Park View Road is home to
National League South semi-professional
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
club
Welling United
Welling United Football Club is a professional football club, based in Welling in the London Borough of Bexley, England. The club's first team play in the National League South, at the sixth tier of English football.
History
Welling United Foot ...
, and was the ground of their predecessors
Bexley United. Welling have played there since 1977. It is also the home of
Erith & Belvedere who have been ground sharing since the 1999 season.
The ground takes its name from a section of the A207 road in
Welling
Welling is an area of South East London, England, in the London Borough of Bexley, west of Bexleyheath, southeast of Woolwich and of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, it was in the historical county of Kent.
...
, immediately adjacent to
Danson Park
Danson Park is a public park in the London Borough of Bexley, South East London, located between Welling and Bexleyheath. At 75 hectares, it is the second largest public park in the borough (the largest being Foots Cray Meadows at 100 hectares), ...
.
History
Football has been played at Park View Road since the 1920s with a grandstand having been built by the late 1930s.
It suffered damage from passing German bombers en route to
bomb London in 1940 during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. It then lay derelict for some years after. This was until a campaign was initiated to reform
Bexleyheath & Welling F.C. Crowds soon reached over 2,000.
In 1950, the current main stand was built. Crowds continued to rise in the 1960s and so the main stand was enlarged, and covered terracing was increased. By the 1970s however, the club (which was then known as
Bexley United) had fallen on hard times and was forced to fold. Bexley United played its last game in April 1976 in front of 222 spectators.
[
In 1977, Welling United (that had been playing in nearby Eltham) secured a 15-year lease of the ground. It had been left to rot and a fire had damaged the main stand.
Erith & Belvedere F.C. moved into the ground in 1999 after the main stand at their old stadium – also known as Park View – burnt down. The club sold their old site in 2001 and financed the development of the far side of the ground, where their headquarters are now maintained. Seats replaced the dilapidated terrace.
]
References
Footnotes
"Pyramid Passion" Feature on stadium
Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Bexley
Football venues in England
Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Bexley
Welling United F.C.
Sport in the London Borough of Bexley
Sports venues in London
Sports venues completed in 1925
Erith & Belvedere F.C.
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