Twickenham Stadium is rightly venerated as the home of the Rugby
Football Union (RFU). While it may bask in this fame, the stadium’s
beginnings were very humble. The land it was built upon was purchased
in 1907 and would subsequently become the home to the Harlequins who
would play the first ever match against Richmond. The first England
test match didn’t take place until 1910 and a home win ensured
things got off on the right footing but cows, sheep and horses would
be grazing on the pitch just four years later as the stadium became a
farm during the First World War. The first Varsity match was played in
December 1921, by which time the popularity of Twickenham had soared.
Extra accommodation was created in the North Stand, built in 1925 by
the legendary football stadium architect, Archibald Leitch. By 1931,
the famous ‘Twickenham Look’ had come about. When the Second
World War arrived, the ground became a Civil Defence depot, and the
closest it got to being hit by enemy action was in July 1944 when a V1
flying bomb fell in the front garden of a house opposite the West
Gate, injuring sixteen people. The car park was dug up and –
appropriately given its original use – turned into allotments to
generate much needed fresh food for the locals. The stadium today is
at the heart of a multi-million pound business that the RFU controls,
but how does it generate so much money from this one plot of land?
With such a colourful and celebrated history The Secret Life of
Twickenham will dig deeper into it’s history to reveal the many men
and women, cutting across all social backgrounds, jobs, and positions
within the RFU who have helped to build this iconic stadium into a
globally recognised brand. It will reveal to all fans of rugby union
the true history of the most iconic sports stadium in the British
Isles with a compendium of facts, dates, figures and revealing
anecdotes of England’s sporting fortress.
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The Story of Rugby Union's Iconic Fortress, The Players, Staff and Fans
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781781313855
Publisert
2019
Utgiver
Quarto Publishing Group USA
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter