The buried remains of a football pavilion at the first Hampden Park are to be protected from the threat of development, thanks to the timely intervention of Historic Environment Scotland which plans to designate the site as a scheduled monument.
   The foundations of the pavilion, which stood at Hampden for just five years between 1878 and 1883, are the only tangible surviving elements of what is thought to be the world's first stadium which was purpose-built for association football. It is a fascinating story that deserves to be examined in detail.
   Hampden Park, in the south of Glasgow, opened in 1903 and is well known as Scotland's national football stadium, but it is the third stadium of that name and its origins go back three decades earlier to the summer of 1873. That was when Queen's Park Football Club took the inspired decision to build a ground of their own.
   Founded in 1867, Queen's Park had previously played on open recreation ground but the rapid growth in football's popularity, demonstrated by the crowds that flocked to the first international match in 1872, convinced them they needed somewhere to call home. A dedicated ground would also enable them to charge for admission, providing money for further development.
   After much lobbying, they persuaded Glasgow Council to lease an area of open ground off the Cathcart Road called Hampden Park after the nearest street to the south, Hampden Terrace. The club put up a wooden fence to enclose their playing area, built a modest wooden pavilion, and opened for business with a Scottish Cup tie against Dumbreck on 25 October 1873, winning 7-0.
   Hampden Park was unique, a place where football was king, unlike other grounds which had been created primarily to host sports such as cricket and athletics, with football only allowed as an afterthought. As such, the Queen's Park innovators created a template which was quickly copied as other football clubs saw the benefits of having their own ground, where they could cash in on the growing fervour for football.
   Queen's Park continued to invest in improvements, notably in 1876 when they built a grandstand along the length of one side, where they could charge extra in return for an improved view of the pitch. And the next thing they needed was a better pavilion, to replace the small stripping hut which had stood since the beginning.
   They found the answer thanks to the misfortune of others: in the autumn of 1877 Caledonian Cricket Club, which also played football and lacrosse, was ejected from their ground at Kelvinbridge as the landlords had sold the site for the new Glasgow Academy buildings.
   Caledonian CC had erected a superb new pavilion just two years earlier but it was now surplus to requirements. Queen's Park knew it well as they had played a Scottish Cup tie there in October 1876, so they saw an opportunity. They made the cricket club an offer of £65 for the building - surely much less than it originally cost - and undertook to dismantle it and move it to Hampden. It was a brave but inspired decision, as although the cost of removing and rebuilding eventually added up to £239, it meant that in February 1878 Queen's Park had a pavilion to be proud of.
   It was completed just in time, as Hampden Park was shortly to host its first international matches: against England on 2 March 1878, then against Wales three weeks later. Both ended in comprehensive victories, with scores that would be unthinkable today: 7-2 v England, 9-0 v Wales.
   The pavilion was opened with little fanfare, and although there is a single surviving photo (above) which probably shows the opening ceremony, there was no mention of the new building in the press. However, it is possible to build up a picture of its layout and style.
​​   It was an impressive construction, raised on an embankment with solid foundations, a timber-clad frame and a slate roof with decorative woodwork. A few steps led up to a large entrance vestibule, which had doors to two spacious dressing rooms, each with running water and windows facing the pitch.

Some views of the pavilion and its surroundings at Hampden Park were published in 1882 in a humorous book, Free Kicks at Football, which is available at Glasgow University Special Collections.
   The building was erected just in time, as the original wooden pavilion fell down in September 1879, when spectators sitting on its roof caused it to collapse.
   With the best facilities and a capacity for over ten thousand spectators, Hampden Park had become the principal football stadium in Scotland, and continued to host the internationals against England and Wales, which came along in 1880 and 1882. In all, Scotland played six matches at first Hampden and won them all, never scoring less than five goals in any of the games. It was also the venue for Scottish Cup finals in 1874, 1875, 1877 (second replay), 1878, 1879 and 1883, not to mention numerous high profile Queen's Park games.
   More broadly, having a 'home of Scottish football' gave the game considerable impetus and allowed it to develop rapidly, beyond all recognition. This was a period when Scotland dominated football on the field of play, the English in particular having no answer to the passing game that, in time, came to characterise the 'Scotch professor'.
   However, the life of first Hampden was cut short in 1883, when the Caledonian Railway published its plans for a new route that would cut right through the football ground, which the club still leased from the Council. The last major match to be played there was the Glasgow Charity Cup final on 19 May 1883, when Queen's Park beat Rangers 4-1 in front of a crowd estimated at over 10,000.

The pavilion's life came to an end in 1903 when Queen's Park moved once again, constructing the gigantic arena that we now know as Hampden Park, the third to bear that name.
   The club was forced to sell the pavilion piecemeal after misguidedly turning down an offer of £350 from Third Lanark for the building. It was broken up for its materials,  fetching just £73 and 10 shillings, much less than its market value. 

Footnote: Hampden Bowling Club and its pavilion

It had long been claimed by members of Hampden Bowling Club (now closed) that their pavilion was the same as the original football pavilion. This has now been proven to be a myth, as it was built new in 1905. HES have recognised this, and have turned down a request to designate the Bowling Club pavilion as a listed building.
   The HES proposal to designate the site of the first Hampden pavilion covers only a part of Kingsley Gardens, and the area occupied by the bowling club grounds has been excluded.

​
Thanks

This article would not have been possible without the input of a number of football historians, and I acknowledge with thanks the work done by Phil Martin, Frank McCrossan and Ged O'Brien in particular.


Update - 13 May 2026

Historic Environment Scotland has confirmed that the site of the Hampden pavilion has been designated as a scheduled monument, following a public consultation.
​ See https://www.historicenvironment.scot/about-us/news/historic-site-of-first-hampden-scores-scheduled-status/ 

In 1935 the Scottish Football Association (SFA) decided that it needed a stadium with a realistic capacity of 150,000 in which to stage major matches.
   Matters had come to a head that year after crowd scenes in Glasgow city centre before the international match with England. Supporters, anxious to get to Hampden Park before the gates closed, crossed working railway lines at Central Station as a short-cut to the trains heading for Mount Florida. Incoming trams were boarded before they had reached their terminus to ensure a place was secured for the return journey to the ground. At the ground there had been over-crowding.
   ​Glasgow was already the football capital of the world, with Ibrox and Hampden each capable of hosting crowds of 120,000, with Celtic not far behind. It was still not enough.

It was clear to the SFA that something had to be done to safely accommodate and increase the number of spectators that could watch big games otherwise the Glasgow Corporation would take action itself on the grounds of public safety and order.
   The most likely threat from the Corporation would have been a significant reduction in the 120,000 capacity of Hampden Park and further changes to how the spectators entered the ground to avoid over-crowding. It is also possible that the Corporation may have looked at restricting public transport arrangements to avoid a repetition of the scenes in the city centre. These measures would have had a major financial impact on the SFA.
   The SFA itself thought that the major games should be all-ticket with no tickets on sale on match day at the ground. This would aid control of the vast crowds and reduce the numbers travelling to the ground many of which would be locked out.
   The SFA decided that the solution was to give one club sole right to stage the Scotland v England international and the Scottish Cup Final for a period of 21 years in return for committing to significant ground expansion plans.
   It appears that Celtic FC, with a current holding capacity of 92,000, did not put forward a proposal for Celtic Park.  In December 1905 the club had already withdrawn its own plans to host these major matches and supported the new (third) Hampden Park as the big match venue. It is possible that a survey of their ground revealed that they could not meet the SFA’s capacity requirement within their land or that plans would be economically unviable.
   This left the way clear for Rangers FC and Queen's Park FC to submit proposals.
   In 1930 Ibrox Park was certified to have a capacity of 136,941 but 120,000 was the match limit. Rangers had plans to increase the capacity to 150,000 together with spectator cover over the entire north enclosure. There were later reports of other plans to increase it further to 184,000.
   Hampden Park had a certified capacity of 141,765 although again the match limit was 120,000. Queen's Park FC put forward two schemes that would increase the capacity to 167,720 or 163,472. Both schemes would give a realistic match limit of 150,000.
   When the Council of the SFA met on 1 April 1936 to make its decision, there was a keen debate as there was little between the two proposals. Rangers' manager, Bill Struth, attended the meeting and asked many questions. He was keen to know what the position of the SFA would be if the Queen's Park FC plan was accepted but the club was later required to make a request for financial assistance - a pertinent question as you will find out. He also pointed out the Chief Constable's comments on the access improvements to Ibrox Park that would arise from the completion of the new Renfrew Road had been omitted from the report under consideration at the meeting.
   In the end, the deciding factor was not the stadium plans, but supporter access.  A letter from the London, Midland & Scottish Railway Company (LMS) informed the SFA that it could provide 20/25 special trains to Ibrox station on a match day but 45 using Mount Florida and King's Park stations near Hampden Park, with the latter leading to routes to the east. The company said that it could offer and manage a better service to Hampden Park.  The decision was made.
   Queen's Park FC agreed to provide the SFA with a stadium capable of holding 150,000 spectators for a period of 21 years. In return the club would receive one third of the receipts from the biennial international match against England, with a guaranteed minimum of £5,000 after deducting Entertainment Tax. The club would also receive 20% of the gate receipts from the Scottish Cup Final after deducting Entertainment Tax, match expenses, club guarantees and the percentage due to the SFA under the competition's rules. The SFA made it a condition that the admission price for the terracing for the match against England should be 2s (£0.10). One final condition was that if Queen's Park reached the Cup Final then the match would be played at Hampden Park, but Queen's Park would forgo its ground rent.
   The Queen's Park club selected its slightly smaller scheme and engaged the famous Scottish football ground engineer, Archibald Leitch, to undertake the work. Glasgow, like each Scottish burgh, had a Dean of Guild Court made up of local magistrates, which at the time was the public authority to which anyone intending to build had to apply for permission, which they duly gave on 29 May 1936.
   Construction started that summer and the extended ground was ready for occupancy on 15 February 1937 with the improvement costing £63,325. The original estimated cost was £40-50,000 but further unanticipated expenditure had been incurred to deal with safety requirements together with some other cost increases. It was a heavy financial burden for the amateur club and on 27 September 1937, after having received a deputation from Queen's Park FC, the SFA Council agreed to make a loan of £5,000, despite earlier requests for £10-12,500, to the club to be repaid over the period of the agreement to stage major matches. The annual interest rate was 2½%, paid half-yearly.
   ​How many people could be safely accommodated watching a match was not the same as the theoretical holding capacity calculated by the engineers. The engineers assumed that every seat was occupied and then made a calculation of the space available (around a width of 18 inches) for spectators standing in serried ranks on each step of terracing. This produced a total of 163,782.
   The engineers also calculated that an additional 19,906 spectators could stand in the gangways and that is the reason why a round 180,000 was often quoted at the time as the ground’s new capacity.
   The match capacity was set and reviewed by the Glasgow Corporation based on advice from the Chief Constable, responsible for crowd control, and its Master of Works who made his own calculations. His result was 149,969 that was based on 14,269 seats and standing accommodation for 135,700. In his calculations 1.77 square feet per spectator was allowed for on the east terracing and 1.79 square feet on the west terracing with no standing in the gangways. The layout of the ground and its entrances and exits meant that 150,000 spectators could be admitted in under 75 minutes and it could be safely cleared in just 19 minutes.
   When the expanded ground staged its first major matches in April 1937 new attendance records were set immediately. 149,547 attended the Scotland v England international on 17 April 1937, a new world record, which remains an all-time Hampden Park record and a European crowd record.
   A week later, on 24 April 1937, 147,365 watched the Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Aberdeen. This set an all-time Scottish Cup Final record and is still a record for a European club match. It was also a world record for a club match until December 1963 when 177,656 saw Fluminense play Flamengo in the Maracanã.
   Soon afterwards a meeting of the Glasgow Corporation was held on 27 May 1937 to discuss concerns over safety at the ground and heard claims that the passageways were blocked and there had been overcrowding and swaying. The Corporation received reports from the Master of Works and the Chief Constable and were keeping in mind possible further improvements. Councillor David Brown, who had watched the International match from the east terracing, argued that the match capacity should be reduced to 135,000 and other aspects of crowd control and ground layout needed to be addressed. However, no change was made.
   In 1938 Hampden Park was not hosting the England match and the Cup Final opponents (East Fife and Kilmarnock) meant that ground capacity was not going to be taxed. The issue arose once again the following year. On 4 April 1939 the Glasgow Magistrates met and discussed the capacity for the forthcoming international match against England and the Cup Final. It was again suggested that it should be reduced to 135,000 to ensure safety and comfort but in the end it was set at 149,000. That was the capacity calculated by the Master of Works and subject to the installation of some more crush barriers before the international.
   149,269 attended the Scotland v England match on 15 April 1939.
   Hampden would never witness such large crowds again. For much of the Second World War the ground operated under a reduced capacity. 139,468 watched the Scotland v England Victory International on 13 April 1946 that was played a month after the Bolton disaster when 33 spectators lost their lives, and hundreds were injured. The public enquiry into the disaster made a number of safety recommendations and consequently, the Hampden Park capacity was reduced to 134,580 where it remained for many years.

Hampden Park in Glasgow is Scotland's national stadium, and has a long history going back to 1873 over three incarnations, with the current stadium being inaugurated by its owners, Queen's Park FC, in 1903.
   What few people realise, however, is that there was another sports stadium called Hampden Park in existence long before the Scottish one was thought of, in fact before Queen's Park was even founded: it opened way back in 1853 in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was laid out by the Hampden Agricultural Society and had a long and varied history as host to baseball, bicycling and horse racing, not to mention a mustering site for the American Civil War. 
   You can see what it looked like in the fine colour engraving above, which was produced by the Springfield Bicycle Club in 1886 to promote a championship meeting at the ground. Around 1940 it changed its name to Pynchon Park, then in 1966 the grandstand burned to the ground in a mysterious fire. That was the end for the stadium and the site is now a car park for an industrial estate; you can see more photos and background at this link and also read about its history here.
   The common link between the American version and the Glasgow stadium is that they both ultimately owe their name to the English patriot John Hampden, although by different routes. In Connecticut, Hampden County was established around the town of Springfield in 1812, so it was a natural choice of name for the owners. 
   In Glasgow, however, a terraced row of houses was named Hampden Terrace by the builder George Eadie around 1870 (he himself lived in Hampden Park Villa), and when Queen's Park built their football ground overlooked by this new street they simply decided to name their ground after the nearest set of buildings. While the choice of an English statesman may seem strange for a Glasgow suburban street, this was not Eadie's only such choice: the east end of Hampden Terrace was originally called Cobden Place, after the Liberal politican Richard Cobden.