New Meadowbank was an

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

ground in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It was the home ground of Leith Athletic during the 1946–47 season. The site was later used to build the modern

Meadowbank Stadium Meadowbank Stadium (officially the Meadowbank Sports Centre) is a multi-purpose sports facility located in the Meadowbank area of Edinburgh, Scotland. Built on the site of the earlier New Meadowbank and Old Meadowbank sports venues, it was ori ...

History

The ground was opened in 1934 by

Edinburgh Corporation The City of Edinburgh Council is the local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is the second most populous local authority area in Scotland. In its current form, the counci ...

. It had no covered spectator facilities.

Athletics

New Meadowbank was used for athletics, and hosted international meetings. It hosted the first post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

athletics meet between England, Scotland and Ireland in 1946, and another meet in 1947.International matches 1946-1968
SATS It also hosted the annual Scottish Amateur Athletics championship from 1952 until 1966.Sandy Mullay (1996) ''The Edinburgh Encyclopedia'', Mainstream Pub, p26

Football

Prior to

Leith played at Meadowbank. However, the ground was taken over by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

during the war and used as a transport depot; this destroyed the stadium, and in 1946 Leith began rebuilding it.Paul Smith & Shirley Smith (2005) ''The Ultimate Directory of English & Scottish Football League Grounds Second Edition 1888–2005'', Yore Publications, p196 As the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

resumed in 1946, Leith were forced to play their home matches at the neighbouring New Meadowbank during the 1946–47 season. The original Meadowbank, now renamed

Old Meadowbank Old Meadowbank was a multi-purpose sports facility located in the Meadowbank area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was mainly used as a football stadium by Leith Athletic between the 1930s and 1950s and as a motorcycle speedway track. The stadium was ...

was reopened at the start of the 1947–48 season, and Leith returned to their previous home.

References

{{Culture and leisure facilities in Edinburgh Defunct football venues in Scotland Athletics (track and field) venues in Scotland Leith Athletic F.C. Scottish Football League venues Sports venues in Edinburgh