Memorial Grounds was the home stadium of East London football club Thames Ironworks from the beginning of the 1897–98 season, until the end of the 1899–1900 season. The team continued to play at the stadium, under its new name of

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

, until they moved to the

Boleyn Ground The Boleyn Ground, often referred to as Upton Park, was a football stadium located in Upton Park, east London. It was the home of West Ham United from 1904 to 2016, and was briefly used by Charlton Athletic in the early 1990s during their years ...

in 1904. The Memorial Grounds stadium was situated at the east end of Memorial Avenue, West Ham, close to where West Ham station now stands.

Ground history

After being evicted from their previous permanent home at

Hermit Road Hermit Road was a stadium located in Canning Town in London, England. It was the first home ground of football club Thames Ironworks, the works team of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company. The club would later be reformed as West Ha ...

in October 1896, Thames' chairman

Arnold Hills Arnold Frank Hills (12 March 1857 – 7 March 1927) was an English businessman, sportsman, philanthropist, and promoter of vegetarianism. Biography Hills was born in Denmark Hill, Surrey, son of a manufacturing chemist. Arnold Hills was also ...

leased a temporary piece of land for the team at

Browning Road Browning Road was the home ground of London football club Thames Ironworks, the team that would become West Ham United, towards the end of the 1896–97 season. Thames Ironworks had been handed an eviction notice from their previous Hermit Ro ...

, East Ham. However, the new situation was not ideal, so Hills earmarked a large section of land in Canning Town for a new stadium to be built upon. The new home cost £20,000 of

' own money to build. The Memorial Grounds was opened on Jubilee Day, 22 June 1897, to coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of ot ...

. Aside from a football pitch, the stadium contained a cycle track, a cinder running track, tennis courts and one of the largest outdoor swimming pools in England. It was said at the time that the grounds, with a capacity of 100,000 spectators, were "good enough to stage an English Cup Final." In November 1897

secured an agreement with

London, Tilbury and Southend Railway The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LT&SR), was a British railway company, whose network connected Fenchurch Street station, in central London, with destinations in east London and Essex, including , , , Tilbury, Southend and . The company ...

(LT&SR) to build a station at Manor Road. The LT&SR board approved this in February 1898 and Mowlem's was given the contract to build a four platform station, allowing for the proposed quadrupling of the line. The station was completed in May 1900 but did not open until 1 February 1901 as

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

. On 11 September 1897, in their first game at their new ground, Thames beat Brentford 1–0. In West Ham United's first game at the grounds in front of 2,000 spectators, in the Southern League on 1 September 1900, they won 7–0 against, Gravesend United, with Billy Grassam scoring four. The Memorial Grounds was also home to National Cycle Union meets, hosted

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...

and motorcycle racing, and had the longest swimming pool in Britain. The faint outline of the cycle track remained visible on aerial photographs prior to the building of new Football pitches at its north end at the turn of the 21st Century. The venue was the first football ground to stage a boxing match, on 31 July 1909 when Johnny Summers beat

Jimmy Britt Jimmy Britt (October 5, 1879, in San Francisco, California – January 21, 1940) was a boxer from 1902 to 1909. He fought Joe Gans twice for the World lightweight title but lost both bouts. In a career spanning 23 bouts, Britt met 6 different Ha ...

in the ninth round of a 20-round contest. Nowadays, the site is a public park, known as Memorial Recreation Ground. It retains its sporting connection as the home of East London RFC, Kings Cross Steelers RFC and Newham Dockers Rugby League Club as well as having football facilities.

References

{{coord, 51.5281, 0.0103, type:landmark_region:GB-NWM, display=title West Ham United F.C. Defunct football venues in England Sports venues in London Sport in the London Borough of Newham Boxing venues in the United Kingdom Sports venues completed in 1897 Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Newham

Ground history

See also

References