QPR Return to Queen's Park to Unveil Birthplace

QPR this weekend returned to their roots – namely Ilbert Street, Queen’s Park – to celebrate the club’s 125^th Anniversary.

QPR players and representatives – including legend Stan Bowles – joined Westminster’s Deputy Lord Mayor (Right) and event organisers CityWest Homes, to unveil a plaque honouring the club’s St Jude’s Church Hall birthplace.

1886 saw the amalgamation of two local amateur church teams – ‘Christchurch Rangers’, and ‘St Jude’s Institute’ – to form Queen’s Park Rangers (after the district home to most of the boys). Since then the West London side has gone from strength to strength, climbing their way to the top flight of English football.

Whilst the club has had a record fifteen different homes since – with its current being Loftus Road, Shepherd’s Bush, – 125 years on, the original, St Jude’s Hall Ilbert Street, is now immortalised thanks to Saturday’s plaque-unveiling.

Andy Evans (speaker, left), Chief Executive of QPR’s Community Trust, expressed his delight at the day’s outcome:

“Today’s a really good day; a really lovely warm community feeling at the event, and obviously from a club perspective, for QPR it’s a really proud historic day as well”.

Meanwhile, Darren Levy, Director of Customer Services for CityWest Homes (who teamed up with QPR to bring the event to fruition), echoed similar contentment:

"It’s taken probably a year’s worth of planning. The atmosphere’s fantastic and it’s great to have the deputy Lord Mayor here, and Stan Bowles from QPR.

“Most of the residents I’ve bumped into seem to be having a good time; lots of smiles which is great. The key thing is what we can build from here in terms of nurturing our relationship with Queen’s Park so they can continue to provide things for the kids in the area”.

The day was quintessentially a community celebration with a range of activities on offer. Neighbouring Queen’s Park Gardens hosted face-painting, funfair rides, bike maintenance, Zumba dancing, and a variety of community stalls. A DJ was also on hand to add music entertainment throughout.

QPR provided football coaching to youngsters; and the club kindly also brought their latest trophy with them to allow delighted fans a unique photo opportunity.

Speaking about some of the other community work Rangers do, Andy Evans, the R’s Community Trust CEO revealed:

“We operate across a number of London boroughs at the moment… We have an education department… a football development department … [W]e’ve also got a big social inclusion programme, for example, we deliver four different Kickz projects across different boroughs which purely targets 12-18 year olds during the evenings, giving them positive activities to take part in”.

On league promotion, Evans said great benefits could be extended to the community, with the club being granted access to the Premier League pot fund in the coming season.

As QPR gear up for Premier League action, one certainty that the R’s can put their confidence in is the enduring dedication of their fans. Lifelong Hoops fan Linda Heavey,

accompanied by her son Tristan, 5 (Right); demonstrated her family’s undying devotion to the club, since its inception:

"We’ve [my family] lived in this area for over a hundred years, and since QPR have been going my family have supported them. Cousins, mum, dad… - my father was a steward at QPR for nearly 12 years, - they’ve all got season tickets to Queen’s Park Rangers and I am so happy they have gone up!”

Ms Heavey concluded, “I am so happy to be here today for Queen’s Park Rangers, and the plaque on that wall is fantastic. It makes me proud to be a supporter and to live in this area”.