Qualla: White City Stadium https://qualla.com/white-city-stadium en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: White City Stadium https://qualla.com/white-city-stadium White City Stadium: Introduction https://qualla.com/white-city-stadium/ The marathon distance we know today - 26 miles, 385 yards - was settled at a finish line that no longer exists. Stand in the plaza of White City Place in west London and you will find a marker on the ground: the spot where, in the summer of 1908, exhausted Olympic runners staggered toward the royal box of King Edward VII. The number was a measurement taken from Windsor Castle, and once an Italian named Dorando Pietri collapsed and was helped over the line, it stuck. The stadium that hosted that moment was already an improbable thing. Built in ten months on the edge of London's Franco-British Exhibition, it seated 68,000 and contained a swimming pool dug into the infield.

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/white-city-stadium-wp/gcpv-white-city-stadium-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full White City Stadium: Built in Ten Months https://qualla.com/white-city-stadium/ The engineer J. J. Webster drew the plans, the contractor George Wimpey poured the concrete, and King Edward VII opened the doors on 27 April 1908. The whole project had cost sixty thousand pounds. Inside ran a track of three laps to the mile; outside curled a sixty-six-yard cycl...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/white-city-stadium-wp/gcpv-white-city-stadium-built-in-ten-months.mp3 0:06 2 full White City Stadium: The Greyhound Years https://qualla.com/white-city-stadium/ What followed the Olympic flame at White City was not more athletics, but dogs. In 1926 the Greyhound Racing Association took over the property, grassed the running surface, and discovered they had stumbled onto a goldmine. The English Greyhound Derby was held here from 1927 onwa...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/white-city-stadium-wp/gcpv-white-city-stadium-the-greyhound-years.mp3 0:06 3 full White City Stadium: Record-Breakers https://qualla.com/white-city-stadium/ Some of the fastest moments in British athletics history happened on this track. In 1954, in a match against the Soviet Union, Christopher Chataway ran the 5000 metres against Vladimir Kuts and broke the world record - Kuts beating Chataway broke it again two weeks later, but for...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/white-city-stadium-wp/gcpv-white-city-stadium-record-breakers.mp3 0:06 4 full White City Stadium: A Sad Day in 1974 https://qualla.com/white-city-stadium/ Not every memory is golden. On 26 May 1974, eight hundred people were injured in a crush at the front of the stage during a David Cassidy concert. Thirty went to hospital. Bernadette Whelan, fourteen years old, died four days later from her injuries. A stadium designed for ninety...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/white-city-stadium-wp/gcpv-white-city-stadium-a-sad-day-in-1974.mp3 0:06 5 full White City Stadium: Demolition and Echoes https://qualla.com/white-city-stadium/ The greyhounds ran their last derby on 23 June 1984, and by 1985 the wrecking balls had arrived. The BBC built its White City complex on the site, and in our own decade that has given way to White City Place - offices, restaurants, and a public plaza. The Pogues wrote a song abou...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/white-city-stadium-wp/gcpv-white-city-stadium-demolition-and-echoes.mp3 0:06 6 full