Work to demolish the Glentoran Stand at Brandywell Stadium in Derry and a section of the site boundary wall adjoining the Lonemoor Road is to begin on Monday next, 28 September.
Derry City and Strabane District Council, who own the ground, said the removal was for “health and safety reasons.”
The Council spokesperson said the work was expected to take up to five weeks to complete and local residents and user groups have been briefed by the Council on the nature of the works.
The spokesperson added the development plans for the Brandywell were included in the Council’s Capital Investment Plan that was approved by Council last month.
The Council is currently working to advance with the next stage of the process on this important investment and regeneration project, in close partnership with funders and key stakeholders.
The spokesperson added that Council remained committed to the project as part of its ongoing work capital investment programme.
The Glentoran Stand (pictured), one of the oldest football structures in Ireland, originally stood at the Oval football ground, home of Glentoran, in Belfast (hence its name) and was constructed by the legendary Glasgow born Engineer Archibald Leitch.
The stand was purchased and disassembled and reconstructed at the Brandywell in the early 1940’s.
Born in Glasgow, Leitch's early work was on designing factories in his home city and in Lanarkshire, with the sole surviving example being the Sentinel Works at Jessie Street, Polmadie, just 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 Park, the new home ground of his boyhood heroes Rangers, in 1899.
Over the next four decades he became Britain's foremost football architect. In total he was commissioned to design part or all of more than 20 stadiums in the UK and Ireland between 1899 and 1939, a selection of which include Anfield, Highbury, Old Trafford, and Stanford Bridge.