Home soil: Institute FC's lost stadium

Words: Eanna Mackey

Images: Eanna Mackey

The turnstiles no longer clang. The footballs no longer thump. Now it lies empty, decrepit, ruined. It’s only the hum of the nearby main road to Belfast and the gentle swaying of its adjacent saplings that fills the air with sound in Derry’s forgotten football stadium.

Institute FC once called the Riverside Stadium on the Eastern Bank of the River Foyle their home. “Stute” had played on the site since 1980, heavily upgrading up until 2011. As a result, this small Irish Football League club had a home to bed its roots and grow.

Unfortunately, in August 2017, something else grew instead, forcing the Sky Blues to become nomads ever since.

Catastrophic flooding devastated the Riverside Stadium. Over seven feet of water flowed over its once pristine pitch and newly built stands. Even many of the nearby ancient oak trees were uprooted such was the force of the surge. As the water receded, within the tonnes of silt deposited in its wake bloomed hordes of invasive Japanese Knotweed.

The stadium rots as Mother Nature reclaims it. A further vulnerable victim to bored teenagers and arson.

©Eanna Mackey/ Terrace Edition. Institute FC (former home).

The flooding forced a move to Wilton Park, just six minutes down the road. In that same year of catastrophe so too came success with the club winning promotion to the NIFL Premiership as champions. The price of that title was a need to meet stadium requirements which ultimately resulted in another move to a more well-equipped ground.

Founded in 1905 for the Presbyterian Working Men’s Institute, the club and its supporters were forced to cross the geographical and social divide to the other side of the River Foyle to the catholic Bogside.

Since then a temporary ground-share with Derry City in the 7,700 capacity Brandywell has provided Institute with a suitable venue. A five-year plan is hoped to ensure that their current home remains a temporary one with the aim to build a new purpose-built stadium on the eastern bank of the Foyle, returning the Sky Blues to their roots.

In January 2022 an application was made to demolish the Riverside Stadium, reusing any reclaimed building materials in the construction of their new ground. Its bricks, mortar, seats, and stands will all be repurposed.

As the old site is left to the wilds to continue its reclamation, their old home will become the new.