Havelock Road, Southall, Middlesex, London.
POSTCODE———————————-UB2 4NY
LOCATED————————————The district of Southall is found about twelve miles west of the City of London. About half a mile south east of Southall Railway Station.
ORIGINAL SITE—————————–Farm grazing land sometimes used for Whippet Racing.
DATE CONSTRUCTED——————–1930-31
DATE VENUE OPENED——————-October 1931.
Meaning other sports may have taken place prior to the arrival of Greyhound Racing.
FIRST MEETING—————————–October 24th 1931.
Greyhound Racing only.
LICENSED OR INDEPENDENT———-Independent
All venues covered would have to be licensed with the government, licensed suggested in this section would refer to tracks operating under NGRC Rules.
INSIDE OR OUTSIDE HARE TYPE——Inside Sumner.
Please note that the Electric Hare suggested is only a guidance, and would have been in operation for a certain amount of time at this venue. Although it is not necessarily guaranteed that it was operational all the time, as other types of lure may have been used and updated as time progressed.
DISTANCES———————————–270, 450 and 625 yards.
Please note that most racing venues distances had become varied throughout the years, the ones given above were at once point set and offers only a guidance to the track size.
CIRCUMFERENCE—————————Dont know
Please note that alterations at most racing venues throughout its existence would see that the circumference of the track would vary, the one shown above offers only a guidance to the track size.
BIG RACE NAMES—————————Nothing known of.
STADIUM SHARED WITH——————Nothing known of.
LAST MEETING——————————-December 29th 1976
Greyhound Racing only.
STADIUM CLOSURE DATE—————-1976
Meaning other sports may have taken place after Greyhound Racing had ceased.
STADIUM DEMOLITION——————-Late 1970’s.
BUILT ON SITE——————————-Sybil Elgar School and Havelock Primary School and Nursery.
In some cases, structure’s that originally covered the venue after the stadium had been demolished, may have been themselves demolished too, so the one described is more likely to be the one which now presently covers the site.
EVIDENCE LEFT TODAY——————-Nothing known of.
FURTHER COMMENTS——————–The venue had strong links with The Harlington Greyhound Stadium.
Southall greyhound track was one of only a handful of independent tracks that existed around the City of London, sometimes operating unnoticed in the shadows of London’s more luxurious NGRC tracks. The district of Southall lies in the Borough of Ealing, located roughly twelve miles west of the city, and just north of the M4.
The development of the stadium began during the early 1930’s on land situated along the side Havelock Road, located roughly half a mile southeast of Southall’s railway station. Although dog racing had first appeared on the same site during 1929, Southall’s first official meeting came on the 24th of October 1931. It opened as an independent track, yet surprisingly the GRA had originally funded the construction of the track, but their intentions of turning it into an NGRC venue never materialised.
The GRA still held the freehold of the track up until selling it to the council in 1964. In time a company known as the Southall and Harlington Greyhound Stadiums Limited took over the lease, a company who had further interest in another greyhound track at Harlington Corner close to Heathrow Airport. The track itself ran in a north to south direction with the north bend slightly sharper than the south giving it a slight egg-shaped track. Events were staged over distances of 270, 450 and 625 yards on a grass surface, with normally six greyhounds competing behind an inside Sumner type hare.
The 1970’s became the decade of its downfall which saw the stadium close on December 29th 1976 before being totally demolished to make way for the Sybil Elgar School and Havelock Primary School and its nursery.
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