Launching the first of a series of consultations, Crystal Palace FC co-owner Steve Parish said they were completely open to ideas and interested in people’s concerns.

“These kind of consultations are to get something that has the minimum amount of objection,” he told an open meeting of Crystal Palace and Norwood Chamber of Commerce. “This is the first of a number of meetings to see what we can we gauge and delivers as much as possible to the park. I’m open to any ideas that are realistic and won’t attract more planning objections. We don’t want to go down that road”.

“What we build there will be decided largely by the finance. If there are other uses we could put it to then potentially we could spend more money on the stadium,” he told the meeting at Patrick’s bar on Westow Hill, Crystal Palace.

Possibilities included a covered roof which would lessen noise issues, an elite sports centre for nine to 15-year-olds, and using the stadium for exhibitions. He highlighted Hull City FC’s new KC stadium which was now the best place in that area for a company to hold an exhibition.

He also asked what they could do to re-invigorate the National Sports Centre, currently run by the London Development Agency on a 120-year lease.

Mr Parish accepted there were problems with transport in the area and with the one way system. But he wanted to discourage people from bringing their cars to the area for match day parking. They would encourage and expect people to use public transport.

When the Crystal Palace Football & Athletic Club were formed eventually in 1905 the feeling of our formative chairman Mr E.F. Goodman was that in time Palace had the potential to compete eventually with the best in the land. He arrived (bringing the famous Claret and Blue kit with him) from Aston Villa’s backroom staff, having lost a leg playing for them, to build a club from scratch…something which he achieved with distinction. OK, we’re still not quite European Champions yet, but when Edmund made that bold prediction in 1905, neither he nor anyone else could have predicted what a thrilling roller coaster ride supporting Crystal Palace would become.

As early as January 12th 1906, 10 man Palace overcame all odds and created a sensation, defeating perennial FA Cup Finalists and then current League Champions Newcastle United at St James’ Park. My own Grandfather’s early experiences of following the Glaziers started way back in 1914 when the Club were forced to move out of the Palace Grounds by the Admiralty to Herne Hill Velodrome. He told me tales of many of those early heroes including the great Peter Simpson (our all time top scorer) and Albert Harry, a bow-legged winged wonder of his day, instrumental in so many of Simpson’s goals.

So, in 2003, a small band of Palace enthusiasts including myself embarked on the mammoth task of gathering recollections of Palace fans’ through the ages on tape for our web-site, with the aide of a grant from the National Heritage Lottery fund. So far, we have collected and collated some amazing full length interviews, covering a wide variety of aspects of supporting The Palace through all their many eras. We still hope there are many more out there waiting to be discovered which can cover literally any aspect or stories about the Club, especially if you have anecdotes to pass on about family members whose association with the Club goes way back. Anyone also interested in the recording of oral history for posterity of future generations or have any rare memorabilia or ephemera they’d like us to photograph for the Virtual Museum

aspect of our web-site can equally get involved and help this Lottery funded Project along. Log on and listen to the stories on the web-site at: www.eagles100.org and contact us via the web-site or me at: don@eagles100.org

If you are not online don’t worry, please still write to us at the “Crystal Palace fans’ Centenary Project” at: CPfCP. PO Box 2005, London SE25 5EN. ‘Hy On Palace’ is still available from Bookseller Crow at just £19.90. It has over a thousand of the legendary Hy Money’s stunning photos of the club taken from the 70′s to the present day. Why not pop in and sneak a peek!

First Published in the Palace Mag Jan 07