18  Hampden Terrace: Queen's Park Football Club Named Their Stadium After This Terrace

Hampden Terrace is situated on Prospect Hill Road, at the edge of Mount Florida, and overlooks Queen's Park.

This terrace was built in 1870 by two builders, George and Alexander Eadie, who named their new streets after historical figures.

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The Eadie brothers chose John Hampden for this new tenement block, a leading parliamentarian at the centre of the English Revolution in the 17th century. 

In 1637, he stood trial for refusing to pay 'Ship Money', a tax levied by the Monarch on the people without Parliament's consent, to build his Royal Navy. John Hampden became a national hero for standing up to King Charles I.

Hampden Terrace in the early 1900's. Credit: Richard Stenlake Collection.

Five years later, Charles I stormed the House of Commons to arrest 'Five Members' for treason, as he believed they had encouraged the Scots to invade England in the Bishop's War. Fortunately, they had left. John Hampden was one of them.

The English Civil War followed, and with the King deposed, a new constitutional precedent set whereby the Monarch could not govern without Parliamentary consent.

In October 1873, Queen's Park Football Club rented the edge of Queen's Park, overlooked by Hampden Terrace, and used this local landmark to name their new football ground: Hampden Park.

To this day, Scotland's National Stadium bears John Hampden's name and is the template for every football ground ever built.