Former EFL stadium set to be knocked down and turned into new £25m NHS centre
A former English Football stadium is set to be knocked down and turned into an NHS health centre. The York Street ground, the previous home of Boston United, is set to be demolished and transformed into a Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC).
The Pilgrims were resident at the stadium between 1933 and 2020 before relocating to the Boston Community Stadium. They played EFL football there from 2002 until 2007, when the club were relegated from League Two.
The pitch saw England icon Paul Gascoigne grace the turf when he signed as a player-coach in 2004, under manager Steve Evans. Gazza aimed to revive his career but spent just a few months with the team before departing to pursue coaching ambitions, and Boston was his last English club.
The ex-Spurs and Everton midfielder said it was 'one of the hardest decisions I've had to make in my professional career so far' upon leaving. Instead, Gascoigne planned to attend a Football Association course run by Sammy Lee.
The stadium was briefly used by Railway Athletic FC after Boston’s departure, but it has remained dormant since 2022. The site has now been purchased by United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
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They have plans to convert the ground into a CDC, with the intention of helping diagnose health conditions faster in the local area. It is planned to open by 2027 and cost £24.9million.
Surveyors Poyntons Consultancy called it 'a landmark project for Boston' after overseeing the sale. They said: “We are delighted to have played such an important role in completing the sale of the York Street site.
“This is a landmark project for Boston, and being able to help bring forward a development that will deliver lasting, positive benefits for the town.”
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The CDC is planned to serve in the region of 350 patients each day and ease pressure on local hospital services. Daren Fradgley, of Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group, said: “This marks the start of the next exciting chapter of our Lincolnshire Community Diagnostic Centre Programme.
“Community diagnostic centres make it quicker and easie to access the tests patients need as part of their care.
“The feedback we’ve had from patients about our community diagnostic centres in Grantham, Lincoln and Skegness has been overwhelmingly positive and we hope to replicate this in Boston.
“We want to be ambitious with the opportunities that we have to deliver care differently and make access to care better for patients.”