As Brentford begins its first Premier League season the Club will remember its past and the role of its fans and the local community. ‘Farewell Griffin Park- the Fans Story’ will be a special exhibition at the London Museum of Water and Steam, next door to the Brentford Community stadium. It will be open throughout the Premier League season.The Brentford Supporters Trust ‘Bees United’ has teamed up with the Club and fan historians to bring together a century of fan memories about the club’s former home using video, photographs and memorabilia plus the highlights of the club’s own archive.These include four fan collections which have never been displayed before:
- a recreation of the extraordinary garden shed where the late Bees fan, John Pitt, stored Brentford scarves, programmes, mugs, posters and his own personal match reports.
- a model of Griffin Park made by a Bees fan.
- the club’s first season-tickets from the 19th century
- a collection of Division One programmes from the 1930s
The exhibition will also tell the role of fan groups on the journey from Griffin Park to the Club’s new home in Lionel Road. The names of early donors to the cause – who included the former player and later TV pundit Jimmy Hill – were recorded on souvenir bricks and these have been recovered and will be displayed. There will also be a chance for selfies in a recreation of the Griffin Park dressing room and in an iconic Griffin Park dugout chair.The London Museum of Water and Steam will give a special ‘fans for a fiver’ admission price on match-days when the season begins.
Admission times and other details will appear on the Museum website www.waterandsteam.org.uk
Our picture of Griffin Park by Karen Reader is one of the photographs in the exhibition.