The Grandstand

When our class was first told by Michael Pinchbeck that the site our class might perform in was The Grandstand I had to ask what it was. As a second year drama student at Lincoln University I thought if I don’t know this place would our audience know it?

When I first visited The Grandstand, I thought that the building seemed isolated and abandoned from the rest of the city as it seemed so far away from the cathedral, the restaurants and the shops. I feel that it looked like the building had been neglected and shut off from the public because the front of The Grandstand was surrounded by a metal barrier so that the general public were restricted from going up to what used to be the seating area 240 years ago as it looked damaged and unsafe.

It was interesting to discover the history of the building; the fact that the site was used 240 years ago as a racecourse for horse racing really intrigued me so I went home and researched more about its history.

I discovered that the Grandstand was rebuilt in 1896 giving us the building that we all see today which is at the end of Carholme road and opposite the West Common. During the nineteenth century entrance to the grandstand cost a guinea and several race meetings were held at the grandstand every year.  One of the most popular race meetings was The Lincolnshire Handicap; it was established in 1849 and took place in August.  In 1857 the August meeting was stopped and the moved to the spring this became the main meeting in Lincoln.

I also found out that the racing was suspended for the duration of the world wars and when it was resumed the fortunes of the racetrack was in serious decline.

After the City stopped the funding to the Grandstand the racing was relocated to Doncaster Racecourse, today the Grandstand is used as a community centre until the Lincolnshire City Council decides what they want to do with the building.