90 Days To Save The Site of 1st Hampden

30th November 2025

The Hampden Collection invites you to join our 'Last Stanza' campaign to shine a light on the impending closure of Hampden Bowling Club and the risk to the 1st Hampden Site of an uncertain future. What better way of doing it than lighting up Hampden Bowling Club for St Andrew's Day and for Christmas? There are 90 days left until the bowling club shuts on 28th February 2026, and we are doing everything we can to work with the community to secure a future for this sacred site.

On St Andrew’s Day, The Hampden Collection is calling on people of all ages across Scotland and beyond to pick up a pen and celebrate the beautiful game through poetry. Here is our latest Last Stanza submission from Stephen Watt. Now, have you ever thought of how similar the saltire is to the Argentinian national colours, too?

Here is what Hugh McMillan thought of the works,

Together we all sing, Scots

and Argentines, in ricochet and echo,

Diego, Diego, Diego.’

Stephen Watt perfectly captures the Scots' love affair with that mercurial talent Diego Maradona in this skilled and moving tribute. Diego had all the things to make him a Scottish icon: he was a genius, a bad boy, and he put the English out, out, out. If only he’d had a Scottish granny!"

St Andrew's Day - International Game One - Anniversary

On the anniversary of the first-ever international football match, played between Scotland and England on 30 November 1872, we'd like you to contribute a poem to our 'Last Stanza' campaign to save the site of the First Hampden Park.

The Hampden Collection hopes that fans, families, schools, and communities will take inspiration from the nation’s rich cultural and footballing history to create original poems that capture the passion, humour, pride, and spirit of the game.

We are encouraging submissions of three-stanza poems to celebrate the Hampden Park legacy. In the first instance, the poems we receive will be published on the Hampden Collection website and across all social media platforms to assist in the campaign to preserve the site. The ambition is to curate an event in February 2026 at Hampden Bowling Club, where they can be performed, with the possibility of publishing the submitted poems in a collection at a later date.

This is ’The Last Stanza’ for the 1st Hampden Site, and our mission is to create a crucible of poetry power and wake up our nation to the importance of the 1st Hampden Park. We have one last chance to save it.

The campaign is supported by our four poets, each lending their voice to encourage you to get involved.

Hugh McMillan, Curator of Hampden Collection, says:

“Football has always been a kind of poetry—joy, heartbreak, hope, and glorious chaos all happening at once. This anniversary reminds us that Scotland helped kick it all off. What better way to honour that legacy than by turning our national game into words?”

Donna Matthew, our women's football makar, says:

“Poetry belongs to everyone, just like football. You don’t need to know the rules to write a poem—just tap into the feeling of the game, the people you watch it with, the colours, the roar. I can’t wait to see what voices come through.”

Julie McNeill, Our Gaffer, says:

“Football is full of stories—local, global, intimate, historic. Poetry is a way to catch those stories and hold them for a moment. I hope this project inspires folk to share their own snapshots of the game.”

Gabrielle Barnby, Curator of our 'Braw Words' poetry collection, says:

“Young people are natural poets—full of imagination, mischief, rhythm, and noise… just like football fans! I’d love to see young people write poems that are as bold and brilliant as their favourite players and teams.”

Good luck with your poem. Express yourself!

Submit your poem into your chosen collection and get involved with the Last Stanza event.

Let’s keep football history alive. Please submit your poem here – https://hampdencollection.com/the-world-home-of-football-poetry/