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St. Mirren Park, more commonly known as Love Street, was registered as Fullerton Park for St. Mirren's first
season there in 1894, as they were being rented from a Mr Fullerton. Saints had been forced to move from their previous grounds at Westmarch
following a 100% rent increase imposed on them. The initial aggreement for Love Street was a ten year lease. St. Mirren played their first home game at the ground, a 3–0 defeat
to Celtic, on 8 September 1894 in front of 8000 spectators. When the ten year lease expired, the club was nearly forced to move
away from Love Street, much as it had been from Westmarch, due to a massive rent increase imposed by the landowner. |
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Saints had offered to purchase the land, but were quoted an unrealistic price along with the ultimatum to buy or
pay the hefty increase in rent. The club looked for alternatives, and a move back to Shortroods was considered, before the owner of Love Street reconsidered
his proposals and a deal was agreed for Saints to buy the land in 1905. Over the next few years Saints began negotiations to buy the
adjoining land to enable them to expand the spectating area of the ground and this was achieved in 1920.
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| St Mirren Park under re-construction September 1921 |
With the surrounding space now owned by the club they began the redevelopment
of the ground starting with a new grandstand, which was started in 1921. However due to financial constraints the initial
plan to have it along the entire length of the pitch was altered and the board made plans for this work to be completed when
the financial situation improved. However this work was never completed and the stand remained the same size until the
final days of the ground.
| Love Street |
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| 1927 |
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Following completion of the Main Stand, there was no major changes in the ground until the late 1950's when
a roof was erected to cover the North Stand and floodlights were installed at the ground in 1959.
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| Original floodlights 1959 |
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| Main Stand in the fifties |
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| Main Stand 2003 |
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| Love Street 1955 prior to the Northbank being roofed |
| Roof on Northbank in late 1950's |
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| Northbank in the seventies |
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| Cairters Corner |
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In the summer of 1979,
the Love Street End terracing was knocked down and rebuilt ten yards from the goal. There was also more talk of covering
the new family enclosure at Cairter’s Corner and installing a stadium clock, however as time would tell, none of the
two suggestions were ever carried out.
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| Love Street 1990 |
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| Seats being added to Northbank in 1991 |
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In 1991 seats were added to the Northbank in accordance with the recent Taylor report which recommended
clubs change their grounds to all seater stadiums.
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| Northbank after seating |
The next major change at the ground came in 1995 when
the Caledonia Street terrace was replaced by the new impressive West Stand. This
was to become the away fans new vantage point and was considered to be one of the best views offered at the ground.
| FROM THIS |
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| Caledonia Street Terracing |
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| TO THIS |
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| West Stand |
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With the team sitting on top of the First Division towards
the end of the Millenium season, Saints were faced with the knowledge that to gain promotion to the SPL they would require
an all seater stadium and the Love Street terracing had to be redeveloped.
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| Love Street terracing |
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| East (Family) Stand |
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With the completion of the East Stand, which was to be designated a family
area, the ground now had a capacity of 10,800 seats and was fully compliant with the entry criteria for the SPL.
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| Love Street 2005 |
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