Five... scenes from London's football history
It survived royal bans, medieval bloodshed and the Blitz
Hi and welcome to your weekend newsletter…
Football’s been woven into the history of the city for hundreds of years, surviving (many) bans, medieval bloodshed and the Blitz, with its history memorialised in statues and plaques, captured on screen, and hinted at in club badges and branding.
This edition’s a collection of London football moments from over the years, by way of a warm up for this evening.
When Londoners risked their lives to watch football during air raids
‘As a phrase, it may lack the poetry of The Beautiful Game, but football remains the Greatest Distraction on Earth.’
That’s the closing comment from a Londonist feature from Vince Raison, exploring the story of the 1940 Football League War Cup. Several grounds were hit by German bombs, but people still turned up in huge, defiant, stadium-filling crowds.
‘Between the semi-finals and the final, the Dunkirk evacuation occurred. In fact the Cup Final crowd was swelled by soldiers returning from that pivotal operation…
…Matches would be halted when the air raid siren went off and restarted after the all clear. Some clubs employed their own ‘spotters’ so they could carry on playing after the siren went off until enemy aircraft were clearly visible.’