heritage Fund [William Grant Foundation] and Scottish Land Fund.
“So we want to get that underway and we have also been trying to engage with City Properties Glasgow.
“We actually put in a bid for a Community Asset Transfer which was turned down. We appealed that and that has been turned down as well. They recognise the site as the First Hampden but their intention is to test the value of the site on the market.”
In a statement provided to The Fixture, CPGI say they have already received interest in the vacant plot at the end of Kingsley Avenue.
“City Property Glasgow [Investments] received a community asset transfer request from First Hampden CIC.
“This is the first request we have received from an organisation with no contractual link with CPGI. Having considered the application, it was rejected on the basis that 10 Kingsley Avenue is considered to have income generating potential and that the market should be tested.
“This is supported by expressions of interest we have already received, some of which are for continued leisure use.
“We would stress that the outcome of any marketing may not necessarily be commercial. And that the wider interest in this asset can certainly be reflected in the assessment of any bids received, which will be informed by a robust evaluation process, and of course First Hampden CIC can also bid as part of this process.”
First Hampden CIC are open to the idea of making an offer for the long-term lease but plan to get the feasibility study carried out first. The ideal scenario is a new structure which highlights the site’s historic significance while allowing local clubs and groups to use it. It’s a plan a city council really should be backing to the hilt.
“Getting the funding for the feasibility study was the first challenge,” says Crampsey. “Now that is in place it will allow us to ascertain the possibility of leasing the site in future.”
The study could be up and running before the end of the year, with artists’ impressions offering some indication of how the structure might preserve the First Hampden. The hope after that is that potential backers will come forward to help build new facilities and preserve the site for future generations.
“Our preference would probably be for a long lease so that we can create a space that is modern, inclusive and accessible to everyone in the community,” says Siobhan.
“But it really is a race against time now. Technically someone else could come in any time and if that happens then…
“It is shocking really. If the site was anywhere else in the world I am sure it would already have been designated as a site of national historical importance.”
With debts of around £250 million – and interest costs of £7.5m per annum – Crampsey acknowledges the pressing need for CPGI to rake in as much money as they can for the sale and lease of their assets. Whether any sum they could ever hope to make for Kingsley Avenue could possibly outweigh the cultural value of the first stadium to incorporate terraced slopes, changing rooms, turnstiles, season books and player baths is the bigger question.
“I have lived here for 25 years and the other guys in the CIC have all lived there for five years plus.
“This is a dedicated group of people who want to preserve the site, not only for its historical and sporting heritage, but also as a site for the community.
“The rose garden which backs on to the bowling green was granted protected status from Historic Environment Scotland earlier this year because of the discovery of old pavilion foundations underneath.
“A lot of people thought that covered the entire site, including the bowling club, but was not the case. It actually only covered half the site.
“All that can be developed now is a small site at the bottom of a one-way street with a railway on one side and no access from Queen’s Drive.
“The only access is from Kingsley Avenue and the parking there is limited – so you do wonder just how commercially viable the site actually is.”
First Hampden CIC’s website invites anyone concerned by the potential loss of a site of historic clout to submit a statement of support ‘for the people of Glasgow and beyond.’
Football’s Square Mile, Glasgow’s open-air football heritage museum, has presented a formal letter of support for a community-led venture and political support is building up. Holly Bruce, MSP for Glasgow Southside recently raised the matter with First Minister Swinney at Holyrood and strongly supports the campaign to preserve the old place.
“This site is hugely significant not only to Glasgow Southside but to the history of football,” Bruce told The Fixture.
“As Scotland’s first national football ground, and the world’s first purpose-built international football stadium, we cannot lose this key community venue to the highest bidder.
“It’s really concerning that the closure of Hampden Bowling Club, which has operated on the site for the past century, puts future community use of this beloved space in jeopardy.
“As I understand it, City Property Glasgow is planning to put the site up for commercial use or development. I’ve heard loud and clear from my constituents that this is not what they want.
“As their representative, and as a lover of football myself, I’m proud to be supporting the First Hampden for All campaigners in their fight to keep the site both as a community hub and football heritage site open to all.
“I’ve raised this issue in parliament directly to the First Minister and will keep working with local campaigners every step of the way.”
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A music marketing and communications specialist for 30 years, Siobhan Crampsey knows that her father would approve wholeheartedly of her efforts to save the First Hampden.
“My dad was such a South Sider. He grew up in Mount Florida and he was such a Queen’s Park fan from the age of three.
“My mum was the same and that was one of the things that bound them together.
“Through all his years in broadcasting and in journalism people would say, ‘ah, but you’re secretly Celtic, aren’t you?’
“Because he was raised as a catholic and headmaster of a catholic school they assumed that must be the case.
“And he would look at them and say, ‘no….I’m very unsecretly Queen’s Park.’
“My dad’s family lived in Mount Florida – a stone’s throw from the current Hampden – and my uncle Frank made 110 appearances for Queen’s Park in the 1950s.
“Later my family lived across the road from Cathkin Park, the second Hampden, and now I’m living right beside the original site. Hampden, in all its guises, has been such a big part of all our lives.”
