London History Site

[Guest]

More High Beech nostalgia - thanks to John Skinner's excellent Defunct Speedway tracks website:

http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk/High Beech.htm

Edited February 11, 2019 by Guest

[cityrebel]

Although the event at paradise park has been very successful in recent years. It will never match the sense of history i felt when it was staged at the Kings Oak pub. The venue was not big enough for purpose, but the nostalgia made up for that!.

[steve roberts]

1 minute ago, cityrebel said:

Although the event at paradise park has been very successful in recent years. It will never match the sense of history i felt when it was staged at the Kings Oak pub. The venue was not big enough for purpose, but the nostalgia made up for that!.

Visited High Beech some years ago as I was passing thru' and stopped off at the King's Oak pub and viewed the plaque in the adjacent visitor centre. Glad that I did visiting the site that most historians agree that speedway in this country started.

[Guest]

Of the post-war London tracks I never saw meetings at Walthamstow or London White City. I missed Walthamstow because of National Service. And White City was missed because it clashed with a weekly late evening work shift. Of the two I followed what took place at Walthamstow far more than the happenings at White City.

[Guest]

Sadly, I doubt that London will ever again have a speedway track. 

[iris123]

Never even visited Walthamstow even though some of my family including my mum come from the area.Stadium that is,I have of course visited Walthamstow to see family

Edited February 11, 2019 by iris123

[Guest]

Years after speedway, midget cars and stock cars (aka short circuit cars) had left and Walthamstow was just staging greyhounds I did a photographic feature on the stadium for the long gone 'Short Circuit' magazine. It was a most impressive stadium. So sad that it has as have so many other London stadiums become just a memory.

[Guest]

This is a forum dedicated to speedway in London. Over the years it has gone into decline with no racing taking place in the capital since 2005. Despite that it carries much background material into what has taken place in London over the years. for that reason it might just be worth a casual look-in?

http://londonspeedways.proboards.com

[cityrebel]

49 minutes ago, gustix said:

Of the post-war London tracks I never saw meetings at Walthamstow or London White City. I missed Walthamstow because of National Service. And White City was missed because it clashed with a weekly late evening work shift. Of the two I followed what took place at Walthamstow far more than the happenings at White City.

What about the cavalcade of speed meetings that were run at the White City throughout the 50's. Speedway was among the many featured sports.

[cityrebel]

5 minutes ago, gustix said:

This is a forum dedicated to speedway in London. Over the years it has gone into decline with no racing taking place in the capital since 2005. Despite that it carries much background material into what has taken place in London over the years. for that reason it might just be worth a casual look-in?

http://londonspeedways.proboards.com

I'm a regular visitor to the site. It has a wealth of information for the London speedway fan and collector. It's well worth a look.

[iris123]

Interesting to read that not only poor crowds (not surprising given the proximity to other,more established clubs) but also complaints from neighbours about noise,is given as reasons for the closure of Walthamstow.

Not quite the modern phenomenon it is made out to be

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

What about the cavalcade of speed meetings that were run at the White City throughout the 50's. Speedway was among the many featured sports.

I never saw any Cavalcade of Speed events at White City besides not attending any of the 1970s speedway meetings.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, iris123 said:

Interesting to read that not only poor crowds (not surprising given the proximity to other,more established clubs) but also complaints from neighbours about noise,is given as reasons for the closure of Walthamstow.

Not quite the modern phenomenon it is made out to be

I think without recourse to any records that 'stock cars/short circuit car racing' had a fairly long stay at Walthamstow Stadium. Again, however, it could well have been their departure may also have been - and most likely - due as well to the noise factor.

[iris123]

Well it seems the cars started over a decade after speedway had closed,so maybe circumstances had changed.Possibly those who had previously complained no longer lived near the track? 

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, iris123 said:

Interesting to read that not only poor crowds (not surprising given the proximity to other,more established clubs) but also complaints from neighbours about noise,is given as reasons for the closure of Walthamstow.

Not quite the modern phenomenon it is made out to be

 

13 minutes ago, gustix said:

I think without recourse to any records that 'stock cars/short circuit car racing' had a fairly long stay at Walthamstow Stadium. Again, however, it could well have been their departure may also have been - and most likely - due as well to the noise factor.

Upon further reflection in regard to the end of speedway at Walthamstow, while still subscribing to the noise factor as a cause, there may have been another issue which I have seen mentioned.

It is that after two seasons in Division Two, Walthamstow sought promotion to Division One with the crowd draw appeal of Londom Derby matches. Their application as I now recall was especially opposed by West Ham because of the two clubs so near each other. As a result Walthamstow withdrew from speedway. 

It would be interesting to see any other opinions in regard to this happening.

[iris123]

It does bring back some of my earliest memories of the sport.Not the attending,but hearing the bikes from the end of my street.Even i guess during school holidays,when I used to hear the riders practicing on a Friday morning/afternoon at Plough Lane.I was too young to stray from our road though 

[norbold]

2 hours ago, gustix said:

Of the post-war London tracks I never saw meetings at Walthamstow or London White City. I missed Walthamstow because of National Service. And White City was missed because it clashed with a weekly late evening work shift. Of the two I followed what took place at Walthamstow far more than the happenings at White City.

Ah, I can beat you there as the only one I missed out on was Walthamstow. Managed to get to all the others!

[cityrebel]

31 minutes ago, norbold said:

Ah, I can beat you there as the only one I missed out on was Walthamstow. Managed to get to all the others!

My mum saw speedway at Walthamstow. I worked there a few times during my career in dog racing. It was a really nice art deco stadium that seemed classy. It was the beginning of the end for London dogs when the stow shut.

[Guest]

There was an application in 1947 for Crystal Palace to stage speedway at the football found rather than the original hosting site for the sport. It was rejected following protests by local residents to the borough council rather than the Speedway Control Board.

Am I correct in thinking that Frank Arnold, who had been team manager at West Ham in 1946 and 1947, was the interested possible promoter? Also, that because of this objection he turned his attention to promoting in Essex which resulted in the start of speedway at Rayleigh?

Edited February 11, 2019 by Guest

[norbold]

2 hours ago, cityrebel said:

My mum saw speedway at Walthamstow. I worked there a few times during my career in dog racing. It was a really nice art deco stadium that seemed classy. It was the beginning of the end for London dogs when the stow shut.

Although I never saw speedway at Walthamstow, I knew the stadium very well. My school sports' ground was close by and the start of our route on the dreaded cross country running was to run round the stadium (outside!) before heading off for the forest...