The Queen's Park
- The Southside Stable
In 1862 Queen's Park aka Southside Park was opened in the then Renfrewshire countryside soon to be Glasgow's Southern Suburbs. And recently the earliest known photograph of a part of it was rediscovered, one that by chance has the hugest relevance to the development of football not just in the city but in Scotland as a whole. Some might same it was the stable, in which Scots and therefore World football was born.
The view (lleft) was taken in about 1875 by a famous early photographer of the period, George Washington Wilson. It looks south from the flagstaff that is still in the centre of the park. In the middle-distance there is is what is now Hampden Terrace, still partly under construction it seems. To the right of it is the old Deaf and Dumb Institution, now the site of Victoria Hospital. And at the edge of the picture centre right is the Deaf and Dumb Institution's Gatehouse, where Queen's Park FC kept their kit, whilst in front of the Gatehouse is the piece of the Recreation Ground where the club played its earliest Association games i.e. the Vale of Leven games of 1872/3.
But the photogtraph reveals more. To the left two thirds back beyond the line of trees are the fields that would become the Second Hampden, now Cathkin Park, last year (2025) designated by Historic Environment Scotland for its Scottish and World footballing importance. And just left of those same trees off picture is the site of the First Hampden, part of which has this year (2026) also received designation for the same reasons.
And then on the hill beyond Hampden Terrace there is, of course, the future site of today's and the third, Hampden Park and also of lesser Hampden, respectively the national stadium and the current home not far from first home of that same Queen's Park F.C..
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