Charlton Stadium
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Charlton Stadium was a
greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tra ...
stadium in Charlton,
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.


Origins

An amusement contractor (someone that had dealings with circus acts) called Thomas Murphy built Charlton Stadium south of the Thames on the Woolwich Road, just east of Gallions Road. The first meeting took place on Saturday 20 July 1930.


Thomas Murphy

There is a record of an extraordinary event concerning Murphy and his 13-member Jazz Monkey band. The band escaped in 1926 after thieves let them loose and the 13 monkeys made their way from Latimer Road causing havoc at Latimer Road Underground station and many other parts of London, one even made it to
Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...
. Thomas Murphy died on 8 March 1932 aged 39 leaving his estate and the stadium to his benefactors. His memorial in Charlton cemetery features two life-sized statues of sleeping greyhounds.


History

Following Murphy's death the shareholders of 'The Charlton Stadium Company Ltd' met and the company was liquidated and wound up in 1936 and then taken over by 'The Charlton Stadium (1936) Ltd'. Under new ownership, the stadium was completely rebuilt. The racing circuit was 361 yards in circumference with short straights favouring sprinters and not galloping types. New ventures such as boxing bouts were organised as the company traded up until the start of
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 ...
. During wartime, racing was severely interrupted but business was booming by the end of the war.
Totalisator A tote board (or totalisator/totalizator) is a numeric or alphanumeric display used to convey information, typically at a race track (to display the odds or payoffs for each horse) or at a telethon (to display the total amount donated to the chari ...
turnover was in excess of £1 million every year after the war. These represent phenomenal figures based on historic inflation. During the war the greyhound Ballynennan Moon won the Charlton Spring Cup in 1943; at the time this was Charlton's second biggest event behind the Cloth of Gold which had begun in 1941 over the distance of 600 yards. On 5 June 1946 Charlton Stadium (1936) Ltd was acquired by London Stadiums Ltd, which also acquired Wandsworth Stadium Ltd and Park Royal Stadium Ltd. The three companies received shares in London Stadiums Ltd. The first Charlton hound to claim glory on the open race front was Satin Beauty trained by Durant who won the
Coronation Stakes The Coronation Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old fillies. It is run at Ascot over a distance of 7 furlong and 213 yards (1,603 metres), and it is schedul ...
at
Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
in 1942. Black Coffee won the Circuit at
Walthamstow Stadium Walthamstow Stadium was a greyhound racing track in the London Borough of Waltham Forest in east London.BBC News - Walthamstow race track to close' It was regarded as the leading greyhound racing stadium in Britain following the closure of W ...
in 1949. In the 1950s, London Stadiums Ltd appointed Mr R E C Parkes as Director of Racing to oversee their three tracks and the Racing Manager was Mr A Lambert. In 1959 Charles Boulton replaced Lambert before the track closed in September 1961 following difficulties. The Cloth of Gold was switched to sister track Wandsworth. In 1963 Frank Sanderson headed a group of greyhound owners who made an offer to purchase the stadium from London Stadiums Ltd. The closure lasted four years before the company opened up again for racing again in 1966. Wandsworth closed in 1966 resulting in Mr K A Guy (Director of Racing) and Boulton (Racing Manager) taking up the same positions at Charlton. Doug Allison was appointed Assistant Racing Manager. Also arriving from Wandsworth were two major events, the Olympic and the Cloth of Gold, the latter was Charlton's own original race. Racing was on Tuesday and Fridays evenings at 7.45pm and trials were held on Wednesdays at 11.30am. The trainers at the track after reopening were Bill Cowell, J Hourigan, P. O’Shaughnessy, G Holyhead and Miss B Nattriss, most were ex-Wandsworth trainers. Two more big events the
Greenwich Cup The Greenwich Cup was a greyhound racing competition held annually from 1946 until 2003. It was inaugurated in 1946 at New Cross Stadium but following the closure of New Cross in 1969 it switched to Charlton Stadium. It only survived two years at ...
and Ben Truman Stakes were held at Charlton following the demise of
New Cross Stadium New Cross Stadium, Hornshay Street, Old Kent Road, in South East London was opened in the early 1900s as an athletic stadium but was mainly used for greyhound racing and speedway. The ground was adjacent to The Old Den, the then home of Millwal ...
in 1969 and the final London Stadiums Ltd track Park Royal closed its doors the same year blaming the opening of betting shops for the outcome.


Sunbury Kennels

All three stadia, Wandsworth, Park Royal and Charlton Stadium were served by the Sunbury Kennels, which were located in a rural setting on Hanworth Road in
Sunbury-on-Thames Sunbury-on-Thames (or commonly Sunbury) is a suburban town on the north bank of the River Thames in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, centred southwest of central London. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, in 1965 Sunbury and other ...
twelve miles from Park Royal Stadium. The kennels which were built in 1933 at the cost of £25,000 sat in fourteen acres and had accommodation for 600 greyhounds. In addition to the kennels there was a veterinary surgery including
X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10  picometers to 10  nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...
,
Ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...
and
Infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
ray apparatus, with the kennel staff and veterinary surgeon living on site. The self-contained exercising grounds included over three quarters of a mile of special track for road work. The establishment had its own kitchens, bakery and isolation kennels (for sickness). One of the early kennel managers was Mr Cadwallader who organised 12 trainers (4 per stadium), each with their own stadium related section. Total staff numbered 80 and the kennels were seen as the equivalent for London Stadiums Ltd that the
Hook Estate and Kennels The Hook Estate and Kennels was a greyhound racing kennels facility located just off Coopers Lane Road in Northaw, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. It was the leading United Kingdom greyhound racing kennels for over fifty years and became a famed fac ...
was for the
Greyhound Racing Association The Greyhound Racing Association was a UK-based private company founded in 1925 and existed until 2019. It was involved in the management of sports venues, notably greyhound racing stadia. The GRA was responsible for introducing Greyhound racing ...
.


Closure

In 1967 the
Greyhound Racing Association The Greyhound Racing Association was a UK-based private company founded in 1925 and existed until 2019. It was involved in the management of sports venues, notably greyhound racing stadia. The GRA was responsible for introducing Greyhound racing ...
(GRA) purchased
Clapton Stadium The Clapton Stadium, also known as Millfields Road, was a football ground and greyhound racing stadium in the Lower Clapton area of London. History The stadium was originally named Whittles Athletic Ground and was mostly used for whippet racin ...
and
Slough Stadium Slough Stadium originally known as the Dolphin Stadium was a greyhound racing stadium in Uxbridge Road, Slough, Berkshire. Origins and opening George Bennett Sr. a resident and entrepreneur of Slough bought and sold a cinema in Chalvey befor ...
, and then added Charlton to their portfolio. GRA had a child company, the GRA Property Trust, officially intended to improve the value of its property portfolio. The GRA duly sold Charlton stadium. On 19 March 1974 Makro opened its fifth UK store on the site. The last race meeting was on 28 September 1971.


Competitions


Cloth of Gold

(1941-61 Charlton 600 yards), (1962-65 Wandsworth 650 yards), (1966-68 Charlton 600 yards)


The Olympic


Greenwich Cup


Track records


References

{{English greyhound tracks Defunct greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom Defunct greyhound racing venues in London Greyhound racing in London