Hyde Road

Hyde Road was once a football ground in West Gorton, Manchester. It stood on waste ground near the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company’s land. The stadium opened in 1887 and became home to Manchester City F.C. and its predecessors. Early facilities were basic, with no changing rooms until 1896. Players changed in the nearby Hyde Road Hotel instead. By 1904, the ground held 40,000 spectators and hosted an FA Cup semi-final. The ground’s layout was irregular due to limited space. A fire in 1920 destroyed the Main Stand, forcing the club to consider relocation. Manchester City moved to Maine Road in 1923 after years of struggling with crowd control and access issues. The stadium’s narrow streets and shortage of turnstiles made large matches difficult to manage. King George V visited in 1920, becoming the first reigning monarch to attend a match there. Today, little remains of the football ground. A section of its roof still stands at The Shay in Halifax. The site later became a tramway depot and later a container storage facility. The railway viaduct and nearby streets mark where the pitch once lay. The area now serves industrial purposes, with no visible traces of its sporting past.