The once thriving pavilion that symbolises everything that’s wrong with Britain: Twenty years ago, proud live-in caretaker Tony Kay was evicted from the community sports centre he loved… now it’s overgrown with weeds, ignored and forgotten

The contrast between the two images couldn’t be sharper.

One of these showed a quintessentially English sports pavilion, complete with a traditional cricket scoreboard, balcony and grand clock overlooking the tidy playing fields, evocative of warm beer and the sound of leather on willow.

Another photo, taken nearly twenty years later, showed the same building as an abandoned ruin surrounded by shoulder-high weeds and covered in graffiti, evoking urban decline and abandonment.

The dilapidated state of the once clearly smart building and its surroundings caused consternation and outrage when it was shared on social media early last week – the initial post alone racked up 2.5 million views on X, as well as tens of thousands of reposts and shares on other platforms.

And the accompanying text, which suggested that the man who apparently took such good care of the building had been evicted after its compulsory purchase, sparked widespread outrage, with typical comments such as ‘what a tragic waste’ and ‘this is symptomatic of what’s wrong with Britain’.

Now the Daily Mail can reveal the extraordinary story behind the images and how a bitter legal battle between wealthy businessmen led to the building’s demolition.

We also uncovered the remarkable life story of the one-time groundskeeper who brought the scandal to the nation’s attention.

Because that first social media post belonged to old Tony Kay, who found himself in the national spotlight decades ago, which indirectly led to him becoming a groundsman for that pavilion.

Twenty years after that day Mr Kay moved in, he posted this picture of what the once-thriving community pavilion looks like today, covered in weeds that has fallen into disrepair

Mr Kay, seen here with long-term partner Becky Tallentire, was forcibly removed from the pavilion when he found himself at the center of a dispute between two businessmen.

Mr Kay, 88, was a hugely successful professional footballer with Everton, Sheffield Wednesday and England midfielder – at one point he was even England’s most expensive player.

But he was later caught up in one of England’s most notorious match-fixing scandals.

Tony began his career as a struggling winger at his hometown club on Wednesday, where he scored 10 goals in 179 league appearances.

He signed for Everton for a record fee of £60,000 and was quickly named team captain, helping the club to their first league title in 23 years in the 1962–63 season.

This success led to his inclusion in the England national team in 1963, when he scored in an 8–1 win against Switzerland.

But his career came to a dramatic end the following year after he became embroiled in a match-fixing scandal exposed by a Sunday newspaper.

An investigation revealed that he was one of three Sheffield Wednesday players who bet on their team to lose a match against Ipswich Town in December 1962.

Tony admitted he had placed the bet but insisted that a man with match performance had proven that he never intended to call off the match.

The players were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and Kay was fined £150 and imprisoned for four months.

He was 28 when he was released from prison 10 weeks later but was banned from football for life by the FA.

Tony continued to play in the amateur game before moving to Spain in 1974, where he remained for 12 years.

When he returned to the UK in 1986, he entered an anonymous life as a penniless odd-job man.

And so he was delighted to find a job at Old Addeyans Sports Club.

Speaking from his home in Southport, where he lives with long-term partner Becky Tallentire, he told the Daily Mail: ‘I had to get a job after I was banned from playing football because I had nothing.

‘I was a live-in caretaker at the clubhouse at Blackheath for about 12 years.’

His role with the club at Blackheath meant overseeing the operation of four football pitches, three tennis courts and a cricket pitch, which were used by club teams as well as local schools.

Explaining his role, Tony said: ‘I lived in the clubhouse and was groundskeeper, barman, cleaner, umpire and all-around good guy.

But he described how he was once again unemployed and homeless 12 years later after he was suddenly evicted from the property because the owners wanted to turn the site into a luxury housing project.

Becky, who took the photo of the derelict with her phone five years ago, told how her job at the club ended suddenly 20 years ago: ‘Tony woke up one day and bailiffs were trying to get in.

‘Initially he refused to let them in and ended up sort of barricading himself inside the clubhouse but eventually he realized he had to come out.’

Tony said bailiffs arrived without warning and surrounded the property after it became the subject of a compulsory purchase order.

We can explain how the club was closed after the land was purchased by a company called Densitron Technologies, which designs, develops and delivers display technologies and related electronics.

Its founder and chairman was Clifford Hardcastle, who was chairman of governors at Addey and Stanhope secondary schools in New Cross and a leading figure in the alumni association Old Addeyans.

Mr Kay wasn’t always a sports club keeper. He was an extremely successful professional footballer in his youth and was even England’s most expensive player at one point.

But following a collapse in the share price of Densitron, which at one point had a turnover of more than £40 million, the business leader was forced to leave the company in 2002, claiming he was the victim of ‘corporate murder’.

A bitter row broke out over the land after Mr Hardcastle sought adverse possession or ‘squatters’ rights’ to allow the club to continue operating there.

In its 2005 annual report, Densitron announced that it had taken legal action against Old Addeyans, insisting that its claims about the site were ‘completely unfounded’.

The following year, the company announced that it had received a last-minute offer to end the case just days before the civil case was due to be heard.

Densitron said it had incurred significant legal costs and was paid £45,000 by the club for litigation costs, which resulted in a settlement confirming the company’s ownership of the land while allowing the club to remain in operation for “only a short time”.

The following August, Densitron said it had approached the local authority about the terms of a ‘land swap offer’, adding that there was an offer ‘for part of the land’ for which negotiations were ongoing.

Official documents show that the playing fields were purchased by London Borough of Greenwich (LBG) in December 2007.

This part of the land is currently used as the sports ground of Thomas Tallis secondary school, which boasts a number of professional footballers among its former pupils, including former Spurs and Everton defender Pat Van Den Hauwe, as well as actor Dominic Cooper.

Densitron retained ownership of the 1.25-acre area where the pavilion is located and announced in 2008 that it was seeking ‘residential planning permission’.

But the real problem was that the land, located next to a conservation area, was part of an urban green belt area known as Metropolitan Open Land (MOL), which restricted development.

Densitron continued to lobby the council to lift planning restrictions in 2013, claiming the clubhouse was a magnet for anti-social behavior leading to ‘vandalism and arson’.

The company and its representatives said separating the site from the playing fields made it ‘incapable of its previous use’ and that there was ‘no justification’ for retaining its status.

They said the remaining tennis courts at the site had not been used for seven years, adding that the site “contributed little or possibly nothing to the purpose of the MOL” in terms of providing a “predominantly open character” and “separating residential areas”.

The company went into voluntary liquidation in 2023, three years after the legal charge regarding land allocated to Barclays Bank was ‘satisfied’ in May 2020.

The site remains undeveloped, but its potential value is highlighted by the text gate property, which was the groundskeeper’s cottage of an adjacent tennis club, previously in separate ownership.

Planning permission has been granted to transform the former bungalow into a stunning three-storey, ultra-modern six-bedroom home, which was purchased for £2,500,000 in 2017.

Planning documents from 2011 show that Old Addeyans’ mansion had already been largely demolished at that stage.

The tennis club, which had been abandoned for years, was planned to be converted into a bowls club in 2018.

However, the plans fell through when permission was not granted to convert the bowls club’s existing home into a public housing project.

Last year, plans to turn the area into a padel tennis complex were rejected after complaints from neighbours.

As the future of the abandoned pavilion remains uncertain, Tony is forced to consider his life as a forgotten fallen idol and how his dream of playing for England’s World Cup-winning team in 1966 has been shattered.

He said: ‘It was a different game then and I loved it. I can say that I am a strong player, but I am not dirty. Simply put, I took the ball away from the people.

‘The World Cup would have been nice but it didn’t happen.

‘I have memories and met great people like Brian Clough and Dennis Law. I should be happy about this.’

Tony remains a cult hero on Merseyside and was among the former players introduced to the crowd when Everton bid an emotional farewell to Goodison Park last May before moving to their new state-of-the-art stadium.

Tony’s post sparked a wild response from critics, who described the ‘criminal and despicable’ incident as a ‘perfect snapshot’ of Britain’s decline over the last 30 years.

Mr Kay signed for Everton for a record fee of £60,000 and was quickly named team captain, helping the club win its first league title in 23 years in the 1962-63 season.

One said: ‘This is heartbreaking. A thriving community center was left in ruins due to compulsory purchasing. What a waste.”

Another said: ‘This is chest-burstingly heartbreaking.

‘A vibrant community centre, where families gather to enjoy the pitch, tennis courts, cricket and curry, has been turned into a graffiti-covered ruin due to a forced ‘land deal’ purchase.

‘A typical British planning error. Who approved this and who benefited? An audit is needed.’

A third reviewer said: ‘Metaphor, Britain was now in British hands!’