Love Street (stadium)

St Mirren Park

Love Street
St Mirren Park Location in Renfrewshire
Former names	Love Street Grounds Greater Love Street Grounds
Location	Paisley, Scotland
Coordinates	55°51′10″N 4°25′43″W / 55.85278°N 4.42861°W / 55.85278; -4.42861
Owner	St Mirren
Capacity	10,800
Field size	110 x 70 yards
Surface	Grass
Construction
Opened	1894
Expanded	1921
Closed	2009

St Mirren Park, more commonly known as Love Street, was a football stadium located on Love Street in Paisley, Scotland. At one time the stadium was capable of accommodating almost 50,000 spectators, however in its final years it had an all-seated capacity of 10,800. Until its closure in 2009, it was the home ground of St Mirren F.C..

The football grounds on Love Street were registered as Fullerton Park for St Mirren's first season there as they were originally rented from a Mr Fullerton. The ground's record attendance was 47,438 for a match against Celtic in 1949. St Mirren completed construction of their new St Mirren Park in December 2008. St Mirren played their last game at Love Street, against Motherwell, on 3 January 2009.

When St Mirren began to play on Love Street in the mid-1890s football clubs were still very much in their infancy and moved from ground to ground renting from local landowners. The best deal available was commonly a ten-year lease and by the time St Mirren arrived at Love Street, the club was only 17 years old and playing on its fifth rented ground. They had previously played on four sites in the north of Paisley; Shortroods Estate (1877 to 1878), Abingdon Park (1878 to 1879), Thistle Park, Greenhill Road (1879 to 1882), and Westmarch Estate, Greenhill Road (1882 to 1894). Paisley clubs Abercorn, who played at Underwood Park, and St Mirren joined the Scottish Football League when it started in 1890–91.

Following twelve years playing at Westmarch, St Mirren moved in 1894 in response to a 100% rent increase by the landlord who appeared to have lost interest in hosting football on his land. The club found a former brickworks at the foot of Love Street which could be rented for an initial ten years on reasonable terms. The land at Westmarch had been laid out with two pitches, a grandstand and pavilion; the Love Street site was substantially smaller, barely wide enough to lay a football pitch with some spare ground behind the goals; it was poorly drained and without grass. However, it would give St Mirren the significant advantage of being nearer to Paisley town centre than any of the other football clubs in the town. Furthermore, the site was already well known to the townsfolk as an entertainment venue, as it was where travelling circuses set up their Big Top.