"To Our Friends In Glasgow”
- FSM Blogger
- Nov 16
- 3 min read
16th November 2025
Two Historic Footballing Cities Unite To Save First Hampden
Hampden Bowling Club, located on the site of the First Hampden Park, has announced that it will close on 28 February 2026. This has sent reverberations around the local community, become a talking point in various heritage groups, and is beginning to become a subject of national debate, with the news starting to travel internationally across the footballing world. The key question everyone is asking is 'how can we help?'
Today, Football’s Square Mile are sincerely grateful to the Sheffield Home of Football Team, who have sent a letter of support, and joined the campaign to save the site of the First Hampden Park. Many people will be unaware of the rich history and links between these two great cities of football.
The first inter-city match between Glasgow and Sheffield was held in Bramall Lane in 1874, and then annually rotated between the cities, with the last game played on Celtic Park, 65 years ago today, on 16th November 1960. The first game held at First Hampden was in 1877, and these representative games showcase the importance of the Hampden Park story, with matches played on all three Hampdens during the series, which spanned 86 years.
John Stocks, Sheffield Home of Football Historian, explains in the letter, "We strongly endorse your Football's Square Mile campaign to save the site of the First Hampden Park Stadium, one of the most iconic historical sites associated with football in the world. Glasgow and Sheffield share the privilege and onerous responsibility of striving to protect and preserve ancient football sites and clubs for future generations.”
Both cities share a passion for exploring the evolution of the game and promoting the rich history of their footballing heritage. This development rekindles the decades-long footballing friendship between these cities, as David Coutts, Football’s Square Mile Director, explains, “For Sheffield and Glasgow, football is a shared heritage. We really appreciate Sheffield’s support in helping us protect, promote, and preserve the site of the First Hampden Park, where the shared story was played in the famous games between these pioneering footballing cities.”
Since the announcement of the bowling club's impending closure, the Football’s Square Mile Team has been working extremely hard to promote the current issue of the 1st Hampden site and is actively collaborating within its Football's Square Mile Alliance, comprising 23 organisations, to save it. This includes Hampden Bowling Club itself, one of our Alliance Partners, and engaging local residents to learn about the incredible heritage under its feet. A loss to housing development or dereliction would be a tragedy for the footballing world, and we are advocating and supporting a community-led rescue for the site from an uncertain fate.
Graeme Brown, Football’s Square Mile Director, said, “This letter is an example of a very positive engagement from a like-minded organisation, whose fundamental core is to do everything possible to promote their rich footballing story to the masses. The First Hampden story is pivotal to the understanding of the story of Scottish Football, and the evolution of the beautiful game. This is an enormous step forward to join forces with Sheffield to showcase how a site of incredible footballing heritage, which they shared at the time, could be lost without a significant intervention to save it.”
This partnership marks the beginning of a renewed relationship to showcase the strong footballing connections between the two cities. As John concludes, "We look forward to helping your campaign, and continuing to work together and sharing our remarkable heritage stories during the remainder of this century."
A haiku - In Honour of Sheffield Friends
Ancient roost for Owls
Echoes with dreams of Green Glens
-at dusk the north calls
Further Information
You can download a copy of the letter here -
Click here for a podcast explaining the rich history of the First Hampden Site here:
You can find out more about the fantastic work the Sheffield Team are doing to promote and protect their footballing heritage here - https://sheffieldhomeoffootball.org
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