Lost football grounds

I know a lot of you are not as old as me but I began watching football in the days when you had to stand behind a tall bloke who puffed cigarette smoke into your face for 90 minutes, a bag of roasted peanuts was your half-time snack and you had to watch your back when you left the ground to find your car with hopefully it's four wheels still attached.

I found this cool website detailing lost stadiums, with pictures and I thought occasionally I would share them with you starting with today.

Lost Football Grounds part #1

Wimbledon used to get a bad rap. Long ball, Wombles, small crowds, Fash the Bash, the Crazy Gang etc but every football fan shed a tear when American sports style, Pete Winkelman moved the Dons 60 plus miles from London to Milton Keynes in 2004. The club was left to die at Selhurst but long before that Wimbledon were forced to leave their homely but rapidly deterioting ground Plough Lane in south west London to share with Crystal Palace in 1991.

Owner Sam Hamman's initial idea was the sell the much sought after land for housing but this never happened and both Palace and Wimbledon's reserve teams played at Plough Lane for many years. Sam Hamman finally sold the ground to Safeway before he then sold the club to two Norwegian businessmen, Kjell Inge Røkke and Bjørn Rune Gjelsten in 1997.

Safeway's plans to build a huge supermarket were opposed by the local residents and council and the area was left derelict.

Then in 2002 Safeway sold Pl;ough Lane to David Wilson Homes and after a few years gaining planning permission apartments were built on the land and were eventually sold in 2008, 17 years after Wimbledon had the left their home. Now each of the six apartment blocks are named after ex-Wimbledon players.

Photo of Plough Lane before:

Photo of the area now:

Plough Lane Wikipedia page.