The London Underground and football

I recently visited the National Football Museum in Manchester and a London Transport poster from 1934 inspired me to write a blog post on how two of my favourite things, football and the London Underground, are interlinked. With 11 football league teams in London, 17 non-league teams in tiers 5-7, and Wembley stadium, between August and May it is almost impossible to use the London Underground without bumping into football fans. This post will point out the interesting history of how football has shaped the London Underground, and also how the London Underground has shaped football. So whether you are a London Underground enthusiast or user that hates football fans, or a football fan that dreads using the London Underground, you both have each other to thank. 

I start this journey dedicated to the beautiful game by talking about a team that infamously moved across London, Arsenal. In 1886, Dial Square, which later became Royal Arsenal and later Woolwich Arsenal, was founded in south-east London. However, in 1913, the club moved from south-east London to Highbury in north London and was simply named The Arsenal (however, The was gradually dropped). Arsenal's new ground in north London was located close to Gillespie Road on the Picaddilly line. However, in 1932 the Arsenal chairman, Herbet Chapman led a campaign to change the name of Gillespie Road to Arsenal (Highbury Hill), which by the 1960s became simply Arsenal. This means that Arsenal station is the only London Underground station to be directly named after a football club.

Why should you visit Arsenal station? I think there are two reasons you should visit. Firstly, the tilling on the platform still reads Gillespie Road. Secondly, all classic London Underground logos have the diamonds above and below the letters fall in between each letter, except at Arsenal, where the diamonds are evenly spread out and thus break this rule. Arsenal recently moved stadiums to The Emirates, which is close to Holloway Road station. On match days this station is closed before and after the game, but you should visit this station because bizarrely an experimental spiral escalator system was trailed here in the early 1900s, but it did not work. The remains of this escalator can be found at the London Transport Museum Depot in Acton.      

Moving across to west London, where we stop off at the capital's first football club, Fulham. Formed in 1879 as Fulham St. Andrew's Church Sunday School F.C., Craven Cottage on the banks of the river Thames has been Fulham's home since 1896. Craven Cottage is a short walk away from one of my favourite London Underground stations, Putney Bridge. The station opened in 1880 as Putney Bridge & Fulham when the District Railway extended their line from West Brompton. In 1898 the line extended to Wimbledon over a gorgeous railway bridge that is well worth checking out. The station features charming waiting rooms, original roundels and exits and entrances that are only used on Fulham match days. 

Just two stops north of Putney Bridge is Fulham Broadway, the nearest station to the only team in London to have won the Champions League, Chelsea. Chelsea have played all 113 years of their history at the nearby Stamford Bridge, a former FA Cup final venue. Despite their name suggesting they are in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Chelsea F.C. is located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Fulham Broadway was originally called Walham Green and did not get its current name until 1952. 

Being the closest stadium to central London has had an impact on the history of Fulham Broadway station. When Chelsea started playing at Stamford Bridge in 1905, Harry W Ford designed a new station building to accommodate for large crowds attending the football. In 2003 the station building closed as a new entrance was built in Fulham Broadway shopping centre, as well as the match day only entrance. On match days, if you are coming from central London, I suggest you board the rear of the train as this is nearer the matchday entrance. Due to the crowds of people, if you are at the front of the train you can still be trying to make your way down the platform as another train pulls up. The old station building has recently been converted as a new market space with plenty of food and drink. You can now buy a pint from an original ticket booth.  

Currently a non-league football club, Leyton Orient is the capitals second oldest football club. Despite playing in Homerton, Clapton and Lea Bridge, and having multiple names, the O's settled in Brisbane Road in 1937. Despite playing 112 years in the football league, Leyton Orient were infamously relegated to the national league in 2017. Brisbane Road, or the Breyer Group Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is a charming stadium with plenty of character, and has often sold out this season. The nearest station to the Orient is Leyton on the Central line, which is located in the ward of Cathall. Leyton station on the outside appears quite boring, but I am rather fond of the platforms. There is also a great view of the station from the nearby footbridge on Langthorne Road. 

Another non-league club, Barnet are located close to Canons Park on the much loved Jubilee line. Barnet moved over five miles from Underhill Stadium to The Hive Stadium in 2013. In 1991, Barnet became the first team from London to be promoted from the football conference into the football league. Despite being located to a football stadium, with an average of 1.68m passengers a year, Canons Park is the least used station on the Jubilee line. 

Moving away from non-league to another London top-flight club is West Ham United. Like Barnet, West Ham United have recently moved into a new stadium. West Ham made the three miles move from the Boleyn Ground to the London Stadium in 2016, which is located a short walk from Stratford station, and Pudding Mill Lane on the DLR. Due to the London Stadium being located in short proximity to the busy Westfield Stratford shopping centre, West Ham will never play a home game on Boxing Day. Stratford is a busy station, being served by the Central line, terminus of the Jubilee line, DLR and TfL rail. This station also features the shortest escalator on the London Underground and is also one of only two examples of where you get an escalator up to a London Underground platform, the other being at Greenford. 

Taking the Central line from Stratford across London we end up at White City, another station located near to a Westfield shopping centre. Queen's Park Rangers were founded in 1882 and after 13 different home stadiums, the R's moved into Loftus Road in 1917 (QPR also played at the White City stadium, the 1908 Olympic stadium, in 1931-1933 and 1962-1963). This area of west London has an interesting history with multiple stations. White City was opened in 1947 after replacing the former Wood Lane station a short walk away. A new Wood Lane station opened in 2008 on the Hammersmith and City line, and the Circle line in 2009, and is the latest station to open on the network. In 2009 White City won a National Railway Heritage Award for the modernisation works that were completed in 2008, preserving heritage and architectural features. 

Staying in west London, Brentford have spent 114 of their 129-year history at Griffin Park. Griffin Park is famous for having a pub in each of its four corners. Griffin Park is located a short walk from three stations on the Piccadilly line; South Ealing, Northfields and Boston Manor. Despite South Ealing being the closest London Underground station, Boston Manor has painted the platform poles to black and yellow as a reference to Brentford's nickname, The Bees. Brentford is looking at moving from Griffin Park to the Brentford Community Stadium that is currently under construction. Brentford would likely be sharing this ground with the rugby club London Irish, and the 17,250 seater stadium is due to be opened in 2020. This stadium is located near Kew Bridge national rail station. The London Borough of Hounslow Council have been pushing for an extension of Crossrail to Hounslow to incorporate the stadium with a stop at Kew Bridge. 

At the time of writing Tottenham Hotspur currently play their home matches at Wembley Stadium. This is due to their new 62,000 capacity stadium still being under construction.  The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is on the site of the club's former home for 118 years, White Hart Lane. Seven Sisters is the nearest London Underground station to the ground. The station got its name from seven elm trees which stood near Page Green and opened 50 years ago this year in 1968. Seven Sisters station also features wayfinding directions on the platform for 'Tottenham Hotspur football ground' and 'Trains to White Hart Lane'. White Hart Lane London Overground station is about 200m to the ground, closer than  Seven Sisters. There are plans to introduce a new entrance and improve the ticket hall area to cope with increased crowd numbers. There are also ongoing talks by the club to rename the station to 'Tottenham Hotspur'. 

The other football league clubs in London, Crystal Palace, Millwall, Charlton and AFC Wimbledon, are significantly closer to national rail or London Overground stations than London Underground stations. It comes as no surprise that all of the football league clubs that are not near London Underground stations are located in south London as just 29 of the 270 Lonon Underground stations are south of the river Thames. 

Finally, I could not write a blog post about how railways have shaped football, and how football has shaped railways, without mentioning Wembley Park station and the iconic Wembley Stadium. There would not have been a 90,000 seater stadium, the Wembley Arena, the home of national football, a university or a box park (that opened in December 2018) in north-west London if it was not for Sir Edward Watkin and the Metropolitan Railway. Watkin was the chairman of the Metropolitan Railway and eight other railway companies, and he wanted to increase passenger numbers by giving people a reason to travel by railway, so he created Wembley Park. Wembley Park was a pleasure garden with lake, cricket pitches and waterfalls. The park opened in 1894 and attracted over 100,000 visitors within the first three months. Wembley Park station officially opened in 1894, however, it received a Saturday only service from October 1893 so people could access the sports facilities. 

However, a park was not ambitious enough for Watkin. Inspired by major engineering project involving steel such as Tower Bridge, Blackpool Tower, Crystal Palace and the Eiffel Tower, Watkins lead the construction of Watkins Tower. This octagonal tower was designed to be 370m tall and to rival the Eiffel Tower. Due to costs instead of having eight legs as originally planned, it was to have four. However, by September 1894 Watkin retired due to ill health and due to the tower having fewer legs than originally planned, the structure started sinking. By 1899 the company financing the project goes into liquidation and by 1902 it was deemed unsafe and by 1907 the tower was completely demolished. But it is not all bad news, the park continued to thrive, with the addition of more facilities and even a golf course in 1912. After World War One, the British Empire wanted to host an exhibition about the empire, they decided to pick Wembley as the host, which lead to the construction of the Empire Stadium. The stadium had a capacity of 127,000, was iconic for the twin towers and was on the site of the demolished tower. The stadium opened in 1923 but was later renamed to Wembley Stadium and has hosted numerous events such as being the home of the FA Cup final, the 1948 Olympics, 1966 World Cup Final, Euro 96 Final and Live Aid. 

Wembley Stadium closed in 2000 to allow for the construction of a new stadium. Whilst constructing the new Wembley Stadium they found the foundations of Watkin's Tower. The new Wembley Stadium has a capacity of 90,000, the largest in the United Kingdom, is still the host of the FA Cup Final, hosted football for the 2012 Olympics, hosted the 2011 and 2013 Champions League Final's, and will host the semi-finals and finals of Euro 2020. The Stadium is still served by Wembley Park and would not be there if it was not for the railways and Sir Edward Watkin.