How does this make you feel ...

[Man of Harveys]

What is there now?

Not being insensitive, just curious..

DFS, Comet, Burger King, Toy R Us.

I've just bought a kitchen from a place which would just about have faced the facade of the West Stand, so not actually on the site - I'm not sure I could have bought it if it had been.

The striking thing was how utterly deserted the streets around there were, despite it being 2.20pm on a matchday Saturday (I dashed to Withdean from there). I don't normally "do" poignant but it was.

 

[Norman Baker suck my lozenge]

What is there now?

Not being insensitive, just curious..

Toys'r'us jjb sports and a 24hr Burgerking

 

[eastlondonseagull]

What is there now?

Not being insensitive, just curious..

Have never been back, Starry. Can't do it. But rumour has it, it's a ToysRUs etc etc

 

[Marc]

well I *WAS* having a good day, THANKS Cavewoman!

 

[(was)DBS]

Just makes you think...............about the good times we had thre but then..................................

 

[ShorehamGull]

I just want to think of the good times at the Goldstone

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

Good question, i've thought that a few times. I'd rather be at the Goldstone than the Withdean. The East was a mess, but it could have been repaired. The houses behind the east would always stop any development.

I think there was a scheme to turn the pitch round and buy the factories on Newtown Road and divert Newtown Road. The goals would then have been at the East and West ends of the ground. I imagine the money ran out.

Look whats there now. Thats what really hurts.

Indeed.

Why we're on the subject, please tell me eveyone steers clear of it now.

I've never driven past it, and would turn left at the lights and go up Nevill Road, up to the Dyke Road junction and down The Drive so I didn't have to go past it.

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

Sorry. Don't know how to break up quotes.

 

[Hydro Driven]

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

For me anywhere else will only be a second home..... Goldstone = Bright and Hove Albion.

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

At first sad, but then quite angry, that we left the place so long ago, and still dont have a ground that we can call "home." I can't wait until the first game at Falmer, when we first sit in our seats, to a fantastic new stadium, that we can really say is ours, and is our home.

 

[Curious Orange]

I have happy memories of the place, although I was always saddened by the state that the North East terrace and the Chicken Run got into.

It was interesting to hear about the unusual floodlights we had at the Goldstone. We never had floodlights - we had drenchlights!

I know it was a dump, but it was our dump.

Apparently the club used to own all the houses behind the east terrace, it was a pity they were sold off.

 

[Gully]

One of my favourite quotes describes Brighton as "a tired old tart living by the sea", those pictures just about sum it up, the place was run down and dated, but it was our home in the way that nowhere else, neither Gillingham, Withdean or Falmer ever will be.

I cut my teeth as a supporter on the terraces at the Goldstone, there are images in my head of that place that will be there till my dying day, the smell of the burger bar, the crush in the North stand for a big game, Fred the argus seller with his call that could cut through the sound of the throng, Seagulls wheeling overhead, blown in on a cold wind from the Channel, the walk back up the Shoreham road after a game, always turning at the lights to look back from whence I had come to see the other faithfull heading home, their heads doubtless packed with thoughts like my own.

 

[Braders]

gutted

not once did i go many promises never ammounted to anything....

 

[desprateseagull]

 

[blueandwhitearmy]

i would love to still be at the goldstone. it is only stadium that has felt like a home to us. i think we could have repaired some of the terraces and surely some seats could've been put down instead of them by now anyway, costing less than falmer would or even the public inquiry at that. it really is painful looking at those photos but at least there are such photos around to reinforce those memories.

 

[culvers]

Sad

 

[The Great Cornholio]

Bit of rose tinted spectacles on here. Let's be honest - it was a dump towards the end. Difficult to improve it much - no room for expansion and no roof possible on East side. It is heinous that it was taken away from us before we had anywhere else. But it would have struggled to sustain us in the future. When we get to Falmer, it will become a nostalgic memory. We could well have been in a lot of financial trouble if we were still there. Don't forget how low crowds dropped. Throwing money at it would not have made it a 21st century stadium.

That is not to say Archer was right - we are only where we are now due to Knight. Archer was thinking of himself only and is now counting his millions with no apparent conscience. Never forgive, never forget. But if we finally get a state of the art 22000 seat stadium with sustainable transport links, he may have done us a slight favour in a curious, macabre sort of way. How much harder would it be to get planning permission for Falmer if we already had a 17000 capacity ground? Who knows.

 

[BUTTERBALL]

I would say nostalgic were it not the for the big C ruining every photo.