Old South Terrace.

Hastingsaddick

Can anyone tell me what the Old South Terrace held before the top bit was sold off and how much it could hold after, Id guess it was around 8,000 after but not got a clue what it held before. I saw an old picture of the Aston Villa game (75,000+) but it only showed the East Terrace....which looked amazing when full.....if anyone could post a picture of the old south terrace I'd much appreciate it.

ElfsborgAddick

Hastingsaddick said:

Can anyone tell me what the Old South Terrace held before the top bit was sold off and how much it could hold after, Id guess it was around 8,000 after but not got a clue what it held before. I saw an old picture of the Aston Villa game (75,000+) but it only showed the East Terrace....which looked amazing when full.....if anyone could post a picture of the old south terrace I'd much appreciate it.

Surely more than 8K, the old East terrace took 45K.

Hastingsaddick

ElfsborgAddick said:

Hastingsaddick said:

Can anyone tell me what the Old South Terrace held before the top bit was sold off and how much it could hold after, Id guess it was around 8,000 after but not got a clue what it held before. I saw an old picture of the Aston Villa game (75,000+) but it only showed the East Terrace....which looked amazing when full.....if anyone could post a picture of the old south terrace I'd much appreciate it.

Surely more than 8K, the old East terrace took 45K.

Yes your right maybe 12,000?

charltonnick

The south terrace at its biggest must have held 18-20,000

Ferryman

ElfsborgAddick said:

Hastingsaddick said:

Can anyone tell me what the Old South Terrace held before the top bit was sold off and how much it could hold after, Id guess it was around 8,000 after but not got a clue what it held before. I saw an old picture of the Aston Villa game (75,000+) but it only showed the East Terrace....which looked amazing when full.....if anyone could post a picture of the old south terrace I'd much appreciate it.

Surely more than 8K, the old East terrace took 45K.

I believe the old east terrace was 35k, but they probably squeezed 45k in!

letthegoodtimesroll

Hastingsaddick said:

ElfsborgAddick said:

Hastingsaddick said:

Can anyone tell me what the Old South Terrace held before the top bit was sold off and how much it could hold after, Id guess it was around 8,000 after but not got a clue what it held before. I saw an old picture of the Aston Villa game (75,000+) but it only showed the East Terrace....which looked amazing when full.....if anyone could post a picture of the old south terrace I'd much appreciate it.

Surely more than 8K, the old East terrace took 45K.

Yes your right maybe 12,000?

To get 75k in the ground the south terrace must have held a lot more than that. The Covered End would have been the next biggest area but that surely wouldn’t have housed more than say 8k if everybody got cosy. The bit under the Worthington sign and the two bits either side of the stand alongside the west stand wouldn’t have held much more than 2k between them.

guinnessaddick

The south terrace is bigger than the covered end.

Hastingsaddick

With a 66,000 capacity how does this sound.....40,000 east, 6,000 covered end, 3,000 seats, 2,000 either side of seats and the rest south...15,000 which includes 3-4,000 on the corner between the east and south.

stockportaddick

The south terrace was a whopper and never got the glory it deserved because of the east. I bet the south was in the top 6 of 'end' terraces for size back in the day

ElfsborgAddick

guinnessaddick said:

The south terrace is bigger than the covered end.

Cracking shot this is, I have this framed.

wightaddick

Ukrockfestivals.com page about The Who Put the Boot In 1976 gig shows some interesting photos of the ground, with masses of people, of course, somewhere there was a 20 year old me!

SE7toSG3

Historically, if the South Terrace or Laundry End as it was once called had become the traditional home end, it would undoubtedly become very famous and would have been amazing to have seen full, sadly I am only old enough to remember it as the Fads end.

charltonnick

If you compare the two pictures the south terrace was reduced by about 1/3

EastTerrace

Yep I have the framed one, it’s 1975 I believe

Bournesnr

In the first picture the south terrace had already been reduced in size, if memory serves me right this was done when a wall was built across the back.
The second picture has the terrace in all it's glory.

Hastingsaddick

Thanks for the pictures and comments much appreciated.

Oggy Red

There's also a photo of an ARP during WW2 standing high up on the South Terrace, giving some idea of what it was like to stand on it. It's been posted on here already some time ago - I'm sure somebody will know where to find it?

I can recall back in the 60s/early 70s there was a bit of fairly flat land high up at the back of it and around the corner towards the grandstand, with a single goalmouth, with posts painted white. Must have been a practice area at a time when the team always trained at The Valley?

Players back in those days used to grumble at having to run up and down the terraces to get fitness.

Chizz

Oggy Red said:

There's also a photo of an ARP during WW2 standing high up on the South Terrace, giving some idea of what it was like to stand on it. It's been posted on here already some time ago - I'm sure somebody will know where to find it?

Oggy Red

Thank you, Chizz. That's the one!

Chizz

Some more images of - and from - the south terrace

Friend Or Defoe

stockportaddick said:

The south terrace was a whopper and never got the glory it deserved because of the east. I bet the south was in the top 6 of 'end' terraces for size back in the day

Would have been as deep as the East Terrace and probably around 25k, remember the ground was never filled even at 80k. I think they used to get 10k in the old Covered End!

Ground back then is similarly lop sided as St. James Park.

Oggy Red

That first pic .... looks maybe against Millwall in January 1968.

We beat Millwall 1-0, with a wonderful solo Alan Campbell goal.

Pedro45

The South terrace was still huge when I first went in 1967. It just went back and back. When a chunk was sold off, it didn't really affect the capacity as we never used the back part. From my own memory, the covered end held 10k, the East terrace 40k. The stand had 3k seats and the sides took about 3k in total. This would have left 13k for the South terrace to take it up to the 66k official capacity, or 22k to accommodate the 75k biggest gate. Of course, the ground wasn't ever filled to capacity, ever, so who knows what we could have got in if we had really wanted too.

Cardinal Sin

Pretty sure you could get 10,000 in the Covered End (packed) so probably nearer 15,000 in the old South Terrace. That would leave 35,000 on the East and 6,000 for the main stand and the two small terraces either side (last official capacity of 66,000 when standing everywhere outside the main stand). Worth remembering that our record gate for a match was 75,000 and that was in the ground that included the old South Terrace, so it's possible that may have held up to 24,000 including the large corner to the East. This also assumes the ground was full to capacity and I have never heard that it was, even if logic tells you it was close enough....

SporadicAddick

Chizz said:

Some more images of - and from - the south terrace

Love the aerial photo that shows both terraces at their prime. It looks as if its from the excellent "Britain from Above" website - does anyone know the photos ref number?

(BTW, pictures from the website could create a whole new anorak thread - Gatwick in 1947 with rows of Spitfires ready to be scrapped, or Eltham in 1931,with the Yorkshire Grey sitting alone before the building of the rest of Westhorne Avenue - log in to be able to zoom in and out - despite the age of the photos, the resolution is remarkable).

TellyTubby

Fac 3rd round against Portsmouth 1975? Was easily the most people I saw in that end, far more than would be allowed these days. All you could see were a sea of faces.

I seem to recall 10k being the number for that match.

SoundAsa£

I first entered The Valley in early 1958.....I entered by the Sam Bartram entrance.
I distinctly remember the awe as a impressionable 10 year old when I arrived and stood by the old score board.....can you imagine how I felt. I had never been in a place remotely like it, it was simply huge, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and from that moment I was hooked.....oh yes, this is a bit of me I thought and to think the players were still in the dressing rooms!
My beloved Valley....my beloved home from home, my maker of dreams.
Over the ensuing years I got to know every god damn inch of it.....no one can ever take those moments away from me, not for one minute, not for one second.

timken

SoundAsa£ .I felt exactly the same in 1967 when I first arrived.I had been taken to white Hart lane a couple of times by my uncle who supported tottenham but for some reason it was the valley that got me and has held me ever since.

PragueAddick

TellyTubby said:

Fac 3rd round against Portsmouth 1975? Was easily the most people I saw in that end, far more than would be allowed these days. All you could see were a sea of faces.

I seem to recall 10k being the number for that match.

We were discussing that game in a Pompey thread a few weeks ago. The gate in total was 26,300, so I suppose 10k is feasible, although away fans were not counted separately AFAIK in those days. That's because you could go through any turnstile and stand anywhere. That's the thing. At half time I wandered round there to find my buddies from Pompey (I was at Poly there then), and found them very easily. Once there, there was far more space than I imagined when looking at them from the Covered End. But as i learn from the posts above, at this time the terrace had already been reduced in size.

Incidentally we had played Pompey, who were bottom, on Boxing Day, (like seven days earlier) and the gate was only 10,300. One of my mates didn't attend that game, but when he heard the result (3-1) Pompey, stuffed his girlfriend in the car next day and drove all the way up to Eltham to sit in my parents living room with me and take the piss. Of course after the Cup replay (3-0 to us) he made himself very scarce, for several weeks afterwards.

GlassHalfFull

Chizz' first picture was the subject of a CL investigation a few years ago. The match is CAFC vs Rotherham Apr 1968.

Prior to its scalping the South terrace was the equal in height to the East. The Valley is rightly called an amphitheatre. The official record attendance of 75031 is said to have been well understated. At a squeeze the South could surely have managed 20000.

http://forum.charltonlife.com/discussion/41914/new-article-living-in-charlton-village-in-the-1950-60s/p7

Mametz

The South Terrace, unlike the East Terrace had a flattish area of scrubby grass at the top.This housed a state of the art urinal which consisted of a few rows of corregated concrete slabs to a height of about six feet contructed in a maze like structure.There was ash springled at the foot of the slabs. The flushing system was when it rained. I would think that this "facility" could accomodate a couple of hundred desperate punters simultaneously.

The reduction in the size and capacity of the South terrace began in early 1969 when a wire fence was strung across the terrace about one third of the way down, restricting access to the top of the terrace and the aforementioned toilets. I think that the more permanent wall reducing the size of the terrace was commenced during the following close season.

I really think I ought to get out more!