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Edinburgh, London Road, Meadowbank Sports Centre
Sports Centre (20th Century), Stadium (20th Century)
Site Name Edinburgh, London Road, Meadowbank Sports Centre
Classification Sports Centre (20th Century), Stadium (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Meadowbank Stadium
Canmore ID 70002
Site Number NT27SE 524
NGR NT 27903 74358
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/70002
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- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
NT27SE 524.00 27903 74358 Sports Centre and Stadium
NT27SE 524.01 28176 74327 Velodrome
Meadowbank Sports Centre is a large multi-purpose sports complex in the Meadowbank area of Edinburgh. Originally constructed for the 1970 Commonwealth Games, it also hosted the Games in 1986. Today the complex functions as a public sports centre, a training facility for professional athletes, and venue for events such as exhibitions, concerts, conferences, and meetings.
Designed by Stuart Harris, Thomas Hughes, and Brian Armistead of the City Architect’s Department (1968), the complex comprises both indoor and outdoor facilities, including a stadium, outdoor pitches, an indoor centre, and a velodrome.
The stadium at the west end of the site has a capacity of approximately 15,000. It includes grandstand and bench seating, and a grass pitch surrounded by an eight-lane 400 m running track. The grandstand displays an externally expressed structure of concrete beams and columns to the south at London Road.
The main entrance to the indoor centre is from the south at London Road. Immediately inside there are reception and foyer areas. To the west below the grandstand there is an indoor athletics concourse and three range halls, and to the north there are several large games halls as well as lounges and meeting rooms.
The outdoor velodrome at the east end of the site has a 250 m wooden track for speed cycling.
RCAHMS surveyed Meadowbank Sports Centre in 2009 in response to the March 2008 proposal by the City of Edinburgh Council to demolish and redevelop the site, selling part of it off to private housing developers.
Information from RCAHMS (IA) 22 April 2009
Standing Building Recording (19 April 2018 - 20 April 2018)
NT 27936 74341 A historic building survey was undertaken, 19 – 20 April 2016, in advance of the demolition of the sports centre and velodrome and the upgrading of the stadium.
The stadium complex was constructed 1967 – 70 in advance of the Commonwealth Games in July 1970. It was designed in a modernist and brutalist style in brick and concrete by Stuart Harris, Thomas R Hughes and Brian T Armitstead of the City Architect’s Department. The site consists of a large running track and with stadium seating to the W, a three-storey sports centre with two basement levels to the centre, and field courts and a large velodrome to the E of the site. Used again for the 1986 Commonwealth Games, the site was due to be demolished for housing in the early 21st century, but these plans were put on hold.
Archive: NRHE (intended)
Funder: Thomas and Adamson
Diana Sproat – AOC Archaeology Group
(Source: DES Vol 19)
Archaeological Evaluation (9 April 2018 - 20 April 2018)
NT 27936 74341 An evaluation was undertaken, 9 – 20 April 2018, as part of Phase 2 of development work. The evaluation primarily aimed to establish the presence and degree of preservation of the mid-19th-century St Margaret’s Station North British Railway Works and Locomotive Department and the early 15th-century St Margaret’s Well, which had been disturbed during the construction of the railway depot.
A total of seven trenches, covering an area of c1100m2, were excavated and significant remains belonging to the railway depot were uncovered in six trenches. The remains included sandstone walls, brick walls, railway track fittings, road surfaces and remains of both the original and later mid-20th-century locomotive ‘turning platform’. The presence of live services meant the cartographic position of St Margaret’s Well could not be trenched and no evidence for the well was found elsewhere.
The evaluation has shown the later 20th-century demolition and redevelopment of the railway depot ahead of the 1970 Commonwealth Games left substantial remains, including ground level surfaces and subsurface foundations.
Archive: NRHE (intended)
Funder: Thomas and Adamson
Lindsay Dunbar – AOC Archaeology Group
(Source: DES Vol 19)
OASIS ID: aocarcha1-347790
Archaeological Evaluation (March 2019)
NT 27936 74341 Test pitting was undertaken at the site of the former Meadowbank Stadium, during March 2019. A total of eight, machine dug test pits were excavated in an area NW of the 2018 evaluation area. The test pits revealed made ground deposits measuring in excess of 6m. No archaeological features or deposits were discovered.
Archive: NRHE (intended)
Funder: Thomas and Adamson
Stuart Wilson - AOC Archaeology Group
(Source: DES Vol 20)
