CHARLTON ATHLETIC: THE VALLEY - THE HISTORY

THE VALLEY - HOME OF CHARLTON ATHLETIC SINCE 1919 - FOR MOST OF THE TIME!
ONCE OF THE OF LARGEST CAPACITY GROUNDS IN THE UK DUE TO THE HUGE EAST TERRACE.
Charlton Athletic had already played at various ground when they first moved to The Valley in 1919. The stadium was built with the help of their fans, though initially only consisted of a pitch and large earth banks, giving it the appearance of a valley.
In 1923, Charlton moved shortly away to The Mount at Catford, but after a proposed merger fell through, moved back to The Valley.
The stadium got gradually developed over the next decades, most of all by turning the earth banking into concrete terraces and by the construction of a covered main stand.
In the late 1930s, The Valley was one of England’s largest stadiums, and the massive east terrace the largest in the country. The stadium set its record attendance of 75,031 spectators during an FA Cup match with Aston Villa in 1938.
Few changes were made in the following decades, until in the late 1970s a modest new main stand was built and a few years later the new covered Jimmy Seed Stand at the southern end.
Soon after, however, the club went into administration, and while a supporters’ trust managed to acquire the club, the stadium remained property of the previous owner.
Charlton therefore moved to Selhurst Park in 1985 to ground share with Crystal Palace. The club got hold again of The Valley in 1988, but the stadium had then fallen into disrepair and a proposed redevelopment was blocked by the local Greenwich council.
Charlton fans therefore founded a new political party, and after it had gained several successes in the 1990 elections, the local council finally approved the plans. The club played one more year at Upton Park, but finally moved back to a renovated The Valley in 1992.
Proper redevelopment works started soon after with the construction of a new East Stand, and continued in 1998 with the erection of a new two-tiered West Stand. The North Stand got rebuilt soon after, and then linked up with the West and East Stand.
In the mid 2000s, Charlton presented plans to create a fully enclosed 40,000-seater stadium by rebuilding the East Stand and Jimmy Seed Stand, but plans were never realised due to the relegation of the club.
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[@patspadd8243]

Hello A BRIEF HISTORY OF I have fond affection of the valley the rather momentous home of the very likeable Charlton Athletic FC and have dramatic memories of the stadium and as a passionate football person who’s a loyal Chelsea FC supporter I’ve had some enjoyable times there following my team there during the mid to late 1970s and during the early to mid 1980s and remember watching from the big open east terracing at the rear centre and got a superb view of the match and also on the odd occasion when shown on the big match you could count the number of people in certain parts of the ground as the crowd was not that big in such a big stadium hence you could spot the type of clothes the youngsters were wearing at the time based upon that current fashion and if you’re eagle eyed you could spot someone having a sneaky pee in a secluded corner of the ground but I’ll always remember the pleasant atmosphere within the ground like you can get at some other grounds in London but then there’s other grounds in London that doesn’t have that pleasant atmosphere and whilst at boarding school in Bedfordshire in mid to late 1970s most boys would support big name clubs from London or the north of England and very few would support a club in the lower divisions apart from one lad from Kidbrooke south east London who supported CAFC and whilst in my early working days in autumn 1978 in central London my middle age or so supervisor used to tell me about the matches he went to at the time explaining such events and then during my apprenticeship years doing carpentry whilst working in the joiner shop in the oval Kennington south east London during early 1980s my foreman also middle age or so who came from Dundee Scotland was telling me of some promising young players at the time and told me of the good old days of English football back in the 1940s and 1950s when there was no crowd troubles like there was in the 1970s and 1980s and the big crowds at the valley numbering 70 odd thousand and then not forgetting the close season in the spring and summer during the mid 1970s when you had the rock music concerts mostly involving the who and other bands when the stadium was at capacity crowd and it’s believed that it hosted the loudest decibel sound of all time if I’m correct and my older brother who goes to a lot of music concerts did go to those events at the valley and it’s great how the ground has had a tremendous transformation in these modern days after it was looking so sad and derelict for a period of time and it’s good that CAFC are back up in the championship division second tier of English football and currently in mid table and I hope they attract some good responsible people to run the club and do a fine duty for the fans and then hope they get up to the premier league as they’ve certainly got a good stadium for that level so as for now I like to think I’ve covered quite a few things at least about the valley so until then take care and cheerio

[@alen_cora4956]

I'm from Bosnia and I fck love Charlton... I playin with Charlton in fifa 21 in carrer. CHARLTON CHAMPIONS SOON 💪🇧🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@nkskro80]

Great stadium, to good for league one football, hope they win the playoffs

[@oz1902]

We did win the playoffs. Cheers.

[@orangeregeneration1028]

Best club in the country I reckon. Best stadium anyhow

[@thethoughtsofayoungman]

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR THIS VIDEO!!!!! Much appreciated and thank you for recognising our club. We have so much history!

[@peteincretepm]

I'm from Scotland, a Celtic fan at that, but I have always been interested in Charlton and the Valley, never been, but maybe one day I'll go and watch a game with a red scarf.

[@filipgojkovic4719]

Im from Belgrade(Serbia), Partizan fan. But i like Big CAFC 20 years!

[@thethoughtsofayoungman]

@@peteincretepm That's great Pete! I have been a Charlton fan for 19 years so far. Great ground, great atmosphere (even when we're not winning!) As we're in the championship, I think the games will be tougher but get yourselves down and experience it a little. My Grandma is scottish and has drilled into me that I should NEVER speak of Celtic (She's a Rangers fan) So I have to follow her rules? No way haha

[@peteincretepm]

@@thethoughtsofayoungman Thankx for your reply Luis. I'll be down later in the season :)

[@thethoughtsofayoungman]

@@peteincretepm Great to hear it Pete

[@brosnaboy]

All the best for the future from Ireland, great club, great history.

[@nigelemery5159]

Thanks for the video which brought back great memories. I was 10 for the Arsenal cup game, and was pushed forward to the front of the stand so that I could see. Another photo shown was of Blackburn Rovers game, Charlton needed to draw to get promoted back to the 1st division, score was 3-4 and Blackburn were promoted and CAFC stayed out of the top flight for many many years. Great to see the ground redeveloped thanks to the brilliant effort of the supporters who kept the faith. Now we need a new Lennie Lawrence or Alan Curbishley to get Charlton back to the Premier league!

[@alanjacks9081]

I saw my first game in 1950. Sam Bertram was the goalie. Also the 1957 Cup Tie against Arsenal. The East stand was full to capacity with some fans spilling onto the side of the pitch! I think Guy Wolfstenholm? was the TV commentator perched up on the East stand with the TV cameraman. The old North stand was purchased by Charlton from Accrington Stanley in previous years. Eddy Firmani, Stuart Leary, 'Long' John Hewie, Derk Ufton Billy Keirnan were some of the players. I used to live in the Village then. Always got into the top of the East stand free at half time when they opened the gates just as I finished my paper round on a Saturday. Some days us kids would get sixpence for looking after supporters cars parked in the many surrounding roadsides.Those were the days when roadsides were all full at home games..

[@benrobins4613]

One of the nicest stadiums

[@tdonovan4735]

This one is very interesting - because it used to be the largest club stadium in the country and it was derelict for a few years, too. Excellent vid

[@rjjcms1]

That was a shocker when the fans turned up for a match in early September 1985 to be informed - by the distribution of A4 copies of a written statement if I remember rightly - that the next home game a fortnight hence was to be their last at the Valley. They'd been bumping around the middle-to-lower Second Division (equivalent to the Championship in those pre-Premier League days) for some years but had broken the bank to land Danish star Alan Simonsen,who played for them for a year or two I think in the early 80s. In February 1984 they were about to become the first Football League club to fold since the original Accrington Stanley more than two decades previously,but were saved at the very last by Fryer and his Sunley Group,with Gliksten staying in the boardroom. But that same new ownership was the one who moved them out of the Valley at allbut immediate notice into a long exile at Selhurst Park,a notoriously difficult ground to get to from within London and without. The summer before they were moved out,though,the club bolstered the squad with some significant new signings and,though followed by only a few thousand fans at home games they were at the forefront of the promotion race and duly finished as runners-up behind Norwich and were accompanied up to the top flight by Wimbledon,who came third in the last year before promotion play-offs were introduced. That success on the pitch had come at a time when football faced its darkest hour (the immediate aftermath of Hillsborough apart). Hooliganism was out of control (though not something Charlton supporters were known for engaging in unlike those of Chelsea,Millwall,West Ham,etc.) The country had been gripped by the worst recession since the 30s and was still trying to fight off its legacy,and grounds which had already become neglected fell into worse and worse states of disrepair. Attendances had been declining gradually from their post-War peak,when over 70,000 packed into the Valley to set that club record. There had been an uptick following England's World Cup triumph of 1966 and gates stayed healthy though slowly falling through the 70s,but mass unemployment and economic collapse combined with those other problems drove them down sharply as the early 80s gave way to the mid-80s. Though still the national game and the most popular sport,all that was already driving football into something of an existential crisis when,in May 1985,the dual tragedies of Bradford and Heysel happened. The first highlighted the decrepit state many grounds had fallen into (Charlton's wasn't in that bad a shape compared to many),and the second was the nadir that hooliganism brought us two. Margaret Thatcher's ever-uncompromising government acted swiftly and robustly. Local authorities were told to get tough even if the situatiuon wasn't a charter for them to do so already. As more stringent requirements were enforced,large parts of grounds - sometimes entire stands and terraces - at various grounds up and down the country were condemned and closed,Wolves's Molineux at the time being a classic example of that. Grounds started to be repaired and improved,some more rapidly than others,and hooliganism though still a frequent scourge for a decade to follow had passed its high water mark and started to wane. Attendances plunged to a jaw-dropping all-time low in 1985-86 but then began to recover and went on to increase year-on-year every season for at least a couple of decades,return ing them to the level of the very early 80s,then the 70s ,then the 60s and so on as grounds became jam-packed again. Large groups of fans started to seek to claim the game back from the forces that had done so much damage. Music scene fanzines had been popular since the early 80s at least but the football fanzine movement was born and exploded towards the late end of the 80s and into the 90s and supporters became more inclined towards action in support of their clubs rather than just dejectedly accepting their fate. England's run to the semi-finals at Italia 90 took things to a new level of recovery,coming hand-in-hand as it did with UEFA's readmission of Englaish clubs to European competition to end a dark 5-year exile that followed the horror of Heysel. But contrary to the "chattering classes" narrative so fashionable in the media the recovery did not begin with Gazza's tears in that match against Germany. It had already been under way and was slowly gathering momentum - even if all appeared lost with the Hillsborough tragedy and its dark aftermath. The Addicks went into the top flight for the 1986-87 campaign as,together with Wimbledon,a pair of the most rank outsiders ever. Few gave either a prayer of staying up before the first ball was kicked. We all know how Wimbledon upset the pecking order from the start,even before they signed Vinnie Jones off a building site and semi-professional football that autumn,but when Charlton - whose approach to playing the game was about as far away as you got from the Crazy Gang's - were demolished with ease 4-0 by Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in only the first week or two of the season it looked the tone was set. But Charlton never gave up on the pitch and survived improbably at the last,then repeated the feat against the odds in each of the following two seasons before it finally got too much and overwhelmed them in 1990. Meanwhile,off the pitch Charlton's fans never gave up hope of returning to the Valley and together with sympathetic figures at the club found a way back with a creative and determined campaign that even involved standing candidates for the short-lived,single-issue Valley Party in local council elections,actually succeeding in removing an unsympathetic local councillor in one of them. Still,though the pitch was cleared of weeds and undergrowth and progress was being made to find a way back it was still uncertain in 1990 whether Charlton would ever get to play there again. One idle,bright Wednesday afternoon in October that year,three days ahead of my team's visit there for a Second Division (i.e. Championship) fixture and having never been to the Valley before,I decided to visit out of curiosity while it was still there. I just wanted to see what it was like not do any harm,but while wandering round the extgerior looking in I found a tight gap in the fencing (which I think was corrugated iron sheets),opposite a garage and light industrial units if I remember correctly,at the highest point of elevation up at the end farthest from the station that's nearest to Floyd Road. I confess that I surruptitiously squeezed my way through without anyone spotting me,and picked my way through that vast terrace,overgrown with vegetation as it had become,down to pitchside. I didn't walk on the pitch as I though that would have been disrespectful but I sat in the one remaining intact stand for a few minutes pretending a match was being played. I think that stand had wooden seats,was it the Jimmy Seed? Opposite was the black skeletal framework of another stand that had been otherwise dismantled and taken somewhere. There was one end I couldn't get near from the outside because of the estate with the high rise directly in front of it. I also went in the portakabin that served as Charlton's temporary offices and club shop. Three days later I made my first trip to Selhurst Park to see us win the match there 2-1,a result which took us off the foot of the table and deposited Charlton there. Not an easy time for either team,as both clubs were among several that had fallen on hard times following recent relegations from the top flight and found themselves shunted to the very bottom of that the second tier at that stage of the season. But Charlton improved almost straight away while we survived with just one match to spare and went on to repair our fortunes a little too. The collective efforts of supporters and well-wishers eventually led to a happy return home for the club in December 1992,following a brief tenancy at Upton Park while the Valley was being rebuilt,and showed a shining example to supporters of other clubs in strife that it was possible to bounce back from such catastrophic episodes as the one that befell them. I visited the Valley for an actual match as a visiting fan in October 1994,when Charlton stuffed us 3-0,and have been back once or twice since.

[@natanielisaac]

My beloved team on Carrera Manager, FIFA. Blessings from Chile!

[@colinpearce5856]

Hammers supporter here & went to the old valley in mid 70’s for a cup match & couldn’t believe the size of that East terrace ! It was a bit run down & parts out of use but you could imagine it rammed with cloth capped fellas in days of old. Fast forward mid 2000’s & the modern revitalised stadium. Now a mid sized stadium & the team were in the Premiership. A lot of cross overs between our clubs with you using the Boleyn ground & personnel such as Bonds, Curbishley & Day,Dicaneo, Parker, Konchelski amongst others. The only South London club/team that I actually have time for. In League 1 presently but a sleeping giant waiting for the right injection of cash & investment after a traumatic ownership saga. Fingers crossed soon.

[@johnbristow5665]

I think alledgedly all the crowd numbers where understated. 69000 could easily be accomodated in the 1950s. A truelly massive and once more safe football ground as long as you kept to your teams end. The only problems I noticed was because some off duty soldiers tried to alledgedly start fights. I sat next to Peter Taylors nan in the funny little wooden stand which seemed to be an afterthought. Great Performance for my mighty Saufend! When we visited the Bus Driver told us to behave and nothing would happen between out two trips down the Blackwall Tunnel.

[@user-mw8um6mc3v]

This stadium used to have 77,000 in it

[@TheNaps9]

mid ro late 70's.. i was often there

[@jimmykitt7610]

Cant believe where i sit now wasn’t built till 1990s

[@lg.anchieta]

CHARLTON!!

[@Sainsburys_Local]

찰튼 지역의 옛날 사진들 철도와 집들 도로가 보인다

[@alfiedavis6604]

Bugs me when it’s called the north stand rather than the covered end but it’s a great video👏🏻🔴⚪️🔴

[@alfiedavis3230]

Quality only thing I would say is any Charlton fan would tell you we know it as the covered end not the north stand although it was only officially renamed about a year ago.

[@jimmykitt7610]

What a glow up

[@harekrsnaharerama8454]

Do the hawthorns please ;)

[@jackplant6903]

you could do vicarage road

[@jackplant6903]

@Hamilton Moses why are you asking me to do it my self

[@jackplant6903]

@Hamilton Moses eny way it was just a suggestion

[@DylanrHay]

Can you do the history of Tannadice Park, home of Dundee United

[@anthonylangford8575]

And Dens Park!

[@thethoughtsofayoungman]

Dundee United? Who?

[@scottfrancis2008]

why did Charlton have to leave the valley in the 80s

[@alanevans9604]

Due to new safety legislation regarding the vast East terrace mainly. The club simply didnt have the funds at the time to modernise the stadium.

[@vordman]

Charlton have never been considered a big club so why did they have a stdium that could hold seventy thousand?

[@alanevans9604]

They were a reasonably big club in the 1930s to 1950s.

[@paulaplin6353]

@@alanevans9604 Charlton were one of the select band of clubs who averaged over 40,000 for home attendances.

[@Michael-dc2bh]

We had a big stadium so our fans could attend!!! You said 70,000?? it could hold more than that!! We still hold number 8 spot for the highest attendance in English football... It was 75,000. Big club.. Small club?? Doesn't matter... We had our fans. Our last visit to Wembley to play the so called " bigger club" Sunderland... We sold ALL our allocation of tickets.. As in half of the stadium... The match attendance was only below full capacity due to Sunderland not filling there end. FACT.