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History

The Thames Ironworks Company, formerly C. J. Mare & Co., had been alongside the mouth of the River Lea (with easy access to the nearby Thames) in Canning Town since 1846, one of Britain's major shipbuilding firms, building all types of ships from lifeboats to warships. The company employed a lot of men and it's chairman, in those late Victorian days of the 1890s, was very enlightened indeed. Mr. Arnold Hills took a genuine interest in the well-being of his employees and was a believer in a 'sport for all' ideal, with temperance (non-drinking of alcohol) and even non-smoking enthusiastically encouraged.

In 1895, one of his foremen - Dave Taylor -, also a local soccer referee, approached Mr. Hills with the idea of starting a works football team, and although Hills was more inclined towards promoting cycle sports - then very popular - he was also an ex-soccer player himself (with Oxford University) and agreed to back his foreman and the scheme was announced in the company journal asking for members. The Thames Ironworks Football Club - the 'Irons' were born.

50 new would-be players subscribed half-a-crown for a years' membership and, Taylor set about spending that summer arranging the coming season for the two teams that were formed. Thames did not join a league immediately, but did take part in friendlies, that years FA Cup, Essex & London Junior Cups & the local West Ham Cup.

Before the season started Dave Taylor went back to refereeing and handed over the reigns of the club to Mr. A. T. Harsent, a Thames employee from nearby Mary Street, who became the clubs first secretary, and the teams chairman was Mr. Francis Payne, the secretary of Thames (he was also involved in other Thames company associations including the Temperance League). Not surprising therefore, that the early teams were teetotal and non-smoking and, indeed, were known in some quarters as 'the Teetotalers'.

This first seasons home matches were played at Hermit Road, and the first match was played on the 7th of September 1895 against Royal Ordnance with a 1 - 1 draw the result. The club had attracted classier players from other areas including the former Arsenal captain - Robert Stevenson - and the first season was a success, with 29 of their 46 games won (5 drawn, 12 lost). Another feature which brought the club attention (and an amount of notoriety) at some of these early matches was the experimenting with floodlighting matches at Hermit Road using the Thames works' engineers and equipment. One team to visit for a 'friendly' but not under these crude, early lighting attempts was the First Division West Bromwich Albion.

Early in the next season (1896-97) the club was evicted from the Hermit Road ground and forced to play many home fixtures on opponents pitches. They had joined the newly formed London League and had entered its top division via the lucky withdrawal of their very first opponents - Royal Ordnance. This year they finished as runners-up despite not having an 'home' ground.

Memorial Ground.
Thames chairman, Arnold Hills had secured a 'plot of land' in early 1897 for the building of a sports ground for the local community. This was to be primarily for cycle racing, but included swimming, football, athletics and tennis. The 100,000 capacity sports area was completed by the summer of 1897 and the 'Memorial Grounds' became the next home venue for the Thames Ironworks teams. They were, however, not well supported by Thames workers especially as the club became more and more 'professional' and distanced itself from being a 'works' team. (employees could still enroll for half-a-crown a year and join in the training on Tuesday & Thursday evenings, but had no chance of actually getting on a team...). Despite the building of a railway station adjacent to the ground support for the team while at the Memorial Grounds was never very great.

West Ham United.
In 1898-89, the club entered the Second Division of the Southern League, gaining promotion to its First Division at the first attempt. In the meantime Thames chairman Hills had become more and more disillusioned at the increasing professionalism in the 'works' club and in June 1900 Thames Ironworks Football Club resigned from the Southern League, dissolved itself as a club and was immediately reformed as West Ham United Football Club and they were elected back into their former position in the Southern League First Division.

Despite his misgivings, Arnold Hills continued to back the club financially as it became a public limited company - it was his desire that the local community should have its own football team. He also allowed it to remain at the Memorial Grounds at a reasonable rent. The new Secretary was L. M. Bowen. and at this time none of the directors received payment.

Boleyn Ground, Upton Park.
In April, 1904 as professionalism in the club had gradually escalated and the club's board disagreed more and more with his suggestions, Hills decided to break connections with the club and West Ham were forced to look for another ground and offices (they had been allowed to use rooms at Thames Co.). The club however had already shown interest in a plot of land near Green Street House used for growing vegetables. With the help of local brewers (which further alienated Hills) and a public collection, the club started renting the land and indeed, by the start of the 1904-5 season had built a 20,000 capacity ground with 2,000 seats.

At this point E. S. (Syd) King was the club's secretary/manager and the club had retained only five of the former playing staff. The first match at the Boleyn Ground was against local rivals Millwall on the 1st of September 1904, this attracted a crowd of 10,000 to see the 'Hammers' win 3 - 0 with the very first Upton Park goal coming from local lad - Billy Bridgeman. This immediately proved the better accessibility for the public of the new site and the bigger crowds started to put the clubs finances into the 'black'.

The Great War.
Having varying success in the Southern League and FA Cup, West Ham United gradually improved the quality of it's playing staff and match attendances increased up to the start of W.W.I., at which point football took a lower national priority, although minor competitions were formed, and with suspended contracts all players in or out of the forces were at liberty to play for teams of their choice. Syd King became very adept at attracting star players billeted nearby at Woolwich and others within reach of Upton Park, and under his guidance West Ham faired well on the pitch during the war years. But like most other clubs however, West Ham also, sadly, lost some of their former players in the conflict.

In March 1919, football normality resumed and West Ham successfully applied to enter the Football League at Second Division level along with Coventry, Rotherham County & South Shields. Confident of an improved return for the club to 'normal' football, West Ham's board had wisely spent £4,000 during the war on improving the ground and increased their stadium's capacity to 30,000. Syd King and chairman - William White - gathered old and new players together for the restart, including pre-conflict star players - Sidney Puddefoot and Jack Tresadern who would be joined by new signing, ex-Coldstream Guardsman - Ted Hufton - who would become a Hammers legend in goal.

Promotion To The Top.
West Ham maintained a good record, eventually gaining promotion into Division 1 in the 1922-23 season when they finished second to Notts County and were runners-up at Wembley's first ever Cup Final. Over the next few years the team struggled into mid or lower-table positions as money was spent on ground improvements rather than players, but in 1926-27 they achieved a club best after an inspired season finishing in sixth place. It was during this period that the Hammers acquired it's club 'song'. An advertisement for soap featured a curly-headed baby blowing bubbles, and this was likened to one of the West Ham players, so the song was jokingly aimed at him, but the, sometimes appropriate, words of 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles' ensured the song was to remain a permanent feature at matches involving the 'Irons'.

The club almost repeated their high-flying feat of 1927 in the 1929-30 season, finishing in seventh spot, but two years later, in 1932, the east enders plummeted into Division Two for what was to be a quarter of a century at this lower level.

West Ham's long serving manager - Syd King - still persisted in adding to the playing staff as cheaply possible and also continued his - now locally well known - drinking habits (regularly sending an ground staff lad to the Boleyn Tavern for a case of Bass - a habit which the West Ham board did not appreciate at all). The matter came to a head when a drunken King insulted board members at a meeting - it was typical for King to be intoxicated, but insults were another thing, and he was suspended from his job the following day. The years of drinking and of managing a football club however had taken their toll on King and he never returned to his post - dying 'by his own hand' only a short time later in January 1933.

King was replaced by the Hammer's trainer Charlie Paynter - who had been at the club since 1900, at first in charge temporarily, but after much deliberation by the board, Paynter was appointed manager permanently. Paynter had a difficult time at first as he took over in West Ham's most traumatic period but steadied the team to a respectable seventh place by the close of the next (1933-34) season. West Ham settled down to life in Division 2 with Paynter steadily building up the team to the point where many thought that promotion was once again inevitable, but in 1939 international conflict was to intervene once again.

World War II.
During the Second World War, players were once again released from contract to act as they wished, and once again more localised war competitions took place, With many of his players unavailable, each week Paynter was still able to assemble teams using local and nearby billeted players as 'guests' just as Syd King had done so successfully during the First War. Paynter guided the Hammers to a crowd restricted (50,000) Wembley 'War Cup' final against Blackburn Rovers with both teams managing to field 'guest free' sides. West Ham won this trophy with a score line of 1 - 0, their only success of the war period. However, Len Goulden - Hammers' gifted forward - guested for Chelsea when they won the same trophy in a later final. These matches were noticeably free of the 'high jinks' celebrations as befitted the wartime aura.

Financially West Ham suffered quite badly due to low gates, and in addition a V1 'Doodlebug' bomb struck in 1944, hitting the South West corner of the Upton Park pitch, demolishing that part of the stadium including offices and blowing off the South Bank roof. It would be several years before this part of the stadium was rebuilt properly.

As the war ended, and finding himself depleted staff-wise, Charlie Paynter was compelled to rebuild his West Ham team almost completely and the returning fans would have to be patient for a while. But gradually over the next few seasons the team was improved and the addition of Ted Fenton in 1948 - an ex-West Ham player who had become a much sought after coach - who, working in tandem with Paynter, Fenton took charge of and increased the quality of the Hammers' fledgling youth teams, Fenton was to take over as full manager of West Ham United when Paynter retired in 1950..

1950 - 1961
An open-minded and progressive manager, Fenton, inherited a team with many players past their best, several of whom had been team-mates during his own playing days. He also inherited very little money to purchase players, so he concentrated on improving the club's youth programme as far as he could. This would take years to show fruit and, in the meantime he sold a 'promising' young forward player in order to purchase Malcolm Allison, a move that changed the defensive structure of the team, and although little progress was made up the table for several years, it also instilled a modern thinking attitude into the club.

Throughout most of the 50s Fenton juggled with the ever-present problem of insufficient cash for new players but gradually improved the team with help from his earlier youth policies, instilled the 'modern' continental tactics and acquired the 'modern' lightweight kit, and in 1958 fans saw the pay-off when West Ham won the Division 2 Championship and promotion once again progressed into the top flight. But once there they found life hard at first and lack of further progress led to a change of managers in 1961 when Fenton was dismissed and the job eventually handed over to another progressive thinker, Arsenal's assistant manager - Ron Greenwood.

The Swinging Sixties.
Greenwood was to gain most of the benefit from Fenton's earlier youth programme policies. but he also inherited the cash problems that restricted over use of importing new players. One exception was to be a new goalkeeper - Lawrie Leslie. Money was also spent on the long-awaited new roof for the North Bank and the stadium's floodlighting was also upgraded, the ground now held 33,000 spectators under cover.

Following a period of uncertainty with the club barely avoiding the slide back into Division 2, Greenwood paid an English inter-club record fee of £65,000 for 3rd Division Crystal Palace's striker Johnny 'Budgie' Byrne and after several alterations to the team's structure which included moving Geoff Hurst from his normal wing-half position into a forward role.

During the next seasons more additions from the youth side and imported players further enhanced the team until it finally gelled into a winner in 1963-64 with the taking of the FA Cup. After twice being behind, West Ham defeated second division Preston North End 3 - 2 at Wembley having beaten Manchester United at the semi-final stage.

The following year saw Hammers lift the European Cup Winners Cup, again at Wembley. The final against the German TSV Munich 1860 has been described by many as one of the best matches ever and was seen 'live' by 18 countries. A prophetic comment was made by a Brazilian official who said "if England can display football like this, then they are the real danger in the World Cup..."

Throughout this period, Hammers held mid-positions in the Division 1 table, but attention turned to the World Cup, where Alf Ramsey included three West Ham players in his team for the Wembley final against Germany. Bobby Moore - established as skipper for both club and country -, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters were to play major roles in the spectacle which made them all world famous. Hurst was to score the only hat-trick to be seen in a World Cup Final. Hammers fans to this day love pointing out that "it was West Ham that won the '66 World Cup.....".

The years following saw West Ham have varying fortunes in Division 1, from achieving 6th place to narrowly avoiding relegation, and by 1969 build a new East Stand which would contain an element of the former 'Chicken Run' by keeping a strip of terrace alongside the pitch for 4,000 standing fans, bringing the total capacity up to 41,000. Cash for new imported players was less of a problem and purchases were made including a record for a goalkeeper - £65,000 for Bobby Ferguson in 1967, Jimmy Greaves in 1970 and Bryan 'Pop' Robson whose arrival helped steady the team in 1972

The Seventies.
By 1974 Robson had moved on and Ron Greenwood was 'promoted' upstairs leaving the way for an ex-West Ham player, staff member, youth coach & Assistant Manager - John Lyall - to be given the reins on Greenwood's suggestion (Greenwood later managed the England team 1977 - 82). Apart from Robson, the team Lyall had taken over had lost all three of its World Cup stars and was desperately in need of replacements.

Lyall's early new signings were enough to bring positive results back to the team and despite not being to able to make a huge impact on the league they headed for Wembley once more in the 1975 'Cockney' FA Cup to play Bobby Moore's new club - Fulham, where one of those new signings - Alan Taylor ensured victory.

Lyall would also encourage promotion into the first team of youngsters from the Hammer's youth sides. and several long-serving players were to arrive in top flight football by this route including centre-half Alvin Martin

In 1976 the Hammers again reached the final of the Cup Winners Cup, this time against Anderlech in Belgium. This time however, another exciting match was to end in defeat for the east Londoners. The next few seasons would see the club on a downward path firstly just avoiding the drop but almost inevitably for Lyall's team, another year of struggle followed ending with relegation to Division 2 in 1978.

The Eighties.
This time however West Ham proved themselves too good for the lower division, and immediately started pecking at re-promotion with fifth and seventh places respectively and in 1981, three years after their relegation were again champions of Division 2. In between relegation and promotion, the team once again lifted the FA Cup (1980), this time against bigger London rivals - Arsenal, and also reached Wembley in the 1981 League Cup Final where they drew to Liverpool, losing in the replay.

The return to the top flight once again highlighted the lack of depth in the team as injuries depleted the number of players Lyall could call on, but despite this he managed to maintain a mid-table presence with the help of a few additions, both imported and home-grown, along the way. The most significant of these was Tony Cottee, a regular scorer from the ranks of the youth team who scored five goals from the three late season starts.

Soccer sponsorship at West Ham began in 1984 via a deal with the American finance company AVCO, and merchandising plus VIP treatment added extra revenue. This money helped compensate for some of the teams on-field failures in cup competitions, and an ordinary season was ended with an emotional final match for West Ham and England star Trevor Brooking, an event with no other reason to pull in a crowd of over 25,000 but to say goodbye to a well-loved local idol. The 1984-85 season saw West Ham just two points clear of relegation.

In urgent need of extra help for Cottee, Lyall signed Frank McAvennie and after a disappointing start to the 1985-86 season the return from injury of Alan Devonshire saw the team start to climb up the table and even challenge for the title which they contested up to the last week of the season.. Despite a penultimate match victory over West Brom (3-2) events elsewhere (Everton's victory) effectively ended their championship bid and due to that disappointment and the lack of incentive from a ban on British clubs into Europe West Ham lost their final match (Everton again) and a runner-up place, finishing their best-ever season in third place with Liverpool champions.

The following three seasons saw injuries and a lack of significant signings plunge Hammers down to 15th, 16th and finally relegation at 19th spot in 1989 and the sack for John Lyall. This meant a management shuffle with 'outsider' Lou Macari brought in to take charge, but Macari lasted for just seven months, resigning for reasons mostly unrelated to West Ham (Macari was later to say that leaving West Ham was one of the biggest mistakes of his life), and this created the situation which meant ex-Hammer's captain Billy Bonds taking over the reins in midseason. The team was into a short spell in Division two with the Hammers finishing seventh before regaining Division One with a second place in 1991. Macari had bought and sold players, acquiring Martin Allen, Ian Bishop and Trevor Morley and losing, a now, unloved and unwanted Paul Ince. Bonds was a Hammers favourite but the yo-yo effect carried on for another bounce when a worst ever season saw the east Londoners hit twenty second place in 1992. The fact that the new Premiership started at the same time as Hammers fell down a division meant they landed in the new Division One - which was no consolation.

The Nineties.
In the new Division One of 1992-93, Bonds had been joined by another ex-Hammer who had become a successful lower division coach at Bournemouth - Harry Redknapp, and they worked together well as a management duo. West Ham set about getting their immediate promotion into the new Premiership only missing the clubs third second-tier Championship title by one place to Newcastle. 1993 also brought the sad loss of Bobby Moore from cancer, and an unprecedented show of emotion at the entrance to the Boleyn Ground. Flowers, scarves and team colours from other clubs and fans all over the world could be seen among the mountain of claret and blue tributes.

Around this time the club also tried to introduce a 'bond' scheme to raise money for stadium improvements following the post-Hillsborough Disaster instructions for all major club grounds to become all-seated. The scheme was a failure, as it only gave a minimal guarantee for the purchase of future season tickets in return for a non-returnable £500 'loan'...

In 1994 Redknapp was offered the position of full manager back at Bournemouth and the West Ham directors, desperately not wanting to lose the obvious qualities of Redknapp, called both him and Bonds in to a meeting to try and settle the matter. The outcome was to see the much loved Bonds leave West Ham and Redknapp take full charge at the club.

Now firmly in the Premiership, West Ham have experienced mid-table seasons from 1994 to 1997, but raised their sights in the following years finishing eighth in 1998 and fifth in 1999 when a change in EUFA's rules denied their direct entry into European football. Although they finally gained EUFA Cup entry via a successful 'InterToTo' Competition result, the team did not progress very far once they were in the main competition however.

Into The 21st Century.
During the last decade of the 20th Century entirely new stands were completed at both ends of the Boleyn Ground with the new South Bank being renamed the 'Bobby Moore' Stand, and the old North Bank replaced by the 'Centennary' Stand. Not standing still, West Ham headed into the 21st century with plans for major stadium improvements including replacement of the main West and East stands, moving the pitch itself and 'filling in' the corners to entirely circle the pitch. Hotel, VIP, corporate and community facilities are also part of the visions that are based on the idea that the club is destined to remain a major force in British football. Like the Ironworks team at the turn of the 19th/20th century, the Hammers' at that point in time were not without ambitions for their future - whether the club could deliver on the pitch was another story.

2000 saw the sale of Rio Ferdinand to the then ambitious Leeds United for a defenders' world record fee of £18 million, this upset the many fans that felt West Ham's own ambitions for their future were now shown to be lacking when the sale of their best young talent depended solely on the price offered, but worse was to follow.

In 2001 following a season in which high expectations had actually materialised into a nosedive towards the relegation zone and the surprise departure of Harry Redknapp (and Frank Lampard Sr.) which saw the club's reserve-team coach - Glenn Roeder - take charge for the final match of the 2000/01 season and Frank Lampard Jr. - claiming he was unable to continue with the club that had mistreated his uncle - go to Chelsea for £11 million. Supporters expected a 'high profile' manager to be brought in as a replacement but the lesser known but well liked temporary manager, assisted by former Hammer's star - Paul Goddard, was given the opportunity to prove himself the following season.

After a shaky start to the 2001/02 season, fans gradually warmed to Roeder's style of leadership, and with the quality of the players that he brought in, were pleasantly surprised with improving match results on the pitch, ending the season on an unexpected minor high of seventh place, and an extended contract for Roeder himself.

The 2002 summer saw the return of three players from the World Cup squad, plus the many injuries during the previous season had mostly recovered, and higher expectation for 2002/03 emanated from fans. The 1st team squad itself seemed younger with the departure of several older players and the influx of seemingly talented, youth.

However, the season became one of effort without results as luck completely deserted the Hammers, especially at home, and even an almost flawless run-in at the finish could not save the club from relegation to the First Division, this period included Glenn Roeder collapsing with health problems and Trevor Brooking taking the reins for the last three matches.

In the summer recess of 2003 - As Roeder recovered from head surgery to remove the cause of his illness, the excuse of 'the loss of Premiership revenue' resulted in the boards' 'clear out' of many end-of-contract players and the sale of others to bridge the financial 'gap' of relegation. This included supporter's favourites, old and new, with (to the dismay of many) Glen Johnson and Joe Cole departing to the newly 'Ruble Rich' Chelsea and a much slimmer, less star-filled squad entered the Division One fray. Brooking once again 'took the reins' as the board terminated Roeder's contract following the first defeat of the season, with many fans believing those in charge of the board itself should have gone.

The next permanent manager was to be Alan Pardew, from Reading FC, whom the club had to 'compensate' for acquiring his services. Pardew had a hit and miss first season whilst gradually forming 'his own team' from limited funds and with a final burst he managed to raise his team's performance to reach the playoff final for Premiership promotion - they lost to Palace. In 2004-05 Pardew again had an up-down set of results during the season just scraping into 6th place while taking a lot of criticism, but this time the team raised their end-of-season performances and went into the promotion play-offs with confidence to win a tense final at the Millennium Stadium and regain their Premiership status.....

The 2005 / 06 season begun well and heading for the Christmas break, Pardew's young team held their own in the Premiership, finishing the season in a respectable 9th place with the added bonus of a try at the UEFA Cup via a qualifying route. Around this time rumours of club take-over arose, and as the 2006 / 07 season started to get under way several new players arrived, including two Argentinian Internationals - Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano - apparently with the help of one of the prospective, but later unsuccessful, buyers. All this may have aided in upsetting the balance within the club and results on the pitch plummeted with the effect of a change of ownership as Icelander Eggert Magnusson bought out the directors and a near-bottom of the table position going into 2007 plus a change of managers as Pardew left, leaving assistant Kevin Keen in charge for a single match until former Hammer - Alan Curbishley took the reins.

Alan Curbishley
2006 - Curbishley struggled to instill confidence as results continue to disappoint to the point where it seemed certain that the club would be relegated at the season's end. At the same time controversy arose over the original signing of Trevez and Mascherano and the club was fined £5.5 million pounds for registration irregularities, and Mascherano moved on to Liverpool while Trevez became a cult hero and hailed as the club's saviour when the team managed 7 wins in the last 9 games, beating Premiership champions Man United on the last day to clinch survival. Arguments then raged on as legal action was sought by other clubs to have West Ham deducted points for 'fielding illegal players'.

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