Even though the Olympic Stadium move seems less likely now, moving from Upton Park still could be a possibility. Here are a few of the things that I’ll miss if we leave Green Street.
Being able to see – Well this is the most obvious factor! There’s a real intimacy at Upton Park, and you can actually see the joy on the players’ faces when we score. Even in the very highest seats, you still feel at the heart of the action and I just don’t think we’ll have that same atmosphere at the Olympic Stadium. From the photos that have been publicised, it looks like the only way we’ll see the players faces will be on big screens.
The cafés – From Ken’s to Nathan’s, you can’t beat the pie, mash and liquor in Green Street and the surrounding area. Local pre-match favourite Cassettari’s is in legendary status, with sightings of Malcolm Allison talking tactics with his team mates using salt and pepper for props. I’m not sure gastropubs will have the same feel…
The Boleyn – This pub is a listed building (or so my dad says) and it’s a must-visit for thirsty hammers before and after the match. With the lovely barmaids dressing up each week for the punters’ entertainment and the pub full to the brim with Hammers, it’s hard to imagine a modern Olympic village pub creating the same buzz.
The dodgy travel – Ok so this doesn’t seem like a thing to celebrate, right? But I have truly had some of the funniest walks to Upton Park when engineering works mean walking from West Ham. As if my dad’s joke of ‘looks like they need a few more fried chicken shops here, I haven’t seen one in 5 feet’ wasn’t reason enough to do the walk, you also walk past the Ordinance pub. That’s an experience in itself – you have to pay £5 to get the television turned on!
Upton Park – I know, I know. This was supposed to be specific things about the stadium. But I mean, from the moment you come out from Upton Park tube station and see the claret and blue school, the church and the epic stadium towers on the horizon, the rush of pride and excitement is immense. So what if the ground needs a bit of work? It’s Upton Park, it’s our Upton Park, and I for one will miss every part of it.
5 things I’ll miss about Upton Park…
1/ Singing at the top of my croaky voice at the back of the South Bank… hold on, that’s already gone.
2/ The long walk down Green Street from Plaistow on a cold, sunny Boxing Day (really!)
3/ Being so close to the pitch you could chat to a player in the centre circle…. oh, that’s already done thanks to the Dr Martens stand..
4/ Spending 90 minutes trying to get home from a game in the middle of winter because the queues are so bad at the station or the traffic is so bad.
5/ Having a stadium that I grew up with being different to the one my son will grow up with. But then the stadium I remember had 3 different stands to the one we have now anyway.
We all need to realise the stadium changes anyway, the stands & surroundings are completely different to 30 years ago. Why not realise that long after we’ve gone the next generations of fans will feel the same way about Straford as we do about UP. Life moves on, if you don’t move with it, you get left behind. Confine the memory of UP with our past glories. COYI!
The areas a S*** hole and the sooner we move the better!!!
build our own stadium…l don’t want to share our ground with athletics, because we all know that athletics will be the priority, and we’ll have to just ‘put up with it’
we need to move from Upton Park that’s a given, but like Aidan said, we all have our cherished memories of the great old lady, but we can make our OWN ground just as good if not better………..COYI ‘><'