Archibald Keir Leitch (27 April 1865 – 25 April 1939) was a Scottish architect, most famous for his work designing football throughout Great Britain and Ireland.
Early work
Born in
Glasgow, Leitch's early work was on designing tea
factory in
Deltota in the former Kandyan Kingdom of
Ceylon, as well as factories in his home city and in Lanarkshire, the sole surviving example of which being the
Listed building at Jessie Street,
Polmadie,
south of Glasgow city centre. In 1896 he became a member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, and later of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
He moved into stadium design when he was commissioned to build
Ibrox Stadium, the new home ground of his boyhood heroes Rangers, in 1899.
Stadium design
Leitch's stadiums were initially considered functional rather than aesthetically elegant, and were clearly influenced by his early work on industrial buildings. Typically, his stands had two tiers, with criss-crossed steel
at the front of the upper tier, and were covered by a series of pitched
, built so that their ends faced onto the playing field; the central roof span would be distinctly larger, and would incorporate a distinctive
pediment.
His first project in England was the design and building of the John Street Stand at Bramall Lane, which provided 3,000 seats and terracing for 6,000 and was dominated by a large mock-Tudor press box.
Leitch's reputation as an architect was damaged as a result of the Ibrox disaster of 1902, when 25 people were killed when a bank of wooden collapsed due to substandard pine being used in the terraces.
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Anfield, Liverpool
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Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, London
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Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough
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Bramall Lane, Sheffield
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Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff
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Celtic Park, Glasgow
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Craven Cottage,
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Dalymount Park, Dublin, Ireland
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Deepdale, Preston
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The Old Den, New Cross, London
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Dens Park, Dundee
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The Dell, Southampton
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Ewood Park, Blackburn
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Filbert Street, Leicester, the double-decker stand (The Kop).
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Fratton Park, Portsmouth
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Goodison Park, Liverpool
[ Douglas, Steve and Dunbar, Graham. "Pele's pain, Rooney's rocket and great escapes: Everton bids farewell to Goodison Park," The Associated Press (AP), Friday 16 May 2025. Retrieved 16 May 2025.]
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Hampden Park, Glasgow
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Home Park, Plymouth
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Hyde Road Football Stadium, Manchester (General ground improvements 1911–1914 and a planned complete rebuild of the ground to accommodate 100,000; war broke out, bringing a halt to these plans)
[ Athletic News, 9 June 1913.]
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Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow
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Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield
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Lansdowne Road, Dublin, Ireland
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Leeds Road, Huddersfield
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Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton
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Oakwell, Barnsley
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Old Trafford, Trafford, Greater Manchester
[ Wilkinson, Damon. "'Engineering Archie' – the man who built Old Trafford," Manchester Evening News, Monday 13 November 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2025.]
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Park Avenue, Bradford
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Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen
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Roker Park, Sunderland
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Rugby Park, Kilmarnock
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Saltergate, Chesterfield
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Selhurst Park, South Norwood, London
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Somerset Park, Ayr
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Stamford Bridge, Fulham, London
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Stark's Park, Kirkcaldy
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Twickenham Stadium, Twickenham, London
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Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh
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Valley Parade, Bradford (Midland Road stand and other extensions)
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Villa Park, Birmingham
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West Ham Stadium, Custom House, Newham, London
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White Hart Lane, Tottenham, London
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Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Many of his works have since been demolished for redevelopment, especially in wake of the Taylor Report and the move to all-seater stadiums.
Further reading
External links
