What: Greyhound Stadium
Where: Tipner, Hampshire
Built: 1931 with later extensions
Architect: Unknown
Abandoned: March 27, 2010
Listed: No
Visited: 2010 Last Known Condition: Completely demolished, 2014
Page Updated: December 2025
Built in 1931 and one of the oldest of its kind, Portsmouth Greyhound Stadium was iconic. Though I never went to "the dogs", its brown scoreboard tower rising from the flatlands, together with the decaying ships and submarines of Harry Pound's Scrapyard marked an unofficial gateway to the City far more real, exciting and evoctative (for me at least) than the elegant steel "Sails of the South" put up in 2001.
I don't know much about greyhound racing, but apparently it's gripping stuff. The 1,500 seat stadium always attracted owners, trainers, spectators and gamblers from across the South Coast. As its website proudly boasted: "We race every week of the year and you can really get your heart racing as you watch your winner fly past the post!"
I was surprised therefore to see on one of my many trips to Portsmouth that the stadium was now closed and derelict:
despite appearances, however, I learned that the track only closed on March 27, 2010 - almost exactly one month prior to my visit. With no site security and nothing much else to do in Tipner, vandals moved in quickly and inflicted years' worth of damage in only a few weeks. The stadium had become the latest casualty of the Tipner Regeneration Project; a controversial redevelopment initiative
which seemed slowly, paradoxically, to be sucking the life out of Northern Portsmouth. Perhaps things had to get worse before they got better.
The scoreboard tower viewed from Pound's Scrapyard.
Got my ticket, let's go!
On the track.
Partially-demolished grandstand.
Tote window
List of dogs running for the last season.
Trackside bar.
North end buildings including the Paddock Bar, kennels and scoreboard tower. Originally this displayed
scores for each race updated by hand.
Inside the scoreboard tower showing the framework that held the numbers.
Abandoned trophy
Kennels.
South end buildings.
Tipsters bar and burger bar.
Tipsters bar.
The South East England Development Agency had actually bought the land on which the stadium stood c. 2008
but had agreed to lease it back to the management for a £1,000-a-year peppercorn rent.
Despite frantic negotiations, the lease expired in April 2010 and the stadium was
forced to close mid-season with the loss of 47 jobs. Tipner became a ghost town,
surrounded by acres of wasteland and derelict scrapyards; plagued by crime and abandoned properties.
As I parked the car I saw a couple nonchalantly fly-tipping in the lane and as I explored a gang
of kids began smashing up the stands at the opposite end of the stadium, aware of my presence but obviously
unpeturbed.
