The Age Landmarks: Lake Oval
Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 4:49 pm
Thanks to sathc
LANDMARKS - The Lake Oval Grandstand
Author: PAUL DAFFEY
Date: 12/03/2005
The Age
Every year, the Wizard Cup throws a measure of attention on to South Melbourne's Lake Oval, which hosted the original night series from 1956 to '71. That original version was contested during September by the eight clubs that missed out on the final four. A trip to the former Lake Oval now reveals little to do with the night series, apart from a few lights on top of the grandstand. In fact, apart from the grandstand, there's nothing at the old Lake Oval to do with Australian football.
BUILT
1926
ARCHITECTS
G.W. Glegg and Morrow
HISTORY
WAS built to replace an earlier grandstand that had been destroyed by fire. According to the National Trust, it is heritage-listed because of its design, which is described as decorative, and for its links with our traditional sports of cricket and football.
STRUCTURE
SAID to be the most stylistically advanced grandstand to survive from the 1920s. It is also one of only two non-symmetrical stands from this era (the other one isn't mentioned). The trust also compliments "its ornamental gables and prominent vents in the form of ridge lanterns". According to the trust, the grandstand serves as a monument to the former South Melbourne Football Club.
TENANTS
THE grandstand hosted spectators from the South Melbourne cricket and football clubs for more than five decades, with Australian football played at the ground until 1994, the second and final season in which Victorian Amateur Football Association club Old Xaverians was based there. The last Australian football game in front of the old grandstand was the 1994 VAFA G-section preliminary final between University Reds (now Fitzroy Reds) and Richmond Centrals, which the Tigers won.
FAMOUS SONS
THE football and cricket dressing rooms were housed under the grandstand. Bob Skilton, who won three Brownlow Medals wearing the South Melbourne colours, remembers Swans players forming a queue in front of the dressing-room lockers while they waited for a massage from head trainer Bill Mitchell. "He had magic fingers," Skilton said. According to the Swans great, the biggest noise to emerge from the grandstand was heard on the Queen's Birthday Monday in 1970, when the Swans came from behind to defeat Collingwood by a point.
LAST CALL
ANOTHER club great, Barry Round, remembers the cheer squad emerging from beneath the grandstand for the Swans' final game at the Lake Oval, in the last round of the 1981 season, before the club headed to Sydney. All cheer squad members wore black clothes and carried black streamers. Several Swans players, who supported the move to Sydney, refused to run through the black banner. Round scored three Brownlow Medal votes in the loss to North Melbourne, enabling him to tie for the medal with Fitzroy's Bernie Quinlan.
RED HOUSE
IN 1987, prominent nightclub owner Brian Goldsmith established the Redheads nightclub in the basement of the grandstand. Apart from attracting an upmarket clientele every week, Redheads hosted the Victorian State Opera's Christmas party every year. During one four-week period, Goldsmith stood at the base of the grandstand and gave a $1 coin to the driver of every taxi to encourage them to return. He closed Redheads after a decade, when grand prix demands proved inconvenient.
TODAY
AMONG the developments set in motion by the grand prix, the South Melbourne soccer club was moved from Middle Park to the Lake Oval site. Since new social rooms and seating have been built to house the club, the grandstand has served no function. It hulks over a corner of the soccer pitch like a slow-witted big brother, never included in the games played by his smaller relatives.
The National Trust's claim that the grandstand is a monument to football is misplaced. In its present state, the grandstand is a decrepit monument to nothing but the folly of moving a soccer club to a historic football and cricket site. The grandstand serves as a constant reminder to bad and insensitive planning.
LANDMARKS - The Lake Oval Grandstand
Author: PAUL DAFFEY
Date: 12/03/2005
The Age
Every year, the Wizard Cup throws a measure of attention on to South Melbourne's Lake Oval, which hosted the original night series from 1956 to '71. That original version was contested during September by the eight clubs that missed out on the final four. A trip to the former Lake Oval now reveals little to do with the night series, apart from a few lights on top of the grandstand. In fact, apart from the grandstand, there's nothing at the old Lake Oval to do with Australian football.
BUILT
1926
ARCHITECTS
G.W. Glegg and Morrow
HISTORY
WAS built to replace an earlier grandstand that had been destroyed by fire. According to the National Trust, it is heritage-listed because of its design, which is described as decorative, and for its links with our traditional sports of cricket and football.
STRUCTURE
SAID to be the most stylistically advanced grandstand to survive from the 1920s. It is also one of only two non-symmetrical stands from this era (the other one isn't mentioned). The trust also compliments "its ornamental gables and prominent vents in the form of ridge lanterns". According to the trust, the grandstand serves as a monument to the former South Melbourne Football Club.
TENANTS
THE grandstand hosted spectators from the South Melbourne cricket and football clubs for more than five decades, with Australian football played at the ground until 1994, the second and final season in which Victorian Amateur Football Association club Old Xaverians was based there. The last Australian football game in front of the old grandstand was the 1994 VAFA G-section preliminary final between University Reds (now Fitzroy Reds) and Richmond Centrals, which the Tigers won.
FAMOUS SONS
THE football and cricket dressing rooms were housed under the grandstand. Bob Skilton, who won three Brownlow Medals wearing the South Melbourne colours, remembers Swans players forming a queue in front of the dressing-room lockers while they waited for a massage from head trainer Bill Mitchell. "He had magic fingers," Skilton said. According to the Swans great, the biggest noise to emerge from the grandstand was heard on the Queen's Birthday Monday in 1970, when the Swans came from behind to defeat Collingwood by a point.
LAST CALL
ANOTHER club great, Barry Round, remembers the cheer squad emerging from beneath the grandstand for the Swans' final game at the Lake Oval, in the last round of the 1981 season, before the club headed to Sydney. All cheer squad members wore black clothes and carried black streamers. Several Swans players, who supported the move to Sydney, refused to run through the black banner. Round scored three Brownlow Medal votes in the loss to North Melbourne, enabling him to tie for the medal with Fitzroy's Bernie Quinlan.
RED HOUSE
IN 1987, prominent nightclub owner Brian Goldsmith established the Redheads nightclub in the basement of the grandstand. Apart from attracting an upmarket clientele every week, Redheads hosted the Victorian State Opera's Christmas party every year. During one four-week period, Goldsmith stood at the base of the grandstand and gave a $1 coin to the driver of every taxi to encourage them to return. He closed Redheads after a decade, when grand prix demands proved inconvenient.
TODAY
AMONG the developments set in motion by the grand prix, the South Melbourne soccer club was moved from Middle Park to the Lake Oval site. Since new social rooms and seating have been built to house the club, the grandstand has served no function. It hulks over a corner of the soccer pitch like a slow-witted big brother, never included in the games played by his smaller relatives.
The National Trust's claim that the grandstand is a monument to football is misplaced. In its present state, the grandstand is a decrepit monument to nothing but the folly of moving a soccer club to a historic football and cricket site. The grandstand serves as a constant reminder to bad and insensitive planning.