Hillsborough February 1, 1992
Photograph by Tony Davis ©Tony Davis
Published in When Saturday Comes 214, December 2004

In March 1992, as part of a WSC feature on football policing, photographer Tony Davis spent a matchday with the South Yorkshire police at Hillsborough. The choice of location was, of course, no coincidence. Less than three years after the disaster and just two since the publication of the Taylor Report, it was impossible to think of the ground as merely a sports venue. The implications of the report and the Hillsborough families’ campaign for justice were both, as they still are, passionately debated and pursued.

But, by the time this photo was taken above the Leppings Lane end, the terrace below had been seated, Wednesday were resuming normal business and the local police were attempting to rebuild their reputation from scratch.

Davis was granted full access to the ground, including the police briefings in the adjoining sports hall and the match operations room. Unthinkable a few years before, this reflected a necessary sea change in attitude by a force damned by Lord Justice Taylor for their complacency and systematic failings in 1989. Davis found a spot behind the two policemen at the back of the stand. “Previously I would have been thrown out for asking to go there,” he recalls.

Sheffield Wednesday were also deemed culpable by Taylor. Visitors now cannot fail to notice that the entrances to the Leppings Lane end are emblazoned with directions and crowd filters. The concourses beneath the stand are clear and open. CCTV is everywhere and a PA fit to drown out the most voluble away supporters has been installed. All Taylor recommendations to the letter.

Impressive venue though it is, Hillsborough, like Ibrox, Valley Parade and even the renamed Heysel, may never entirely shake of its association with catastrophe. Hillsborough remains essentially the same stadium and fans sit at the Leppings Lane end. It may be Wednesday’s spiritual home, but to most just the word “Hillsborough” is shorthand for the disaster. It has been difficult for even a degree of reconciliation to be achieved. Reeling from the criticism by Taylor, it took ten years and pressure from the bereaved families for a memorial on the site to be sanctioned by Wednesday. The Justice for Hillsborough campaign continues.

Doug Cheeseman
Football Photography Writing

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