Redevelopment of the National Sports Centre would be a boost to locals and those who have fought for its return
“T
here were trees growing out of the main stand and on the indoor track and no one was doing anything about it,” says Jim Powell of the groundswell of despair at a crumbling Crystal Palace barely a couple of years after the Olympics were hosted to acclaim across the other side of London.
A month before Sir Mo Farah secured his second gold of London 2012 on Super Saturday, he had swept to victory in the 5,000m when Crystal Palace hosted its final London Grand Prix. But that summer’s Games appeared to signal the beginning of the end for the venue that had been the home of British athletics for the previous two decades.
It was not only the stadium where Dave Bedford set his 10,000m world record in 1973 and Steve Backley threw the javelin more than 90m in 1990 that had fallen into disrepair. Pretty much everyone who used the Grade II-listed sports centre that was built in 1964 was complaining it was in desperate need of renovation after years of neglect.
