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East Howard Street Q Park detail

 03  Havelock Buildings, East Howard Street: The Birthplace of Third Lanark FC

This club was founded within the Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, a south Glasgow Army Reserve established in 1859, part of a nationwide protection force against invasion from Napoleon of France.

 

Several of the regiment played for Queen's Park Football Club; and witnessed the World's first international football match held on 30th November 1872 at West of Scotland Cricket Ground, Partick.

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Twelve days after this inaugural match between Scotland and England, the Third LRV met in the Regimental Orderly Room in the Havelock Buildings in East Howard Street.

East Howard Street modern day

The former site of the Havelock Buildings are now occupied by a later Art Nouveau style building which houses a carpark.

Private Broadfoot proposed, with Private Taylor, who had played in the inaugural match, seconding the motion to form a football club called the Third Lanark Rifle Volunteers Football Club.

 

The team played their football on the regimental drill ground off Victoria Road at Inglefield Park before moving into the first Cathkin Park on Cathcart Road in 1875 (Old Cathkin Park), before moving again to the New Cathkin Park in 1903.

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The club played in the first Scottish Cup in 1873 and the first season of the Scottish Football League in 1890.

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They became a powerhouse of Scottish Football until their untimely death in 1967, when their Club owner, Bill Hiddleston, 'murdered' the club.

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You can still hear the ghostly cheer of 'Hi-Hi' whilst standing on the terraces of the abandoned New Cathkin Park.

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