A plaque marking the site of the original Celtic Park can be found on the brick wall behind the Lisbon Lions Stand at the current Celtic Park stadium. There are now houses on the other side of wall, however you can gaze over and imagine what the old football ground would have been like. The plaque also shows an old image of the stadium to assist you with your visualisations.
For four years (1888-1892) Celtic Park had been situated just 500 metres from its current site – at the north-eastern juncture between Springfield Road and London Road. That initial stadium had been constructed in less than six months by Pat Gaffney and a large volunteer workforce.
Founding father, John Glass, was a joiner by trade and his contacts were essential to secure manpower and materials. The bulk of the funds, though not in the desired amount, for this ambitious project were also raised through subscriptions from within the local parishes (St. Mary’s, St. Michael’s and Sacred Heart) following the club’s first circular in January 1888.
The circular read as follows:
“His Grace the Archbishop of Glasgow and the Clergy of St. Mary’s, Sacred Heart and St. Michael’s Missions, and the principle Catholic laymen of the East End.
The above club was formed in November 1887 by a number of the Catholics of the East End of the City.
The main objective of the club is to supply the East End conferences of the St. Vincent De Paul Society with funds for the maintenance of the “Dinner Tables” of our needy children in the Missions of St Mary’s, Sacred Heart, and St. Michael’s. Many cases of sheer poverty are left unaided through lack of means. It is therefore with this principle object that we have set afloat the “Celtic”, and we invite you as one of our ever-ready friends to assist in putting our new Park in proper working order for the coming football season.
We have already several of the leading Catholic football players of the West of Scotland on our membership list. They have most thoughtfully offered to assist in the good work.
We are fully aware that the “elite” of football players belong to this City and suburbs, and we know that from there we can select a team which will be able to do credit to the Catholics of the West of Scotland as the Hibernians have been doing in the East.
Again, there is also the desire to have a large recreation ground where our Catholic young men will be able to enjoy the various sports which will build them up physically, and we feel sure we will have many supporters with us in this laudable object.”
The stadium boasted a 110 yard x 66 yard pitch, complete with a pavilion, a referee’s room, an office, changing facilities and capacity for 1,000 spectators. Rental of the land to use these facilities cost £50 per annum.
Celtic Park was officially opened on 8 May 1888, when Hibernian drew 0-0 with Cowlairs. One of Celtic’s founding fathers, Dr John Conway took the kick-off that day, earning the accolade of the first person to ever kick a football in a stadium known as Celtic Park. 20 days later, the stadium would host the first ever Celtic match, a 5-2 victory against Rangers.
The first Celtic Park was something of a happy hunting ground for the Bhoys. The club won its first treble at the venue in 1891/92 and also saw Celtic avoid defeat in 17 out of 18 friendlies against top English opposition. In four seasons at the original ground, Celtic only lost one competitive match.
Irony would determine that, before moving because of a greedy landlord, Celtic’s last game at their original stadium would be a friendly played in order to raise funds for the Evicted Tenants Fund in Ireland.
