The 1st Hampden Site is under threat - we need everyone's help to save it
- David Coutts
- Oct 25
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 1
We all know Hampden Park, or do we? Our world-renowned football stadium is, in fact, not even the second Hampden, but it is the third incarnation of our beloved home of football. In the illustrious histories of our three Hampdens, the one that shines above them all is the story of the First Hampden Park.
A story almost forgotten by all but the die-hard fans and football historians, and is in our humble opinion ‘The Greatest Story Never Told’.
At a time when football was still taking shape as a modern sport, the First Hampden (opened by Queens Park FC in 1873) was revolutionary. It became the first purposefully-built, enclosed international football ground in the world, complete with turnstiles, terraces and grandstands. The innovations tested here — crowd management (the highest attendance was 20,000), the first national competition under one rule book (the first Scottish Cup tie was played here), and even the idea of ‘home’ advantage as it is coined a ‘fortress’ — would become the foundations of the global game.
Here, the first-ever Scottish Cup Final was played in 1874 (it hosted 6 finals in total), and the stadium hosted early Scotland international matches — including games featuring Andrew Watson, a Scottish player, who was the world’s first black international footballer and national team captain. 6 games played. 6 games won. 36 goals scored.
It's a bonkers, cart upending story!
By 1883, as railway expansion encroached on the site, Queen’s Park moved to the second Hampden Park (what we know as Cathkin Park), before building the third and current Hampden in 1903.
In 1905, part of the original site of the First Hampden was to become Hampden Bowling Club. A local community space where bowlers could play and would share the story of it being Scotland’s first home, and that the bowling pavilion had come from the First Hampden. Interestingly nobody took much interest in the bowler's football story until…
For many years, the exact location of the first Hampden Park was a subject of debate. While football historians knew it lay in the shadows of Hampden Terrace, no one had been able to pinpoint the precise site — until Graeme Brown (current Secretary of the Hampden Bowling Club and a Director of Footballs Square Mile) made a remarkable discovery.
Graeme unearthed a Victorian map from the Cathcart District Railway Logs in the National Records of Scotland that matched early football illustrations and descriptions of Queen’s Park’s first ground. His meticulous comparison of the 19th-century layout with modern satellite imagery confirmed what the bowlers had long suspected: that Hampden Bowling Club sits on the footprint of the original Hampden Park.
This finding transformed understanding of the site. It turned what was once a theory into a documented fact — and cemented the bowling club’s place in football history. Graeme’s discovery has since been acknowledged by heritage and football bodies as the definitive proof of where the world’s first purpose-built international football ground once stood.
Hampden Bowling Club is in a quiet location of Govanhill, hemmed in by the beautiful tenements of Kingsley Avenue, the 1886 built train line and two roads - both called Queens. But for football historians and heritage enthusiasts, it’s a sacred site. Beneath the surface lie traces of the original pitch and terrace banks, where thousands once stood.
The club has embraced this heritage proudly. In recent years, members have worked with local campaigners on projects such as “Restore 1st Hampden” and the striking 1st Hampden Mural, created by Ashley Rowson, celebrating the ground’s significance in world football history. Yes Scotland, did indeed beat England by 5 goals to 1 on this ground.
Despite its history, 120 years of Hampden Bowling Club history is about to come to an end. The bowling club held a Special General Meeting on 19 Oct 2025, and following a vote by members, the outcome was announced by Graeme Brown, the Club Secretary…
‘The outcome of today's meeting establishes that the future of the bowling club in its current form is not sustainable and will close in February 2026. Over the coming months, the committee will work with all parties to explore three important and intersecting pathways for the site going forwards. These include the football and wider sporting heritage, community and culture, and sporting activities.’
Membership decline, financial losses and building requiring a full restoration have led to almost inevitable closure of the bowling club, but in First Hampden’s case, the stakes are far higher. The club’s ground is leased through City Property Glasgow, and if the site falls out of community use, campaigners fear it could be repurposed or even redeveloped into flats. That would not only end more than a century of local sport but also erase one of football’s last physical links to its origins.
No one understands those stakes more than Will Moffat, President of Hampden Bowling Club
‘The bowling club is in a difficult position and will close on 28 February, 2026. Therefore, it's essential for the community to come forward to save this site as a community hub, a community green space and along the way preserve a living a living reminder of football’s birthplace’
For Will and the committee, the campaign is about protecting a piece of Glasgow’s cultural identity and a recognised world historical site. This is Site No. 16 of 21 sites across Glasgow, which showcase Scotland’s pioneering and trailblazing contribution to the world’s biggest sporting phenomenon. We call this Football’s Square Mile.
While the headlines may sound grim, there’s also a growing sense of hope — that Hampden Bowling Club site’s future could be secured through collaboration. David Coutts, one of the club’s trustees, believes the best way forward is a collective one.
“We’ve had incredible support from across the city and beyond,” he said. “There’s real potential for a joint community initiative — bringing together local residents, historians, football fans — to take on stewardship of the site. It’s about creating something sustainable that honours our past and serves the community for generations to come.”
If this historic site is lost then, it would sever the last physical link to the First Hampden Park — the literal ground on which modern football was born.
Heritage campaigners and historians have warned that allowing the site to be developed would be a “historic oversight.” Some have called for heritage protection status or a community ownership model. This mission has been in progress since 2021, where the world’s most ambitious football heritage project was launched to transform Football’s Square Mile into a UNESCO world heritage site, which is supported by both the Scottish Football Association and Glasgow City Council.
The local MP and local councillors have acknowledged the club’s importance, and discussions are ongoing about how to support it. But the decision ultimately rests on whether enough people come forward to determine a sustainable, community led, proposal.
As the February 2026 deadline looms, the First Hampden site stands at a crossroads. One path leads to development and loss of an important global football site. The other leads to revival — a future where local people, football fans, and heritage groups unite to preserve something that belongs to Glasgow and to the wider world of football.
If the site can survive, it will remain what it has always been: a small green space with a story bigger and more important than its physical size. As Will Moffat said, ‘it’s a living reminder of where the beautiful game began. And as David Coutts reminds us, ‘there’s still hope: through community, collaboration, and care, Hampden’s first home could yet have a future worthy of its past’.
The time has come where we must use it, or we will lose it.
I call BS on this