West Ham Stadium

[Parsloes 1928 nearly 495]

How did they become so powerful,opening up massive stadiums like this.I mean it must have been only rivalled by Wembley at the time.In the south at least

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I don't think you have to be powerful to open a huge stadium.

Just optimistic...!!!!!

[iris123 20,997]

I don't think you have to be powerful to open a huge stadium.

Just optimistic...!!!!! 

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Well they must have been bloody optimistic.Reading a bit on the net the automated hare thing came to Britain from the US in 1926.In 1927 40 odd stadiums were built.Maybe or probably(i don't know)not all by the GRA.I would imagine as well that at the time the building of Custom House was started speedway was virtually unknown.Certainly couldn't have known how big a success it would be.Maybe that is why a football club was formed as well.Trying to get as many uses out of the stadium as possible.I would guess speedway wasn't in the initial plans for the stadium

[Parsloes 1928 nearly 495]

The motivation behind building such a huge stadium at Custom House in the mid-20s is, I’d agree, something of a mystery.

 

As the arena was ready for its first events in the summer of 1928 and having been such a huge building project, it is clear indeed - as iris says - that Speedway (which only debuted in the south of England that February) can’t surely have been foremost (or even there at all..) in the stadium builders’ minds when they planned the place. Dog racing must have been, I guess (I suppose in those days for whatever reason they were able to build quicker than we seem able to today..?!).

 

Which leaves Football. I had, I’d admit, been labouring under the misapprehension that the football club came along some while later; but actually the club formed to play there, Thames Association played their first match within a month or so of the first dog and Speedway meetings..

Brian Belton mentions in his book, ‘When West Ham went to the Dogs’ that the stadium was built on the site of the Custom House Football Ground (sorry for raising your blood pressure here norbold: there are just two things that strike fear into our norb...: mention of the esteemed ‘Dr.’ (sic) and me uttering those four words, “Do you want a lift?”!!)…

 

If the owners thought the football club could be a success they were sadly (dramatically so) mistaken.. iris refers to the club as the “legendary Thames FC”..: well maybe, but a football club legendary only for being without question the least successful and by far-and-away the shortest-lived of any senior club in history.

 

Incredible isn’t it to relate that the club was actually only in existence from 1928 to 1932; and yet – having started in the Southern League – spent a couple of seasons in the Football League!

The thing proven by their failure (how about a all-time lowest ever FL crowd of 469 punters for one match..: in a ground with a capacity then of 120,000!!!: that’s just 0.39% full..!!) was that (1) the 1920s was simply far too late to try and form a big club in London: the likes of West Ham United, Arsenal , Tottenham, Orient had – like most football clubs – been formed some thirty to forty years earlier and were therefore well-established; and (2) that though having a large ground undoubtedly gave the club a rapidly accelerated route into the FL , it only served to exacerbate, with the consequence of insolvency, the lack of support/demand for the club.

 

Seems ironic to me that Thames had its spell in the sun whereas hugely successful and long-enduring non-league sides in the area remained massive clubs for years without a sniff of FL entrance: clubs like Ilford, Leytonstone, Romford, Barking and Walthamstow Avenue..

 

As Mr. Belton, writing of the Custom House bowl’s enduring enormity puts it, “it was a monument to the symbiosis between environment and architecture”…: phew!!!

 

So, I wonder what were the (main) thoughts behind the construction of the ‘Wembley of the East End’..??!!

Edited January 22, 2007 by Parsloes 1928 nearly

[norbold 7,117]

Obviously we need Dr Belton to clear all this up for us...

[iris123 20,997]

.. iris refers to the club as the “legendary Thames FC”..: well maybe, but a football club legendary only for being without question the least successful and by far-and-away the shortest-lived of any senior club in history.

 

 

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That was why i said legendary Parsloes.Also the fact that hardly anyone has ever heard of the London side who played in one of the biggest stadium in the country.Plus you left out the Lions in your list of clubs there Most definitely in the same catchment area

[Parsloes 1928 nearly 495]

That was why i said legendary Parsloes.Also the fact that hardly anyone has ever heard of the London side who played in one of the biggest stadium in the country.Plus you left out the Lions in your list of clubs there Most definitely in the same catchment area

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Hmm, I take your point about Millwall having been an East London side...: and they moved off the Isle of Dogs in 1910 so yes, that's certainly within the same time-frame as the Thames Association 'experiment'...!!!

BTW, it's interesting that Millwall are often still thought of around the East End as an East End club in exile but when I suggest that Arsenal (who didn't leave Woolwich 'til 1919) are essentially a South London/Kent club most people think it's the ravings of a deranged lunatic...!!!

Edited January 22, 2007 by Parsloes 1928 nearly

[norbold 7,117]

most people think it's the ravings of a deranged lunatic...!!!

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I think it's just that they've seen you driving....

[iris123 20,997]

BTW, it's interesting that Millwall are often still thought of around the East End as an East End club in exile but when I suggest that Arsenal (who didn't leave Woolwich 'til 1919) are essentially a South London/Kent club most people think it's the ravings of a deranged lunatic...!!! 

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To a certain extent i agree with all 3 points

 

 

I know from when i used to buy the fanzines that Millwall still have a good number of fans who reside just over on the wrong side of the river

[Parsloes 1928 nearly 495]

To a certain extent i agree with all 3 points

I know from when i used to buy the fanzines that Millwall still have a good number of fans who reside just over on the wrong side of the river

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Hmm, well you're certainly on the wrong side of the river...: the Elbe!!!!!!

[NOBBY 3]

Hmm, I take your point about Millwall having been an East London side...: and they moved off the Isle of Dogs in 1910 so yes, that's certainly within the same time-frame as the Thames Association 'experiment'...!!!

BTW, it's interesting that Millwall are often still thought of around the East End as an East End club in exile but when I suggest that Arsenal (who didn't leave Woolwich 'til 1919) are essentially a South London/Kent club most people think it's the ravings of a deranged lunatic...!!! 

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Far from it Parsloes....and the sooner they get back to that side of the river the happier we will all be !!! In fact Kent would be too close for me !!!

 

 

Now I bet you can't guess who I support !

[Parsloes 1928 nearly 495]

Far from it Parsloes....and the sooner they get back to that side of the river the happier we will all be !!! In fact Kent would be too close for me !!!

Now I bet you can't guess who I support !

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Hmm..., let me guess..??!!

During the second half of tonight's match Martin Jol must have known what it's like to be Michael Jackson..: inviting eleven kids round his place and getting a spanking...!!!!!!