Celebrating in the Park

 One recent issue which has concerned users of Clarence Park and the residents living in the vicinity of it, has been an application made by St Albans' City Football Club (SACFC) for the holding of special events at its ground. 

To gain some understanding of what might be proposed, we should home in on the word Special.  We might consider a match Final to be special, or an invitation match between two well known teams.  There have been matches in the past between SACFC and a Celebrity All Stars team.  All are intended to draw in extra spectators, create a new occasional income stream, and raise the profile of the Club.  Perhaps there might be two such matches in any one season.

At the opening of Clarence Park in 1894 – a few hundred spectators, but certainly fewer than three
thousand.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

There have also been special events taking place in both the football and cricket areas: rallies of a religious and secular focus, fireworks displays, and Torchlight Tattoos, some of which attracted huge crowds, with fleets of buses ferrying visitors to and fro.  Early in the life of the Scout movement rallies attended by national personalities; Annual Co-operative Society fund raising days, and other fund raising specials; most eventually being moved to Verulamium.  They resulted from a precedent established even before the park opened in 1894.  The recreation part of the park had not been previously known as the fete field for nothing!

The specialness of such wonderful days of joy were probably limited to two or three events each year, and while we have limited knowledge of how many people entered the park for most of these events, it is certainly true many of them transferred to Verulamium in the 1930s, and an even wider range of events was held there in the post-war period.

The special events which have been proposed by SACFC for fundraising purposes appear to have amounted to around twelve each year, in addition to the usual football matches.  These might be expected to attract more spectators as there develops a hoped-for  increased interest in football at the club.  But other organisations might claim an equal right to apply for special events.  Eventually someone has to decide on a limit, at what point special stops being special, when the interests of nearby residents need to be given more weight, and when the strain on the park's resources becomes excessive. 

How many St Albans residents in 1902 would have seen this photograph
of their new King and Queen?  But three thousand were reported to have
been at Clarence Park to celebrate anyway.

The Herts Advertiser reported on such an event when the park was less than twenty year old. 1902 was the year of the Coronation of Edward VI, and during the Coronation weekend a special event had taken place in Clarence Park.  No-one in St Albans, unless they had received invitations to Westminster Abbey, or were in a position to watch the procession, was able to view the proceedings on television or to listen to the "wireless", as the world was pre these technologies.

The newspaper did not describe the nature of the local event, nor whether the entire park was used.  At such an early period the current football area was only used as such in the winter months; during the summer it was marked out for the playing of tennis; the Coronation was on 9th August.  But we do know that the police estimate for the numbers present was 3,000, similar to the numbers intended for the proposed special music functions for next year.

We are informed that only one police intervention took place.  Security and crowd behaviour were in the hands of the City Police, working right on the edge of their area of responsibility – the added areas of the city did not extend to Winches until 1913.

There would have been a number of men spending drinking time at the nearby Crown Hotel for much of the day, and by the summer evening would have wandered across to the park to join in with the celebrations.  One man clearly the worse for alcoholic drink was in the recreation section looking for a fight,  behaving belligerently and aggressively approaching complete strangers.

A police officer made an attempt to remove the offender, but in the attempt to accompany him through the Hatfield Road gate next to the railway bridge, was seriously injured.  What we might today call "back-up" was sent for and the offender was removed to the police station in Victoria Street pending a hearing in court.

Three thousand celebrating citizens, with the temptation of a public house across the road, and just one reportable arrest; sounds like a remarkably well-ordered and organised time was had by almost everyone.  Let's hope that similar good nature can be found among guests to a similar number of special events at Clarence Park in the years to come.