The pulling down of the Wembley Twin Towers.

[Guest cheetahhawk]

At work today we were listening to Radio London ( 94.9 ) and on the John Gaunt phone -in show he was asking people their memories of Wembley as today was the day that the famous twin towers are no more :-(

There were a few folk calling in with their speedway memories,I couldn't get through,line was engaged all the time.One guy came on and said he remembered speedway World finals and John Gaunt went on to talk about Peter Collins ,Barry Briggs and Ole Olsen amongst lots of old memories.The guy that called in obviously doesn't go to speedway at the moment as he stated that there was no speedway in London anymore(this was the point where I tried to ring in)anyway someone else rang in to say the first guy was wrong and the Dons were back but didn't know when the new season started.John Gaunt was taking a lot of calls about speedway so it did give speedway a good plug.I wonder if anyone else heard the show at all.The strange thing is we don't normally listen to this radio station at work,usually we have to listen to Capital :-(

[London Witch 57]

Its a shame the Twin Towers had to come down, I'm sure they could have kept them somehow. I was at Wembley just before Christmas and we took the opportunity to have a last look at them. Most of the stadium had been demolished by them, and the Towers were left standing on a building site. Very sad sight

[npw 8]

This is really bad news for me.

 

I spent my youth going regularly to Wembley for football, ice hockey (OK next door at the 'Pool) & speedway. I feel like a part of my life has been blown away - shame they couldn't at least save the twin towers somewhere.

 

Going away to hide in a quiet corner for a sob :-( :-( :-( :-(

[Midnight_Lady 2]

Its a shame the Twin Towers had to come down,

 

 

I was saddened as I watched the demolition start on TV :-( I have vivid memories of being at Wembley for the 75, 78 and 81 World Finals (Ithink those were the dates) and will never forget the sight of walking up that stretch of road and seeing the towers standing so proudly at each side of the entrance. A sad day indeed :-(

[KevH 257]

I was also at the three World Finals Midnight Lady went to, as well as a European Final around that time, and like ML can still picture walking up Wembley Way towards the towers.

 

Wembley always had something very special about it. Even if you walked into the stadium when it was empty it had atmosphere! The greenness of the grass always amazed me and the twin towers symbolised the "stadium of legends."

 

It's a truely sad day in the history of not only speedway, but sport in this country and worldwide too. It's a crying shame the towers couldn't be preserved in some way (after all the Yanks bought London Bridge and had it shipped over there a few years ago).

 

Wembley Stadium RIP - and thanks for the memories.

[shazzybird 10]

I like many others watched the Twin Towers come down on the tv being a speedway and a football fan, it was very sad to see! I thought there was a rumour a while ago they were gonna move them to another stadium. Then again no... Twin Towers belonged @ the end of the Wembley Way Walk would never have been the same would it really, doesn't have the same ring to it Twin Towers @ the Millenium Stadium naaaaaaa and the walk down the road to the stadium is still not quite Wembley Way either! No disrespect Wales but it will never be Wembley!

[stevehone 3,429]

Wembley Way was for me, where the excitement and atmosphere started.

Just walking up towards the towers was just so special.

 

I was lucky enough as a kid with my footy team to go on the Wembley tour, where I saw the changing rooms etc and walked up the 39 steps to where they presented the trophies.

All the kids in my team were asking footy questions and there was me keep asking speedway questions.... came as quite a shock to the bloke running the tour.

[KIWIPIRATE 0]

Well, I suppose I will be flamed to hell , but I never ever really considered the Wembley towers to be "famous". I understand the tops of the towers are to be stored in the Dome - at least until that is pulled down as well...

[stevehone 3,429]

I understand the tops of the towers are to be stored in the Dome - at least until that is pulled down as well...

I thought that big demolishing machine started on the top of the towers the other day? What bit are they saving?

[Lioness 1,455]

Steve the intention was to 'save' the crowns at the top of the towers in the interest of history apparently. not the tops of the actual towers but the wee bittys sticking up (keep it clean Lt-family forum!)

 

I think that was the reason for one of the previous delays

[Gaz W 6]

On one of our local radio stations they were talking about bits of Wembley being sold. They said that Ivan Mauger bought a couple of chandeliers and Barry Briggs wanted to buy a toilet but it broke while they were removing it.

[Mylor 0]

...............The greenness of the grass always amazed me ..............................

 

...............It's a crying shame the towers couldn't be preserved in some way (after all the Yanks bought London Bridge and had it shipped over there a few years ago).

 

Wembley Stadium RIP - and thanks for the memories.

 

Hi Kevin...........I was there in '65 when Bjorn Knudsson had his happy hour. I too was struck by how green the grass was until I spotted some of the floodlights had a green tinge. Ok, so they cheated, but boy did it look good.

 

Apparently, unlike the London Bridge, the towers were built of re-inforced concrete, so taking it down piece by piece wasn't an option.

 

We could still have sold it to the yanks though...........if they could carry a Saturn 5 on a low loader 40 years ago, just think what they could do today!!

 

8)

[stevehone 3,429]

They said that Ivan Mauger bought a couple of chandeliers

He didn't just stop there either...

Ivan had door handles from the Royal relaxing room, toilet roll holders from royal toilets, all sorts of bits, and was going back to get the slabs of concrete he always put his bike on for a Wembley world final. He parked his bike on a bit of a slope and had a special 'lopsided' bike stand made.

After visiting Wembley he decided to keep all the bits in my dad's garage until he shipped them home. I just thought what a load of junk!!!

[Guest splitpin]

i just think it was so sad that such a large piece of history had to go... i think it should have been listed, like some other Art-deco buildings

what also hurt, was so many people going on about Wembly FOOTBALL stadium....

totally forgeting what it really was.... a SPORTS stadium

RIP Wembley....gone but never forgotten