The name of the stadium in the glass fronting at the bottom.
I cannot believe I missed this street sign last time!
One of the entrances into the stadium, from Football Avenue.
In front of the entrance are hand prints of famous sporting Belgians...
Here are a couple more examples:
The old facade at the front of the redeveloped stadium:
Close ups of the stonework:
The memorial to the Heysel disaster, of May 1985.
Around the perimeter is the poem 'Stop all the clocks' by WH Auden.
The memorial tablet on the wall of the stadium.
A close-up of a section of it.
Another angle of the memorial, with the stadium behind.
The old blending in with the new.
Ditto, with the floodlight in the background.
Another view of the main entrance.
Finally a sign for 'Sport Avenue'. A name 'dear to my heart' as the suggested name from a local NIMBY John Beasley, from the Peckham Society , for the approach road to the Champion Hill Stadium, home of Dulwich Hamlet, was...Sport Road! He actually led the campaign against the building of the ground! Thankfully I helped with a campaign that got it named Edgar Kail Way, after our greatest player!
My earlier pictures are below:
The King Baudouin Stadium is the national stadium of Belgium. This ground will always be known as the Heysel, and forever associated with the terrible disaster there when 39,mostly Italian, people died before the 1985 European Cup final. Since then it has been totally rebuilt & re-branded. I've not seen a game here, but had a look early last year, and here is the memorial to those who died here.
The main entrance to the stadium has the old facade preserved, as you can see here. i'm not too sure about the tractors, I think there was some sort of Trade Fair on!
Outside the ground are handprints of many famous Belgian sports stars.
Not just footballers.
There is also this old sculpture, set in front of the ground.
And this one.
I'm not entirely sure what they are commemorating, as I only understand English, unfortunately.
The street name has obvious sporting connotations.
I wasn't sure if i could get into the stadium or not, I knew they did organised tours, but couldn't see any signs advertising them. I walked through a door by the main entrance...went down some stairs, walked along a corridor, turned right...and then suddenly...I was by the side of the pitch! A bit shocked, I didn't walk round but quickly took a few snaps, which you can see here, and left!
Here they are for you to look at, I covered all four sides of the stadium, from the main entrance side.
No comments:
Post a Comment