Meridian Valley Park Football Club is a

football club A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all- ...

located in Charlton, in the

Royal Borough of Greenwich The Royal Borough of Greenwich (, , or ) is a London borough in southeast Greater London. The London Borough of Greenwich was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. The new borough covered the former area of the Metropolitan Borough ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. Affiliated to the Kent FA, they are currently members of the and play at the Meridian Sports & Social Club.

History

The club was founded in 1995 as Meridian S&S. They joined the Dartford & District League, finishing as runners-up in 1999–2000 and winning the League Cup in 2002–03 after losing the final in three of the four previous seasons. In 2003 they joined Division Three West of the

Kent County League The Kent County League is a football competition based in Kent, England. The league has seven senior divisions – a Premier Division, Division One East and West, Division Two East and West and Division Three East and West. It sits below the So ...

. The division was disbanded at the end of the 2003–04 season and the club were moved up to Division Two West. Despite finishing second-from-bottom of the division for three consecutive seasons between 2008–09 and 2010–11, they became founder members of the

Kent Invicta League The Kent Invicta Football League was a football league in England, formed in 2011 to commence operations for the 2011–12 season. It covered the traditional English county of Kent, some of which is now in Greater London. It merged with the South ...

, moving up three levels. In 2013 the club was renamed Meridian VP, following a merger with Valley Park. In 2016 the league merged into the

Southern Counties East League The Southern Counties East Football League is an English football league established in 1966, which has teams based in Kent and Southeast London. Until 2013, it was known as the Kent League. There was a previous Kent League, that existed from ...

, becoming its Division One.

Other teams

The club also ran a veterans team. In 2012 Derek May, still playing at the age of 74, scored his 1,300th goal.

Ground

Meridian play their home games at the Meridian Sports & Social Club on Charlton Park Lane in Charlton. The social club was established in 1921 by employees of

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

who worked at the company's

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...

factory, with staff contributing money towards its running from their weekly pay. The sports ground was bought in 1933, with the clubhouse built in 1936.The History of the Meridian Sports and Social Club
Charlton Parks The site was left derelict after the company closed the factory in 1967, but was reopened in 1977 when it was leased by

Greenwich London Borough Council Greenwich London Borough Council is the local authority for the Royal Borough of Greenwich in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Greenwich is divided into 23 wards, electing ...

. Once reopened, the site hosted football, hockey, rugby and athletics. During the 1980s it was the home ground of

Thamesmead Thamesmead is an area of south-east London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located east of Charing Cross, north-east of Woolwich and west of Erith. It mainly consi ...

.Thamesmead Town
Pyramid Passion

Honours

*Dartford & District League **League Cup winners 2002–03

Records

*Best

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...

performance: Second round, 2017–18

References

External links

* {{Coord, 51.478587, N, 0.047646, E, display=title Football clubs in England Football clubs in London Association football clubs established in 1995 1995 establishments in England Kent County League Kent Invicta Football League Southern Counties East Football League