Walthamstow

With the closure of Walthamstow stadium now looking unstoppable, I went down to what could be the last of the week-night race meetings to celebrate this piece of London’s heritage.

Opened in 1933 by William Chandler, the stadium is one of only four remaining dog tracks in London.  Controlled by the Chandler family until today, the venue has been used in countless films and referenced as a real monument to traditional London culture.

I’ve covered dog racing a few times before both in Sheffield and down here so knew the way things worked to some extent.  The last time I visited was for a Times piece on the ethics involved with dog racing which all seemed to have been forgotten as City-types, newbies, journalists and the regulars squeezed into the stands.

It really is a shame to see it go as it’s a fantastic night out.  I’m as guilty as everyone else though in the fact that despite I always have a good laugh when I go, I’ve only been probably four times in my life.  You always assume that these things will just be there when you want them but, charging as low as £1 on the door means they rely on heavy footfall and betting.  When a big company comes along and throws money at you to buy the land, I guess the refusal to sell became tougher to maintain.

Dougie Tyler has been running this book since leaving the Army in 1946.  Now 90, he told the BBC, “”I feel sick, this place means everything to me – I’ll be crying my eyes out when it closes.”

PS Having failed to come up with a title for the blog, you cannot imagine the strength it took not to call it “Gone to the dogs”.  If anyone has a better name, please feel free to suggest it..

This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 11:29 am. It is filed under The working day and tagged with betting, bookies, dogs, gambling, gangland, gangster, Greyhound, leon neal, london, media, news, photography, racing, reportage, sport, stadium, tote, traditional, walthamstow. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.