Boleyn Gates

In 1956 the club were looking to buy the land in front of the West Stand, the entrance to the stand was down a narrow strip of land besides the Church, the land where the current entrance stands was part of the Boleyn Castle estate, which in the mid 50s was in a dilapidated state and eventually was demolished in 1955. West Ham already had use of the grounds and had sub-leased the building to the Boleyn castle sports and social club.

After being owned by various family in the late 18th century into the early 19th century the Catholic church purchased the 30 acre property to open a reformatory school in 1869. The school held upto 200 boys and was run by the Brothers of the order of the Mercy and was known as the St Edwards reformatory. The school moved to new premises in Walthamstow in 1906 and the building was used until 1912 as a Maternity hospital. That close in 1912 where upon the club leased the land off the catholic church.

 The picture shows the ground in 1948 with the entrance being where the current players car park is situated, and with the Green Street House and castle not being used by the church the club at last managed to the free hold to the land helped in a way by the selling of one of their star players at the time, Harry Hooper.
Harry joined the club aged 16 but was not born in the local area, he arrived thanks to his father being appointed the year before a trainer.
His dad Harry snr was from Burnley but played most of his career for Sheffield United, where he captained them in the 1936 FA Cup final v Arsenal, sadly for Harry Snr they lost 1-0. With the war interrupting football Harry left Sheffield for a short stint at Hartlepool before retiring in

Harry Snr at Wembley

 1949 to join West Hams training staff at a time when the management baton was being passed from Charlie Paynter to Ted Fenton.
Harry junior joined the ground staff soon after and in 1951 still only 17 made his debut against Barnsley in a 4-2 victory. A fast paced winger Harry didn't establish himself into the first team until 1953, but in his 6 seasons at the club  he still managed 136 games scoring 47 goals which for a winger was a good return.
so good that it persuaded Wolves manager Stan Culls to part with £25,000, a club record fee received at the time by the Hammers.
Wolves in the 1950s were different to the club of nowadays, led on the field by the Country's captain Billy Wright, they had won the First Division title in 1954.

The Transfer fee though was used by the West Hams board to purchase the free hold of the land in front of the Main West Stand and with that the gates were erected in their current position. Strangely Hoopers stay at Wolverhampton was short lived, though he scored 19 goals in 39 games manager Stan Culls it seems was not really impressed with him, and he was sold to Birmingham City for a £5,000 loss just 1 season later.
Cullis claimed that he signed Hooper in front of Tottenham Hotspur after watching him for sometime, His reason for selling him was that Hooper didn't fit in with the Wolves style of play.
The gates, now renamed after former manager John Lyall, though stood at the new entrance for 57 years until 3 of them were removed to be rehoused in the clubs new shop next to the Olympic Stadium where they will stand against a wall, though if you look at the look at the top picture from 1948 a set of gates can be seen at the entrance on Green street. The video below is from further back records the visit of the then Prince of Wales visiting the ground, gates can be clearly seen at the top as he enters the concourse so it seems the


gates go back even further than thought
possibly to when the Main west Stand was built in 1925.
Whether theses are the same gates or indeed new gates that were purchased with the money raised from Harry Hooper im yet to discover but with some of the gates removal and relocation to the clubs new retail shop by the Olympic Stadium it starts the removal of nearly 100 years of gates guarding the entrance to the Green St entrance

Lyall Gates in the club shop