The development of Crystal Palace Football Club 1905-1918
Introduction
It has frequently been argued, perhaps most notably by Tony Mason and Richard
Holt, that the establishment of professional football clubs in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had a profound impact upon
working-class consciousness, leisure activity and life in general. In his
seminal work Association Football and English Society 1863-1915 Mason argued
that by the outbreak of World War One professional football had become a social
barometer in England and that supporting a team created a real sense of
belonging for the local working class community. Elsewhere in this book Mason
examines the evolution of the game from the gentlemanly amateur era to its
working-class professional successor and the attitudes with which these changes
were perceived at different levels of society. Mason also looks at the
development of hooliganism as professional football began to feed sub cultures
such as drinking and gambling. In this dissertation, however, it is what Mason
has written about the impact of professional clubs upon their communities that
is of chief interest.
It is also notable when looking at the historiography on the subject that the
evidence available is not always extensive, particularly in comparison to that
which we have for other spheres of late Victorian and Edwardian life such as
political records. James Walvin argues that many professional clubs purged
themselves of their rich and valuable history by poor preservation of records
and Mason makes similar complaints, arguing that of the clubs he investigated
only Swindon Town and Sheffield United had decent archives. Likewise, research
for this dissertation led to similar discoveries as neither the Professional
Footballer's Association or the Association of Football Statisticians were able
to yield any useful information. Therefore much of what has been written, and
can be written, is not always the result of hard facts, but often due to
informed speculation. Much has been written about the social history of English
football and historians such as James Walvin, Nicholas Fishwick and Dennis
Brailsford have certainly added to the debate, but it is the work of Mason and
Holt, which largely remain the standard.
The purpose of this dissertation is therefore to test this established theory
against a particular case study, that of Crystal Palace Football Club in the
period from its foundation in 1905 to the end of World War One. Already Mason,
Holt and others have written about the overall impact of professional football
and most clubs have also had extensive factual histories written about them, but
it seems that less has been written concerning the impact of particular clubs on
their localities and it is for this reason that this investigation is a useful
historical venture. Chiefly this dissertation will seek to determine how, and to
what extent, Crystal Palace Football Club impacted upon its surrounding
community. The idea of identification will be crucial right throughout as
attempts will be made to discern whether the community came to identify itself
with the club and vice versa. It is also important to discuss briefly the events
of the club's foundation. Mason identifies three principal areas from which
professional were founded in the period he considers: churches, public houses
and the work place , but it is noteworthy that even here Crystal Palace FC did
not fit this conventional model. Although various amateur teams, called 'Crystal
Palace' had played sporadically at the venue beforehand there was no attempt to
form a professional club until the early years of the twentieth century. Crystal
Palace Football Club was a business-led foundation and a Southern spin-off of
the leading Midlands club Aston Villa: having observed the immense popularity
with which the FA Cup final had been greeted since it moved to the Crystal
Palace in 1895 some shrewd businessmen saw that a professional club was viable
at the site. The general manager of the Crystal Palace in 1904, J.H. Cozens,
approached the Aston Villa Chairman William McGregor with the idea of forming a
professional club. McGregor was very much in favour of the plan and sent his
promising assistant secretary Edmund Goodman to oversee the club and the team; a
task Goodman fulfilled commendably. By the summer of 1905 the club was ready to
compete. Considering that, in many ways, the club was landed upon the community
rather than evolving out of it, any sizeable impact it subsequently had is
particularly noteworthy.
The primary sources that this dissertation will be based upon are largely
contemporary newspapers, both local and those written for a wider audience,
alongside some of the club's own ephemera from the period. On a local level
chief use will be made of The Crystal Palace District Times and Advertiser,
which although containing much biased coverage of the club, seems to make a
largely justified claim to be the voice of the local community. The most useful
source that will be used is the Athletic News, which was the leading sports
newspaper of the period and where supporters turned to for their information. As
the following extract reveals the Athletic News was also a fairly literary
publication, which indicates something of the contemporary football supporter's
intellect. Reporting on a 3-0Crystal Palace victory over Southampton the
newspaper wrote: "One does not wish to infer that the absence of these two
players was the cause of Southampton's heavy defeat, but it certainly
synchronised with a pronounced deterioration on the part of the team."
This dissertation will be divided into three chapters. Firstly I will look at
the club itself, the circumstances surrounding its foundation, its survival
despite the setbacks faced as well as its attempts to cultivate both talented
local players and a local fan base. Secondly I will then consider the supporters
themselves more specifically and will focus on data such as match day
attendances. Alongside this specific examination will be made of local rivalries
that existed with other clubs, player popularity and what we can conclude of
supporters' emotional involvement with the club. Thirdly I will then look at the
local community, in an immediate and wider sense, considering factors such as
the club's economic and civic impact.
Chapter One: A vibrant club
Mason believes that the foundation of professional football clubs had a great
impact upon their surrounding communities and much evidence that this theory
fits the model of Crystal Palace Football Club in this period can be found in
the potential and actions of the club itself. This chapter will set out to show
how from its foundation in 1905 the club already had great geographic and
demographic potential as there was no local rival club for it to compete with at
the time. The chapter will also highlight the club's survival during this period
despite the setbacks it faced as well as the club's concerted attempts to
discover and develop talented local footballers. Finally emphasis will be placed
upon the club's successful attempts to cultivate its fan base and the good
relationship that existed between the two.
Taken together these factors would seem to suggest a club that actively built
upon its natural advantages, but also it should be noted that any vaguely
well-run club could have made the best of the circumstances available at the
Crystal Palace. In this chapter and elsewhere it is important to consider
whether it was not simply the attraction of professional football that was
popular at the Palace, regardless of which teams were playing, rather than this
particular club per se.
I
When the Football League first came into being in 1888 it was almost exclusively
the domain of Northern and Midlands clubs, but by the Edwardian period the
League and especially the Southern League, in which competition began in the
1894/5 season, had witnessed a greater geographical dispersal, with London at
the forefront of this development. By the early Edwardian period, clubs such as
Woolwich Arsenal, Chelsea, Queen's Park Rangers and the 1901 FA Cup Winners
Tottenham Hotspur were at the vanguard of a London revolution in professional
football. Whilst this revolution had not yet produced teams, which would
consistently challenge for the First Division title (this did not happen until
Herbert Chapman's great Arsenal side of the 1930s) it is in this light that the
foundation of Crystal Palace Football Club in 1905 must be viewed.
Despite developments elsewhere in London, there was still in 'the Edwardian
football boom' a vast untapped region of potential support for football in South
London and stretching southwards past Croydon into Surrey. It was into this
context that Crystal Palace Football Club arrived in the summer of 1905 and thus
this context helps to account for the club's significant impact upon the local
and surrounding community. Although another local club, Croydon Common, did go
on to feature in the Southern League in our period, Crystal Palace FC had
essentially stolen a march on its later rival and had far greater prestige due
to its location. It should be noted, however, that the club did not start from
scratch and gather momentum from a small position as many clubs like Everton FC
had done in the north of the country (the Liverpool club was founded by St
Domingo's Chapel, a city church, in 1878 and took the name Everton a year
later).
It should be noted that for all the active steps taken by the club to cultivate
its support (discussed below pp 19-24) it was set up in an area where a degree
of support was practically inevitable, especially given the location of the FA
Cup final at Crystal Palace. As a result what this dissertation is seeking to do
is not merely to chart the football club's progress between 1905 and 1918, but
to assess the extent to which the fans were really impacted by the club itself
as opposed to, in a more general sense, the establishment of regular top class
football in their neighbourhood. Comparison with the club's modern day fan base
is useful in that the beginnings of the club's relative hegemony over South
London are apparent here.
The FA Cup is an ideal way to begin this investigation, not least because, even
more so than today, the FA Cup had an incredible hold over supporters. The
ground at Crystal Palace where the club played its home fixtures until World War
One had hosted the FA Cup Final since 1895 and as Mason adds a couple of pages
later in his book it was the move of this showcase final to the Crystal Palace
in 1895 that sealed the final as an annual national event. Thus since the
biggest game in English football had been played at Crystal Palace for ten years
prior to the club's foundation the club's potential cannot perhaps be
overestimated. The club's historian, Revd Nigel Sands, argues that "there
was magic at the Crystal Palace before a ball was kicked in the Southern
League."
A crucial question to ask is just how much the club's actions actually cemented
its impact in South London or whether it was just able to benefit from its
extremely favourable circumstances. It is in this first section of the chapter,
however, that the argument for the top class football and not the club
specifically impacting upon the community can hold most weight and there is more
to follow. William McGregor, founding father of the Football League and Chairman
of Aston Villa at the time, wrote in the Football Star in December 1904:
"The high water mark of prosperity in the metropolis has not been reached
and I believe a really good team at Crystal Palace would be a tremendous
draw." There were few more influential and knowledgeable characters in
English football at the time than McGregor and thus his views were well
respected and are useful and indicative of the prevailing opinion of the time.
It is clear here and will be substantiated elsewhere that Crystal Palace's
foundation was noticeably different from most comparable clubs at the time.
The club's potential went beyond this, however, as becomes apparent when it is
observed that Crystal Palace FC were actually playing at the world famous
Crystal Palace in Sydenham, one of the great symbols of late Victorian Britain.
The map (Plate 1) emphasises the size of the sports arena at the Crystal Palace
and helps to convey the status and impact the club must have had simply by its
illustrious location. From a social point of view the presence of so many
regular attractions such as the museum, funfair and switchback railway already
at the Crystal Palace meant that the ground was a natural meeting place for
people of all classes. The Crystal Palace was already a popular social venue for
London's well to do and middle classes as is demonstrated in the number of
substantial musical concerts held at the venue which were avidly reported in
publications such as the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. Following the
club's foundation in 1905 a special sixpenny ticket was issued on Saturday
afternoons in order to allow fans into the ground who perhaps could not have
afforded the usual one shilling ground pass. Indeed in its pre-season preview
for the 1911/12 campaign the Athletic News wrote: "For a few weeks the
usual sixpenny supporter will have to pay a shilling to view football - thanks
to the exhibition and this will go against the grain." Six years after its
foundation it can be seen that the club was far more than just another
attraction at Crystal Palace: this article implies that the football club had
developed its own separate sphere within the grounds.
This special ticket would certainly have seen far more working class South
Londoners at the Palace and perhaps, as will be considered in chapter two, was
key to developing the club's fan base. Clearly the club had to act under the
auspices of its landlord the Crystal Palace Company, but this was at least a
step to acknowledge the club's importance. As such therefore a football club
that was to set up at the Palace had an instant pedigree: the already converted
football fans had a high profile place to fulfil their needs and the casual
visitor to the Crystal Palace could not fail to be intrigued and perhaps drawn
in by this new 'attraction' of regular association football. It should be noted
that its prime location, entrepreneurial foundation and links with Aston Villa
gave the club great impetus, but, the club still had to add to this to ensure
its sustained impact.
II
Although Crystal Palace benefited far more than most clubs from the context of
its foundation this should not belittle the hurdles the club faced both at the
beginning and end of this period. Firstly, in 1905, Crystal Palace FC won the
approval of the game's governing body, The Football Association, without much
difficulty, but was denied election to Division One of the Southern League by a
single vote and instead had to spend its first year in Division Two, often
competing against the reserves teams of clubs in Division One. Of this
predicament Sands writes: "The financial implications were considerable,
but the seriousness of the situation will be better appreciated by today's
reader when it is realised that several clubs had already tried to prove
themselves in the Southern League in its earlier years, only to fail and
withdraw." Strikingly in the same 1905-06 season another local club called
Southern United from Nunhead was also founded but folded the following April. As
much as the club could draw upon its association with all the entertainments at
the Crystal Palace it still had to be financially viable or risk becoming just
another bankrupted sideshow. Even in 1906 the club still had to be elected to
join Division One despite its highly successful performances in winning Division
Two for the loss of just one game. Thus the very fact that the club was able to
overcome the setback of 1905 to establish itself in the first division is
indicative of the immediate impact it had. That the club was able to call upon
sufficient numbers of supporters in this first season to survive is highly
significant. One could hardly compare the lowly Southern League Division Two
with the national institution that was the FA Cup Final so when home gates were
averaging over 2,000 in this league it seems that the club was almost
immediately establishing itself in the South London community.
Indeed the local newspaper, The Crystal Palace District Times and Advertiser,
which quickly adopted the club as its own, has plenty of observations on the
supporters' interest and enthusiasm from the outset of the club. Revealingly the
match report on the 3-1 victory over West Ham in February 1906 notes that
despite the rain and a "terrific gale" the fixture was very popular
and 2,000 fans attended ; a figure comparable to many matches played in more
favourable conditions.
At the end of the period the club came up against much greater adversity when
the outbreak of the Great War saw the Admiralty take control of the Crystal
Palace and close the whole area to the public in February 1915 in order to use
it for naval training purposes (plate 2). Yet despite having to move a
significant distance from its now established fan base to the ground of the
famous amateur club West Norwood at Herne Hill the club remained in business.
That the club survived this major upheaval and uncertainty is testament to the
status it had gained within its local community: fans still came to watch an
often very makeshift team at Herne Hill. Sands said that the war had
"tempered" the club. When one considers that the club had two of its
strongest seasons on record in 1919/20 and 1920/21 the level of strength the
club possessed in the prior period can be seen retrospectively. Understandably
professional football played a rather lesser role in society during wartime, but
it is clear that the people of South London did not forget "their"
club during the conflict and this in itself suggests a significant impact.
Statistics such as the 2,000 fans reported to have attended the London
Combination home fixture with Tottenham Hotspur on 1 September 1917 reveal that
even in the heart of the Great War support was retained. This was also despite
the fact that the club's line-ups in these years often depended heavily on
"guest" players as most of the regular players became involved in war
work of some kind. If it was entertaining football and nothing more that brought
fans to Sydenham, then there is a great deal of difficulty in explaining away
the support that remained for the club during World War One and indeed during
the club's first season in Southern League Division Two.
At this point it is useful to consider another local club that fared rather less
well than the club under investigation. In 1918 Crystal Palace FC moved to a
ground known as "The Nest" in Selhurst, which had previously been the
residence of Croydon Common FC: a club that had ceased to function after the end
of the 1915/16 season. Six years later Palace moved to their current stadium of
Selhurst Park. Croydon Common had joined Palace in Southern League Division One
in the 1909/10 season, but had never really been able to rival the level of
support possessed by its local adversary as match attendances demonstrated.
Indeed, even the record crowd of nearly 10,000 spectators who attended the
fixture between the two teams at "The Nest" on 5 March 1910 is likely
to have comprised of significant numbers of Palace supporters, many of whom
hailed from Croydon as remains the case in modern times. Whilst the processes,
which saw Crystal Palace FC survive and Croydon Common FC fold during the war
must not be over simplified it does appear that the latter club had
significantly less of an impact upon the locality than the club that overtook
their former ground.
III
This entire chapter seeks to highlight the prominent role played by the club
itself in its impact upon the community and nowhere was this more clearly
demonstrated than in the cultivation of local playing talent. Although the
club's first manager, J.R. Robson, understandably had to look to the North and
the Midlands in order to find the professional players, such as former Newcastle
United man Ted Birnie who became the club's first captain, to form his initial
team in 1905, it soon became an express policy of his and in particular of his
successor Edmund Goodman to tap into resources closer to home. As is the case
with modern football crowds, there was no more popular player than a 'local boy
made good' and this exactly what Goodman, an extremely shrewd operator, sought
to establish at Crystal Palace. In the run up to the 1908/09 season Goodman is
quoted in the Athletic News saying: "It has been the pet theme of the
Palace Management to cultivate local players and to train the unknown
youth." Given the immense influence Goodman had over the club until well
into the 1920s it can sensibly be concluded that this was effectively a policy
statement for the club.
The Crystal Palace District Times and Advertiser includes in its build up to the
club's first season in Southern League Division One a report on the trial
matches the club was holding in order to discover potential local players. The
article goes on to say that hundreds of people attended one of these matches and
talks of the great local anticipation for the upcoming season. Although it is
perhaps difficult to be sure of this, there is little evidence that other London
clubs went to such lengths to seek local players of their own. That many of
these locally recruited players became instrumental in the club's comparative
future success only served to strengthen these links. Less than two years later
the Athletic News, a publication that was very much the popular voice of
football at the time, wrote in its 'Southern Notes' section full of praise of
the club's local players Ryan, Woodger, Baker and Collyer and commented that
they are the "excellent results of the cultivation of local talent."
That the Athletic News, without any of the pro-Crystal Palace slant shown in the
local press, is so complimentary indicates just how successful a venture the
club's 'investment' in local talent was already proving to be. The club's
emphasis on finding local players helped to create a symbiotic relationship with
its extremely devoted supporters. Fishwick writes that even by 1930 83 per cent
of players in Division One of the Football League came from the traditional
geographical areas such as the Midlands, North West, North East and Scotland ,
and the data available for the players of Crystal Palace suggests a figure well
over 50 per cent for the South London club during our period. Despite this
necessary dependence on Northern players it is therefore noteworthy that a
significant number of local players also came to prominence.
Mentioned in the Athletic News article above is George Woodger: a player who
deserves special attention here. Not only was Woodger a local boy, but he also
shone out as the club's star player and an incredibly popular talent. It might
be argued that it was just Crystal Palace's good fortune that a player of such
skill was born in the club's locality, but this could only ever be a partial
explanation of Woodger's success. In the Edwardian period there was hardly the
sophisticated scouting network or youth team systems that are so in abundance in
the modern game: quite simply without the conscious efforts of a club like
Crystal Palace even players as gifted as Woodger would not necessarily have
risen to prominence. Woodger was no ordinary player and indeed is mentioned in
almost every report on his team in the Athletic News for the 1907/08 season, but
it is important not so much to see him as an exceptional case rather than the
best product among many.
In the report on Crystal Palace's 1-0 defeat away at West Ham on 21 September
1907 the Athletic News mentions that Balding, the second choice goalkeeper who
had played in the match, had been discovered at Bromley in Kent. Less than a
year later the same publication reports that five local amateur players had now
turned professional for the club. Elsewhere in December 1913 we learn that the
club were still very much alive to recruiting local players with the two-goal
haul for Bright on his debut. Thus the overall picture is one of a constant aim
on the club's part to recruit local players and not just to rely on 'imports'
for success. The idea of identification is a key theme in this dissertation: on
the one hand local people identifying with the club and the other vice versa. It
was clearly easier for the local fan to identify with a Croydon born man such as
Woodger, who may have been a well known local character before his swift
elevation to the first team, and regard him as one of their own and it seems
clear that the club both recognised this fact and sought to actively develop it
in their favour. Once again here, we see the club's officials seeking to act
upon potential that was already there. It was not as if the club had to develop
these local players from scratch in the same way that it did not have to
specifically attract supporters to the Crystal Palace since the FA Cup final had
already been there for ten years. Yet still, that the club was proactive in
these ways, especially in signing up local players, seems to have at least
partially assured its longevity and popularity. In a simplistic sense the club
and certainly Goodman himself knew what the supporters wanted and this was what
they tried to give them.
IV
Whilst the club was most successful in cultivating support by developing local
talent the impact it sought to have and indeed had upon its surrounding
community by its efforts away from the field of play can also be noted. Chiefly
noteworthy in this respect were the various official club publications and in
particular the season yearbooks, which were extensively advertised in the local
press. Sands spoke of the overall high quality of the club's ephemera during
this period and said that the yearbooks themselves were of a high standard
intellectually and showed advanced production techniques and photographic
reproduction. The 1913/14 season yearbook (Plate 3) was one such example: the
eye catching resemblance between the glass house above and the goal net below is
typical of the meticulous nature of these publications. Sands also stressed that
such publications were evidence of the great effort the club took to build
identification with its supporters. In this the club was actively cultivating
supporters and thus although much of the impact the club had on its community
was simply due to its high profile location it does appear that we can also see
a 'secondary' impact due to the club's specific actions. Sands added that the
club's initial failure to be elected to Southern League Division One in 1905
meant that it was more aware of the need for a strong local fan base and more
apt to cultivate this. By pulling together with the community Crystal Palace FC
could get the people behind "their" club and move it into a more
financially rewarding position.
The extent to which the club actively cultivated its fan base is also shown in
many of the articles printed in The Crystal Palace District Times and
Advertiser; a medium that increasingly became a mouthpiece for the club. As
early in the club's history as December 1905 an appeal is made regarding the
upcoming home FA Cup tie with Luton wherein local supporters are requested to
turn up in force. On the one hand this is of course evidence that the club was
not perhaps getting the support it had hoped for having been consigned to
Southern League Division Two, but on the other we can see a club run by dynamic
men such as Goodman who are extremely keen for it to be grounded in local
support. Incidentally the resultant attendance for this cup tie on 9 December
was 5,000, a marked improvement on previous fixtures so perhaps this appeal to
the newspaper's self professed 20,000 readership had some success, bearing in
mind of course that in those days the FA Cup was always more popular than the
league. Later in this inaugural season an April issue of the local newspaper ran
an article actually entitled "An Appeal" in which fans of the club
were encouraged to travel to a league match at nearby Leyton as the club closed
in on the Southern League Division Two title. The following week the match
report stated "the importance of the issue in this Southern League match
drew several hundred of the Glaziers to Leyton." The Glaziers was the
nickname immediately acquired by the club and its fans and referred to the
immense glass towers that dominated the Crystal Palace. Here once again the
appeal seems to have been answered although there was no actual recorded
attendance figure for the match. Indeed in Chapter Three reference will be made
to the rapport that was developed between the club and the local press: in many
ways a sure sign of its impact upon the locality.
It has been noted above that the club's failure to gain election to Southern
League Division One in 1905 had certain financial repercussions. Although the
club was able to survive its first season thus paving the way for progress in
future seasons, 1905/06 was no easy ride. Thus another way the club actively
sought support was by appealing in the local press for supporters in June 1906
to buy up the remaining £2000 share capital it held. The same article described
the close season as an "anxious period" for directors and management.
It is unclear whether any supporters responded to this particular appeal, but it
is still further evidence of a club determined to reach out to its community and
to create symbiotic bonds between the two parties. If, as perhaps seems likely,
some supporters did become shareholders in the club it would have meant that the
club had become a significant part of their lives just over a year after its
inception. It would seem unlikely for such an appeal to be launched unless some
degree of response was expected by the club's officials; men who clearly valued
the local community and sought to strengthen the mutual bonds in many different
ways.
This correspondence in the local press can be compared with evidence in the
Athletic News in September 1906. In a feature on the club, the second in a
series entitled "Football Progress in The South" the article notes
that although initial match attendances in the 1905/06 were poor they did rise
significantly after appeals to local residents. Considering that elsewhere in
the capital supporters had been able to watch Southern League Division One or,
even in the case of Woolwich Arsenal, Football League matches this growing
affinity that the club was able to engender in the locality was highly
significant.
As the club gathered momentum it increasingly became a focus for community
activity, particularly in the philanthropic sense, which even on its own would
suggest a significant impact. One particular incident that highlighted this role
played by the club occurred at the home fixture league fixture against Welsh
side Merthyr Tydfil in October 1913. At this game the Upper Norwood Prize Band
played to enhance a collection being made for the Welsh Miners' Disaster Fund (a
high profile cause in light of the mining disaster at Senghenydd near Caerphilly
on 14 October in which 439 people were killed). Here, it seems, was a
significant leading institution in the local community taking the lead for the
community in assisting the plight of the Welsh miners. The report itself
includes the phrase "community spirit" and this was exactly what
Crystal Palace FC was representing on this occasion. In the space of eight years
the club had gone from being a popular new attraction at the Crystal Palace to a
community defining and shaping force. It is worth noting that whilst the club
clearly was heavily reliant on the Crystal Palace Company who owned and ran the
whole attraction, it was the club that progressed as the overall attraction
struggled. Indeed in a rather ironic juxtaposition the front page of the
Athletic News in October 1911 has a report about the Crystal Palace being up for
auction whilst inside on page two there is a glowing match report on Crystal
Palace FC's 6-0 home demolition of Norwich City. It could even be suggested that
the club was fast making itself the borough's chief attraction.
A quotation from the Football Star in April 1906 sums up much of what has been
argued above. As the election for next season's participants in Southern League
Division One loomed a Football Star correspondent called "Rover" wrote
of the club:
I believe it would be a good thing for the Southern League if there were a First
Division club on the slopes of Sydenham. The Palace have a good side, and their
best men have been retained. They have created a local following and numbers
will be trebled if they gain admittance to the First Division.
The use of the verb created in the final sentence is particularly interesting
and does suggest a very active role played by the club itself as it became
almost a dead cert for election to the higher division. Within its first season
Crystal Palace FC had a good rapport with its fans: this was actively sought,
but also reciprocated, as Chapter Two will discuss.
Chapter Two: Enthusiastic Supporters
Having set out in Chapter One the role the club played in establishing itself
within its community it has been noted how hard the club strove to do this. It
was the actions of the supporters, however, that insured the club had an impact
and this is the subject of this second chapter. For all the lengths the club and
its leading personnel could go to, they needed a captive audience and much of
the evidence indicates that one existed. Unless a committed fan base grew up for
the team it could well be argued that football was merely just another
entertainment at the Crystal Palace.
In this chapter examination will be made of the statistical evidence available
for the period 1905-18 such as home match day attendances and the make up of
these numbers. Already here there are problems in that it was unusual for
football clubs during this period to accurately record the numbers of people who
attended any particular match and this was part of the generally poor record
keeping Mason notes at the beginning of his authoritative book. Thus often the
data available may be little more than the educated guess of a reporter at the
match, but nevertheless useful conclusions can be made. This section will be
closely linked to the next in which Crystal Palace FC's rivalries with other
local teams are noted, an area, which was a key indicator as to how actively
supporters identified with "their" team. Thirdly the degree to which
the club's supporters became emotionally involved with the team will be
discussed: this will include fans' reactions to the club's successes and
failures. Finally in a more overarching sense mention will be made of the
popularity of certain players in the eyes of the supporters: although in this
period, like most clubs in the South of England, the majority of Crystal Palace
players came from the Midlands and the North, they were still well received by
the local supporters.
I
Initially it is worth noting a little about this group who are referred to in
this dissertation as the supporters. A point made above in chapter one needs to
be reinforced here. The Crystal Palace District Times and Advertiser printed a
'prospectus' for the club in May 1905 and in this detailed that on a match day
admission to Crystal Palace and its grounds would only cost 6d per person two
hours or less before kick off . In effect this meant tickets to watch the team
play cost 6d. Thus we can conclude that the Crystal Palace FC supporter was
likely to be of a lower income bracket than the more regular visitor to the
Crystal Palace. Interestingly the newspaper reports a few months later that a
friendly match with the Grenadier Guards had been poorly attended as due to the
National Band Festival currently taking place at the Palace all admission to the
grounds had been fixed at one shilling. One might argue therefore that the
club's fans tended to represent more of the local working classes as opposed to
the more middle class patrons of the Crystal Palace. This is a view shared by
Sands who states that most of the club's fans at the time were of a commercial
working class standing and that during this period the suburbs of South East
London (the key location of the club's supporters) were populated by people
involved in various clerical occupations. Whilst there is no overwhelming
demographic evidence here it should be noted that such knowledge for other clubs
is equally bare.
In this section much of what will be stated is in reference to table 2.1
(opposite) and I will also refer back to it later in this chapter. In assessing
the impact the club had on its local community, immediately noteworthy was the
enthusiasm amongst supporters as the club began its first season in 1905. That
the club could record an average home attendance of approaching 3,000 despite
its very recent foundation and membership of lowly Southern League Division Two
showed both initial impact and great potential as many commentators at the time
noted. Indeed after the club's first competitive fixture, a 3-0 away win at
Brompton in the United League (a competition the club entered alongside the
Southern League), The Crystal Palace District Times and Advertiser reported
that: "many wished to witness a performance of the team." Taking aside
the newspaper's local bias the evidence does point to a degree of immediate
impact for the club amongst its very new supporters.
Clearly the data in the table supports the idea that the FA Cup was a more
popular competition than the league: this was a phenomenon equally true in the
Football League at the time. The averages for 1906/07 and 1910/11 are unusually
high due to the calibre of opposition faced on each occasion, but even this is
useful evidence to suggest that alongside a hard core of fans existed those who
came along for the biggest matches. In 1907 some 35,000 fans attended the FA Cup
Quarter-Final tie with Everton and the same gate was recorded four years later
for a first round tie with the same opposition at the Palace. Everton were one
of the biggest clubs of the day and thus a big draw for the community and so the
fact that Crystal Palace FC were doing well enough to face such opposition in
the Cup must have raised the club's status, even amongst the casual fans. These
crowds represented far more than a large away contingent: to confirm matters the
Athletic News described the crowd for the 1907 match as being "mostly
southerners" and of course transport to London was not cheap for a working
class man.
The table also reveals a degree of consistency amongst attendances. After the
club had established itself in Southern League Division One home attendances
hovered largely around the 8,000 mark, which indicates that the club had a
dedicated band of supporters, many of whom would have been season ticket
holders, who would turn up for every home fixture and maybe a few of the away
ones as well. This stoicism and commitment is seen elsewhere in some of the
newspaper reports on the team. Remarkably, for example, a report in the local
press states that some 1,500 people attended a reserve team fixture against
Chelsea. This was some dedication just a year into the club's competitive life.
In a wider sense what does become obvious is that weather conditions and the
team's league position did not have a drastic effect on attendances during these
early years. Although the Athletic News can write in April 1909 that with the
club's slide down the table "supporters…have fallen off considerably
during the painful experience" such an episode appears an exception and may
perhaps have been caused by specific economic factors rather than just being a
reaction to poor results. For example at the end of the 1906/07 season the last
six home fixtures still averaged around 5,100; a figure comparable with the
overall season average of 6,400. The argument here is not that the club almost
immediately had some of the most committed fans in the country, but that a clear
dedication is apparent. In May 1907 The Crystal Palace District Times and
Advertiser wrote "when it is announced that close upon 5,000 persons
attended the last match of the season at the Crystal Palace it will be realised
how strong a hold the game has upon the neighbourhood." The club's season
had been in steady decline since the end of their Cup run at Goodison Park, and
a final league position of 19th out of 20 had little to commend itself so this
seems fairly strong evidence that the club was impacting upon its community.
When the report talks of the game's hold upon the neighbourhood, the sense of
the article is very much that this is club's doing.
If one looks at a picture of the football stadium at the Crystal Palace (plate
4) one sees how exposed most of the fans would have been to the elements during
a match, but yet consistently the reports talk of people braving the cold and
rain to attend. Chapter One referred to a match in the club's first season that
was blighted by rain and a gale that had not deterred spectators and in March
1909 the same local newspaper wrote of the "undaunted enthusiasm" of
the home fans in a rain sodden match with Exeter City on a water logged pitch.
Elsewhere in the Athletic News we read in December 1908 that 9,000 people
attended the 3-1 home victory over Watford in "dull and threatening"
weather. In order to get something of a measure of the size of the club's
support we find in an Athletic News report that no Brighton fans travelled to
Crystal Palace in the home team's 2-1 victory that was watched by 10,000
spectators. If this figure is reliable then the club must have had at least this
number of supporters by their third season.
The figures quoted here do of course have difficulties over accuracy so are best
used in conjunction with the other evidence we have. Although the general
picture for attendances at the Palace is useful to suggest a committed fan base
and therefore a high level of identification towards the club in the local
community, little snippets of evidence prevent the picture being totally
conclusive. In April 1912 the Athletic News wrote that the "big counter
attraction at Chelsea (the FA Cup semi-final between Barnsley and Swindon) was
responsible for the rather moderate attendance at Sydenham." This
attendance was only 5,000 and just hints that maybe some of the regular
spectators at the Palace were more football fans than fans of the club per se.
Overall, though, the bulk of the evidence points away from this and towards a
direct and specific identification with the club.
II
When one is looking to ascertain the level of popularity and impact a club has
within its local community useful indicators include rivalries with other local
clubs and the attendances at these matches: this was as true of the period
1905-18 as it is nowadays. In this section more will be said about how
supporters were actively identifying themselves with the club and some of the
rivalries the club appears to have had will be examined to see what they can
tell us about the impact of Crystal Palace FC on its surrounding community.
Most of the rivalries the club had during this period were with other London
clubs such as Fulham, Millwall, Queen's Park Rangers and of course Croydon
Common whose former ground Crystal Palace FC took over in 1918. Essentially such
fixtures represented an important opportunity for Crystal Palace supporters to
identify with and get behind the club they regarded as their own against a
recognisable "enemy" from elsewhere in the capital. In Table 2.1 the
column regarding derby matches (defined as those against other London
opposition) largely corresponds to such rivalry. Firstly here for all but one
full season the club played in the Southern League from its foundation until the
outbreak of World War One the average attendance for a local derby at the Palace
was significantly higher than for a 'regular' league fixture. In the case of the
1907/08 season, where both figures for average attendances are around 8,400 it
is the match against Leyton on 14 December 1907, which only seems to have
recorded a gate of 5,000 that 'upsets' the figures. This match may have had
special circumstances surrounding it (the corresponding fixture in the next
season recorded a gate of around 10,000 spectators) and does not detract from
the bulk of the evidence that derby matches were better attended at the Palace.
Conclusions here must not go too far and ignore the fact that these figures
could have had much to do with travelling opposition fans, but some tentative
inferences do seem reasonable, especially in light of other evidence.
In September 1906 The Crystal Palace District Times and Advertiser wrote in its
report on the team's 3-0 home loss to Fulham that "every lover of the game
in the South of London was interested in the event." The attendance for
this game was recorded at around 8,000 thus making it the highest yet the club
had achieved. Whilst the report in no way suggests that all these football
lovers actually attended the match the very fact that such interest was
apparently stirred up would indicate that the club already in 1906 had had a
degree of impact upon the community. Indeed three weeks beforehand on the first
day of the new season the same newspaper wrote "There is a hum of football
gossip in the suburbs of which the Crystal Palace forms the centre, over the
prospects of the Glaziers." The club, at least according to this local
paper, was popular conversation fodder at the time and local rivalries could
only cement this.
Still in their first season in Division One the Athletic News writes of the
intense rivalry between Crystal Palace and Luton that drew a greater attendance
at the Palace. This is interesting in that this rivalry was with a team further
a field than London. Essentially this rivalry appears to have been because Luton
were one of the best teams in the division and therefore a direct threat to the club's title aspirations. Also considering
the distance between the clubs it is likely that the 8,000 present for the match
was almost exclusively comprised of Crystal Palace supporters. Thus whilst this
is further evidence for local people supporting their club against a big rival
it also shows how ambitious the supporters were for their club: they were not
just in Southern League Division One to make up the numbers. It may therefore be
concluded that these supporters were identifying themselves not just with the
club, but also with its expressed aims to rise up the leagues. This can be seen
in 1908 when after the 2-0 home defeat of Luton the Athletic News wrote:
"There are visions of championships among the folks at Sydenham."
As with much of what has been argued thus far there are some caveats to bear in
mind here also such as the benefits the local press could receive in terms of
sales by over-exaggerating the club's popularity. Given the popularity of
football there was plenty to gain economically from saturating the local press
with coverage of the local football team and glamorising its achievements. For
all the popularity of the club in general and for local derbies in particular,
evidence such as that regarding the 1912 FA Cup semi-final highlights the need
for a degree of scepticism in places.
The Athletic News wrote after the club's first match in Southern League Division
One that the club had "already attracted a faithful following, which only
success is required to increase very substantially." As has also been
observed above, many of these supporters went religiously to the match despite
adverse weather conditions. This popularity occurs as a prevailing theme
throughout much of the evidence and taken alongside the specific instances of
the derby games paints a fairly positive view of the club's impact. That the
attendance figures for this period reveal a fairly consistent pattern suggest
that at least some broad conclusions can be made. Likewise the figures for the
1911/12 season where both the home derby attendances we have are recorded as
14,000 and those for 1907/08 are best seen as part of the bigger picture rather
than as worthy of lengthy conclusions in themselves.
III
For all the evidence in terms of attendances, one key area yet to have been
discussed is the level of emotional involvement supporters had with their club:
the passion with which the club and its players were supported and in many cases
praised. The conclusions from the statistics observed thus far can certainly be
embellished when one considers the degree of fervour many participated in when
supporting their club. If these supporters were merely fans of watching football
and not specifically of the club per se then it seems unlikely that their
'support' of the club would have extended beyond 90 minutes of action on a
Saturday afternoon. However if the club's fans during our period did identify
directly and specifically with the club then it is important to look as much at
events reported surrounding and in between matches, as at the match reports
themselves.
It has been noted already that there was an almost immediate desire in the
locality to watch the club in action after it began competing in September 1905.
This at least shows popular opinion regarding football. Towards the end of the
club's first season The Crystal Palace District Times and Advertiser writes of
the tone of excitement amongst supporters and of their joy that the team was at
the top of Southern League Division Two. This article suggests a direct
identification with the club and also is one of the first examples of the
emotion the club could stir up in its supporters. At the end of the year,
following three impressive league wins in a row, the same newspaper remarks
that: "The supporters of the club are jubilant over the club's
doings." Such sentiment is also echoed in the more objective columns of the
Athletic News, which reports on "the remarkable display of enthusiasm from
the crowd at Palace's winner" in the side's 1-0 victory over Portsmouth; a
victory made even sweeter because the winning goal was scored by the local hero
Woodger. The Athletic News, printed in Manchester, was renowned for its highly
literary prose style and fair reporting of sport and thus here we can discount
much of the sensationalism that may have characterised reporting in the local
South London press.
One piece of evidence to back up this argument of supporters' emotional
involvement with the club was clearly the events of Saturday 12 January 1907.
This was the FA Cup first round tie against Newcastle United away at St James'
Park, which Crystal Palace deservedly won 1-0 with a goal from Astley. The
result itself, coming against one of the biggest clubs in the land, was
remarkable enough, but it was the reaction back down in South London that sums
up the popularity and mass identification the club had already achieved in less
than two years since its foundation.
The next issue of The Crystal Palace and District Advertiser described the scene
when some of the Palace players arrived at Crystal Palace station on the night
of their victory at Newcastle. The newspaper talks of some 2000 fans headed by
the famous Upper Norwood Temperance Prize Band being gathered at midnight to
welcome the players with a great ovation.
The reporter also wrote the following in the same edition when other players,
many of whom were natives of the North East so had stayed behind visiting
friends and family, returned later: "Similar scenes were witnessed on
Monday evening when other players returned. The crowd was even larger than
Saturday's, the band again attended, a torchlight procession to Averley and back
was held, and the popular and amiable captain, Innerd, was carried on the
shoulders of a stalwart supporter of the club."
Clearly such a match was a one off event, but that does not mean any conclusions
drawn are inherently flawed. The FA Cup in those days was by far the most
popular football competition in England, more so than the league competitions,
so such fervour must not be seen as typical. The club, however, had already been
able to command up to 10,000 supporters at home in the Southern League so there
is at least a prevailing context for this account of mass jubilation. It is
notable that the supporter who carried the captain Innerd on his shoulders is
described as a "stalwart" considering that the club had only been
playing competitively for less than a year and a half. This would suggest the
club had had an immediate and deep impact on at least a few supporters: there is
no indication that as a stalwart this man is an exception. Also, even today, the
FA Cup still has a special appeal amongst supporters so the 'Newcastle victory'
seems an important place to focus this argument.
When one gets a North East perspective on the fixture, the shock of the result
is further reinforced and thus the excitement of the club's fans back in London
makes sense. The Durham Chronicle wrote in its next edition: "The news (of
the result) was a "shocker" and many would not credit the tidings
until the evening papers were to hand." The Durham County Advertiser of the
same day said: "The match at St James Park provided the sensation of the
year…Fanatical supporters of the Magpies never received a more severe shock in
their lives."
Even in the more staunchly pro Newcastle United local press one finds an
admiration for this burgeoning club and its fantastic achievement, notably
secured with many former Newcastle players amongst its ranks. Having put a
cartoon on its front page stressing the inevitability of a home victory (plate
5) The Newcastle Evening Chronicle was forced to eat its words in its
unavoidably positive match report for the visitors on the back of the next
football edition! Another local paper, The Newcastle Weekly Chronicle wrote on
its front page: "Admitting that Newcastle played below their form, it must
be confessed that they were 'up against' a very clever organisation."
Grudging praise indeed: Crystal Palace FC had gone from plucky cannon fodder to
the talk of the 'Toon' in one day and caused great joy in South London.
This same newspaper had the previous week conveyed the stature of the Newcastle
United team and therefore the magnitude of Crystal Palace's achievement with a
front page cartoon showing Newcastle's lofty aims for the year ahead: wining one
of the major domestic trophies (plate 6).
This is not to say, however, that the supporters' identification with the club
was a fait accompli, in fact one could argue that much of this new-found
identity hinged on such a giant killing result. Clearly from the outset the
knowledgeable football supporter had much to admire at Sydenham due to the
attractive play so often attributed to Crystal Palace in the pages of the
Athletic News, but it seems logical that the defeat of such a football
superpower as Newcastle United would have gone a long way to entice the
potentially interested South Londoner. This is at least partially borne out in
the overall trend of increased attendances following January 1907.
If a club's local supporters failed to react at all to a result such as this
their commitment and identification with the club might well be doubted, but
when a scene such as that at Crystal Palace station occurs it is clear a great
rapport was already in existence. The scene described in the local press would
not have been out of place if it had been receiving an FA Cup winning side
rather than one who had 'simply' progressed to the second round.
Alongside all the supporters' enthusiasm documented some other emotions are
detailed, which seem to enhance this point. An Athletic News report in late
September 1912 notes that the referee had become very unpopular with the home
fans when he awarded a late penalty in a league game against West Ham United.
This aggression towards the referee would seem to reveal a strong passion for
the club and against any 'opposition' it faced. In the last full Southern League
season before the outbreak of war one report described the home fans as having
"shouted themselves hoarse with delight" following two late goals,
which secured a 5-3 victory over Bristol Rovers. Two months later the same pages
spoke of "mild panic in the camp at Sydenham" when Coventry scored
first in a vital league match at the Palace. If these supporters cared less
about their club then such a situation would surely have been viewed as less
serious.
In this section, therefore, there are perhaps some of the strongest arguments to
suggest that the club had a profound impact upon its surrounding community, or
at least those of a more working class status. When 2,000 fans go to greet the
team at midnight as was the case in January 1907 this surely suggests a great
deal of popular identification with the club despite any caveats that should be
noted.
IV
It was noted in Chapter One that the club went to great lengths to field local
players in its teams, even holding open trials for this express purpose. Local
players were clearly popular with the supporters, especially if like Woodger
they became real star men. This section will consider the popularity of
particular players amongst the fans as evidence for the club's impact on its
local area. That some players were clearly held in high renown amongst the
supporters rather than simply being seen professional entertainers, the sort of
which could be seen at the various musical concerts at the Crystal Palace, was
important. Indeed for all the local talent employed by first Robson and then
Goodman in their capacities as manager, the squad in this period was however
largely comprised of 'imports' from the North and the Midlands and therefore
that such players, with whom the crowd would have had little natural affinity,
could be highly popular is useful to note. When it is remembered that the club
itself was an entrepreneurial foundation seeking to exploit a niche market in
South London rather than having developed out of the community as many other
clubs had, any significant player popularity is particularly worthy of note.
Returning to the amazing scenes described in The Crystal Palace District Times
and Advertiser following the FA Cup defeat of Newcastle in January 1907, the
captain Innerd is described as "popular and amiable" and was borne
aloft on a fan's shoulders. Innerd was another import from the North East and
indeed a former Newcastle United player, so that an 'outsider' like him should
be so lauded and popular suggests supporters were really seeing the club and
therefore its players as their own. Innerd himself, we can learn from the
Newcastle press, like some other Palace imports, had not been a first team
player at St James' Park (a brief story from 1905 comments "our sympathies
again with poor Innerd, of the Newcastle second team, who had the misfortune to
lose one of his fingers last Thursday while following his employment" ) so
it was not even as if the South London club had signed a star player.
In the build up to the 1906/07 season, Crystal Palace FC's first in Southern
League Division One, the Athletic News wrote that the club's position had been
gained "by sheer merit and not by favour." Looking at the background
of the players who had taken the club to this position reveals that they were
almost to a man imports from the North and the Midlands. Thus the club began
with Robson, a Northerner, as manager and Goodman, a Midlands man, as secretary
and a squad of imported players. That the evidence suggests the club was
immediately popular indicates its significant impact on its locality. It should
however be noted that the club did have a phenomenally successful first season;
only losing once in the Southern League (the very first game) and then embarking
on a 17 game winning run from mid October to the first week of April. There is
therefore a slight element of doubt as to whether a less successful start would
have engendered such popular support as the sources seem to indicate. Yes these
imported players were popular, but perhaps much of this was to do with the fact
that they were winning their matches and in the years to come continued to be
fairly successful. In October 1906 the Athletic News featured in its 'Football
Chatter' column a short piece on the Crystal Palace player Wallace who is
described as a profitable Sunderland export and once again the implication is
that the player was proving very popular in his new surroundings at Sydenham.
A further mix was added to the Crystal Palace FC playing staff when William
Davies signed for the club in the 1907/08 season. The player was described as a
rising Welsh star in the press and was quickly welcomed by the supporters. It is
easy to see how local players might quickly become popular, but that players
from more distant locations were equally well received would suggest that in the
eyes of the supporters once a player was playing for 'their' club he was one of
'their' players. After Woodger left for Oldham the club signed another very
useful local player and popular forward from Halesowen called Charlie Woodhouse
and his untimely death in late 1911 received a front page obituary in the
Athletic News. The understandable emphasis on Northern imports, albeit alongside
some local talent, proved consistently popular with the club's supporters
throughout the period, which perhaps suggests that it was the club that came
first in their mindset. Clearly it was the local players who were perhaps held
in highest regard by the supporters, but the warmth with which many Northern
imports such as Innerd and Astley were received indicates any North South
antipathy would be put aside in the interests of the club with which they
closely identified themselves.
Chapter Three: A community transformed
As well as in the actions of the club itself and the dedication of its
supporters the nature of Crystal Palace FC's impact in this period was evident
in its wider community. Indeed it is perhaps here that the size of the club's
impact can best be appreciated and evaluated. In this third chapter significant
mention will be made of the infrastructure surrounding the club such as the
excellent public transport system, which included both tram and conventional
rail services. Since this structure was already in place to service the Crystal
Palace, the football club had the obvious advantage of being more easily
accessible to supporters than if it had been founded elsewhere. Thus it is
important to consider the club's impact in this context: in this way, as in
others mentioned in Chapter One, the club was certainly not developing from
scratch.
Having made this caveat there is plenty of evidence to indicate much
transformation in the surrounding community. Local business was both galvanised
by the club and often forged links with the club's supporters by providing
services such as telegram reports of away matches, which were eagerly received
at home. The demand for such services and their provision were both indicative
that local association with the club was not just limited to home matches on a
Saturday. The club was, in fact, an economic stimulus to the locality. Another
key element in this chapter is the role of the local press: this is a key source
throughout this study and shows very clearly how the community, symbolised by
its newspaper, was identifying itself with the club. Allusion will also be made
to the club's catchment area and the many amateur clubs that grew up in it often
at least partly inspired by Crystal Palace FC.
I
Just as Crystal Palace Football Club clearly benefited from playing at the same
ground as the FA Cup final was played at, the club also clearly benefited from
the infrastructure already in place at the Crystal Palace. Since the Great
Exhibition was moved from Hyde Park to the site in 1854 a substantial public
transport network had grown up around where the club came to play. This factor
should act as a caveat to overestimating the club's impact, but nevertheless
there is much evidence to demonstrate the level of impact the club had. Firstly
it is noticeable that the club's finest hour in the period 1905-18 was
celebrated at the ornately decorated station. The extract from the local press
quoted above in Chapter Two says that on two occasions in the immediate
aftermath of the epic 1-0 FA Cup defeat of Newcastle thousands of fans gathered
at the Crystal Palace Station alongside the Upper Norwood Temperance Prize Band
to welcome home their heroes. That such large numbers attended this occasion
reveals their devotion to the club, but may also hint that the station acted as
a focal place for supporters. It seems likely that some fans would have
travelled to home matches on the train and it could also have been a place for
fans who had come from different directions by foot to meet up before heading to
the ground together. It is clearly hard to come up with any solid evidence for
this, but it can certainly be concluded that the existence of the London
transport system can only have aided the club's impact on its community in terms
of accessibility.
An article about the FA Cup Final venue in the Athletic News in October 1909
states that "for the reception of a huge crowd the Palace possesses
advantages over most grounds." Whilst the attendances recorded for the club
during this period were certainly far below those for the showcase final, the
good facilities at the Palace were still available to benefit the club's
supporters. The same article goes on to say that Sydenham can only be reached
from central London by a "circuitous and inconvenient route," but from
the evidence available it seems most of the club's supporters did not travel
from central London so would not have been inconvenienced in this way. Indeed on
the contrary a later article published in the same newspaper comments that due
to the 1911 Festival of Empire Crystal Palace FC now had one of the most easily
accessible grounds in London.
That the supporter had an easily accessible ground no doubt helped to create a
faithful following early on and thus should be borne in mind in trying to assess
the level of commitment that existed amongst supporters. On the other hand
though, it was not necessarily the case that the "sixpenny supporter"
the Athletic News refers to could afford or would always choose to pay for
public transport to get to the ground. Many supporters would certainly have
lived within walking distance and thus whilst it should be taken into account,
the favourable infrastructure surrounding the ground should not unduly affect
the conclusions being drawn.
II
It was mentioned in Chapter One that the club had become a focus for community
action. A more in depth look at the community reveals that it was becoming
involved with the club on various levels and that these ventures showed that the
club was well established in its community: there was both demand and means for
such interaction. The club as a focus for the community coming together was seen
most graphically at events such as its Smoking Concert in March 1906. The report
in the local press described the concert's very large attendance and that the
chairman, manager and players were all praised by the assembled masses. Here in
just its first season, the community was rallying round the club and coming out
in force. Although sought, there did not seem to be any evidence available to
link the local Borough Council to the club in this period, but aside from this
there is much to draw upon.
The immediacy after the club's foundation in 1905 with which the evidence
attests its impact has been noted. In this context an article in the local press
for January 1906 is particularly interesting as the following was written:
A spectacle - for this district a novelty in itself - was witnessed on Westow
Hill Saturday afternoon last, a crowd of persons who take a great interest in
the Crystal Palace Football team waiting for hours outside the shop of Mr Briggs
to learn by means of telegrams the progress of the cup tie between the Crystals
and Blackpool, which was being fought out at the latter town.
Thus a local businessman, Westow Hill was only a few miles from the stadium, was
providing a service he would not have been able to before the club was founded
and the service was well received. The club had only begun competitive football
in September, four months before this event, and already the local community was
adapting to the new club that it soon identified directly with. This piece of
evidence also indicates a high level of support for the club in its first season
as well the economic and social opportunities the club had already opened up by
early 1906.
Official merchandise was another area that developed almost immediately,
indicating the popular status of the club and the desire for supporters to
clearly identify themselves with their team. It is unlikely that local
businesses would have produced and advertised merchandise for which there was
little demand and thus the existence of such merchandise points to a commercial
demand for it. One particular example here were the official club neckties: an
advert in the local press , again in January 1906, from a Norwood outfitters
shop encouraged supporters to buy these items. The advert also appears in later
issues, which could suggest that previous adverts had been successful in
attracting supporters to invest in the neckties. As such merchandise was already
being produced halfway through the first season for a club in the comparatively
insignificant Southern League Division Two, it seems that on a community level
the club's impact was deep rooted from an early stage.
Much of the evidence available indicates the club's significant economic impact
upon its community. In Chapter One it was observed that the club produced some
excellent quality yearbooks for its supporters and these of course provided a
substantial contract for the printer J. Nichols of Anerley and also the link
with the club would have worked as a good advert for Nichols' business. Likewise
with the demand for pictures of players and team groups both in the local press
and the Athletic News the club's official photographers, J. Russell and Sons of
Crystal Palace, had an ideal job in providing the official images.
It was noted in Chapter Two that it is hard to quantify the level of away
support the club was able to muster for particular matches; even if an
attendance figure exists for an individual game, there is still the question of
how many of these were travelling Palace supporters. Therefore any data
available that points to a sizeable away following for the club is very useful
in assessing the club's impact: to travel away to watch one's club was a great
litmus test of a supporter's loyalty to his club. One specific piece of evidence
that seems crucial both to this chapter's discussion about the community and the
theme of the previous chapter, specifically focuses on the Great Western
Railway. An article in the local press in January 1908 notes that the train
company was prepared to arrange a special excursion for Crystal Palace fans, who
wished to travel to Plymouth Argyle for the upcoming FA Cup Second Round tie.
Whilst this does not necessarily suggest that such an excursion was a regular
occurrence or even whether this one took place, this source does reveal that the
train company perceived such a demand to exist amongst the club's local support.
Also the GWR was a highly significant company operating out of London and thus
that it was seeking to associate itself with the club at this early stage is
another indicator of the widespread and significant nature of the club's impact
upon its community.
That such an excursion was proposed may also suggest that many of the club's
supporters could afford to make the return journey to Plymouth. The relative
economic status of the club's supporters has been suggested in Chapter Two, but
it is also useful to consider the social and gender make up of these supporters.
This example concerning the GWR and the comparatively high cost of train travel
may suggest that not all the club's supporters were from the working classes.
There is very little evidence to deny or confirm whether women, for example,
attended Crystal Palace fixtures, but the many references to the jubilant
community after particular triumphs do not seem solely to refer to men. Also
contemporary cartoons such the one opposite (Plate 7) depicting the universal
popularity of football matches would conceivably have been the case at the
Crystal Palace.
It is evident that throughout this period the local community remained the heart
of the club's support, but there is also evidence indicating that the club had a
lesser following further a field across London. This would suggest that their
largely attractive style of play had a wide appeal and that Crystal Palace FC
was firmly established in the realm of London's professional football clubs by
the beginning of the Great War. A match report in the Athletic News for the
club's 2-0 home FA Cup win over Bury in February 1913 notes that some 14,000
supporters were in attendance. That day in London, only Crystal Palace and
Chelsea were at home and thus this higher than average attendance could well
have been due to the extra influx of Londoners whose teams were drawn away from
home in the FA Cup. Considering in a more general sense the popularity the club
seemed to hold in its locality, it might even be argued that some positive
fluctuation above the usual dedicated masses in home attendances was caused when
these more 'casual' supporters visited the Palace.
It is useful to compare Crystal Palace Football Club with West Ham United from
London's East End. In an article for the Journal of Contemporary History Korr
attests that:
From 1905 the tone of West Ham United was set - a team competing at the highest
level that depended on quality football to attract supporters, but also a team
that physically established itself in the heart of an area where playing
football was the usual recreation.
Although the setting for this East London club was considerably different from
the suburban communities that fed Crystal Palace FC, the importance of the
community to the club was borne out in both cases. In many ways much of what
Korr argues for West Ham's community influence can also apply to Crystal Palace
FC.
III
Ever since the local press became a widely read popular phenomenon in the mid
nineteenth century such newspapers have often been or represented the voice of
the particular community they covered. Thus when the local press represents the
community's voice it can be inferred that consistent coverage of a particular
institution in a newspaper signified that the institution formed a major part of
or had had a significant impact upon the local community. Of the early twentieth
century John Hargreaves argues that: "The sports pages were absolutely
vital from the beginning, both in the successful selling of this form of popular
press to working class people and in the place sport achieved in working class
culture." With this in mind there is much to be gleaned from the coverage
of the club found in The Crystal Palace District Times and Advertiser during the
period in question. In its design and editorial slant the newspaper made a
significant play of the fact that it represented its community and that it had
approximately 20,000 readers. Considering this and other factors such as the
lively correspondence featured in the letters section it would seem fair to
conclude that this newspaper did indeed represent the voice of its surrounding
community.
It is therefore highly significant that issues of the newspaper published before
the club's foundation in 1905 only featured a rather stale local sports column,
which was certainly not a mainstay of the paper. Following the club's foundation
one can note that the single column increases in size progressively until it is
effectively a sports section. This can be seen to represent the impact the
football club had upon its community: suddenly there was a new local attraction,
which demanded far more column inches than had previously been set aside for
sport. The newspaper sought to reflect the interests of its readership and the
increased emphasis on sport following the club's foundation should be seen in
this light. The paper also had a section called "Crystal Palace day by
day" which was essentially a guide to the upcoming week's events at the
Crystal Palace, but this section became less significant in size after the
football club was founded as the club's stock rose and the paper's reporting
shifted towards events on the football field.
The evidence in the local press would indicate that the club's foundation
definitely had an impact upon the community and looking specifically at the way
the press reported on the club in our period reveals more of the nature of this
impact. In November 1905, just two months into the club's competitive life, the
newspaper included a fairly biased report of the recent United League match at
Luton (although the club did not win this league, it provided vital practice in
its first season). This subjective reporting soon became a more apparent tone
for the paper's coverage. Likewise correspondence in the newspaper often became
increasingly centred on the club. In a letter to the editor in March of the
following year, written by a person calling himself "An Old
Footballer", the writer describes himself as "an enthusiastic
supporter of the Crystal Palace Football Club" and speaks out against any
possible moves for the club to relocate to Croydon as well as talking of the
club's bright future the following season in Southern League Division One. On
the one hand a supporter is clearly taking a great interest in the club, which
in itself is a crucial notion in this dissertation and on the other hand the
local newspaper is clearly being used as a forum to air such views, which
stresses its validity as a source in this context.
When the club went through a bad run of form in November 1906, the newspaper ran
an article in which the team's problems were analysed: the diagnosis offered
here was that they suffered from a poor half back line. Here the local press was
voicing the fans' concerns as they saw their team slump, the reporting was not
merely factual, but set out to tell the supporter what he or she needed to know
about the team. It seems that the identification between the newspaper and the
club was cemented in early 1908 when the term "our" was first used in
conjunction with the team. A report in January 1908 described Watford as
"our visitors" and thus it seems that, in the eyes of the community,
Crystal Palace Football Club had now become their team. It is interesting to
note that the newspaper's modern day successor, The Croydon Advertiser,
continues today in its historic association with the football club. The impact
here was cumulative and crucially pervasive in that a very strong association
was built up between the community and its club, an association often borne out
in the local press.
IV
Before forming any overall conclusions it is important to consider briefly the
catchment area the club had during the period in question. In Chapter One
mention was made of what was described as a geographical region of support that
the club possessed. Clearly before the club's foundation in 1905 there was a
significant part of South London and beyond that did not yet have 'its' own
professional club to support. Thus the fact that Crystal Palace FC was able to
have established itself across such a wide area was on the one hand not totally
surprising, but on the other indicative of the nature of its impact upon the
community. In its coverage of the build up to the 1906/07 Southern League
campaign an article in the local press said the following of the club: "the
area from which support will be obtained is an exceedingly large and populous
one." Whilst much of what has been said in this chapter refers to the most
local community in the environs of the Crystal Palace itself this source,
amongst others, indicates that there was also a wider community impacted by the
club as well, even during the club's early years. A relatively small club, when
compared with its London neighbours such as Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal on the
north side of the city, was radiating outwards.
Mason argues that the early part of Edward VII's reign saw a mini mania for
setting up professional football clubs in London and Crystal Palace FC should
certainly be seen in this context. Looking subsequently at the impact the club
had upon its wider community it is noticeable that a number of notable amateur
football teams seemed to have formed around the same time in this area. It is
clearly very difficult to account for the exact motivations behind each
foundation, but considering the stimulus that Crystal Palace FC was to many
facets of the local community one might suggest that the enthusiastic support
the club was able to generate at least partially translated itself into the
foundation of amateur clubs. A look through the photo archive in the Croydon
library alone reveals that the following clubs all started up around the period
in question: South Croydon Wednesday FC, Croydon Empire Palace FC, Croydon
Parish Church CLB FC, Croydon Postal FC, Selhurst Albion FC and Croydon Tramways
FC.
Although much of this particular hypothesis cannot easily be proved, these
arguments, taken alongside others discussed in the chapter, seem to paint a
picture of the club having a concentrated impact upon the local community as
well as a more general impact upon the wider community up to Croydon and beyond.
It is thus indicative of the stature the club had obtained within the community
that in April 1909 that the Athletic News could describe the team's poor form in
the FA Cup as "one of the disappointments of London football this
season." This was not just disappointing for a few local fans, but in a
wider context as well: Crystal Palace FC had become part of the London football
scene.
Conclusion
By simply being founded at the time and in the place it was, Crystal Palace
Football Club had an impact upon its community. It had a world famous venue to
play at and impressive infrastructure by which it could be reached. Therefore,
to an extent, a professional club at this location that had been less well run
than the Palace would also have had much of this primary impact. In a secondary
sense too it is clear that the club was able to build upon the favourable
circumstances of its foundation to achieve a wider impact. The club actively
sought to cultivate its fan base and this dedication was reciprocated in the way
these supporters rallied behind their club. Beyond all of this the club also
clearly established itself on the community to the extent that it was able to
overcome the difficulties posed by World War One.
If some degree of primary impact seems undeniable we must be careful, however,
not to overemphasise this secondary impact and in so doing to imagine that the
gaps in our evidence such as the low number of recorded home attendances in the
1913/14 season would, if filled, merely serve to underline a very positive
conclusion. Likewise the chief local newspaper of the time, The Crystal Palace
District Times and Advertiser was unashamedly championing the club. Since this
is a chief source for this dissertation it should be accepted and acknowledged
that the newspaper rarely fails to give the club favourable coverage and thus
needs to be handled with care. Descriptions such as the Newcastle victory
celebrations in January 1907 may well have been talked up beyond what actually
occurred. Yet that the newspaper was keen to print such reports hints that such
positive stories about the club were what much of its audience wanted to read,
and therefore again shows the level of popular support the club had. It should
also be re-emphasised that the club played at a very suitable location, which
was well supported by public transport such as the South London tram system and
of course the Crystal Palace station. Perhaps if the club's supporters had had
to take a more arduous route to the stadium, as many of their peers in the North
did, we may have a better indication of their commitment. Having said all this
the caveats here are largely outweighed by the positive nature of the evidence
suggesting the club had a significant impact upon its community.
Having established that the club had an impact on its community at various
levels it has therefore been important to consider the nature of this impact.
There is no better way of judging the nature of a football club's impact upon
its local community than in the commitment and passion of its supporters and
this is exactly what Crystal Palace FC seems to have generated in our period. To
see the celebrations in January 1907 following the FA Cup victory over Newcastle
United at St James' Park as typical behaviour would be an exaggeration; this was
an exceptional scenario, but the many other descriptions of supporters' joy and
emotional involvement with the club point to a genuine impact. It was not as if
the club was always highly successful between 1905 and 1918 so the degree of
consistent commitment we can observe was not simply a case of people supporting
a winning team. Throughout the period though, match reports attest to the
entertaining style of play at the Palace and how it was well received by the
supporters. When one adds to this the wider effect the club seems to have had on
its community as a whole such as economic opportunities for local businesses and
the obvious status to which it had risen by the end of our period the overall
impact it had is emphasised.
Likewise, although it could be argued that with the ravenous potential support
available in South London and further South East, where no professional club yet
existed, a new club in the region could not fail to attract a fan base, the
collapse of Croydon Common FC in 1915 suggests otherwise. Crystal Palace
Football Club had an initial advantage over its Croydon rival in terms of
location, but was also, under the shrewd leadership of Goodman, far more
concerted in its efforts to attract support and impact upon the community. If
one looks north of the border Queen's Park FC played at Hampden Park, the home
of Scottish football and venue for their Cup Final, but this club had far less
of an impact upon its community than Crystal Palace achieved: another indication
that the South London club had to do far more than play at a prominent stadium
to have the impact it did.
In many ways, the nature of the club's impact upon its community, can best be
seen by looking at factors other than the basic events of a home match day
afternoon. The watching of professional football in England had been a massive
social phenomenon since the closing decade of the nineteenth century so it was
hardly remarkable that the people of South London were so ready to watch a local
team when it was founded. Crucially, however, this was not the extent of Crystal
Palace FC's impact upon its community. The evidence clearly points to the club's
economic impact in terms of the way it created a captive market for local
businesses and alongside this the club also became a focus for community
activity. It is only when these factors are considered fully that the variegated
nature of the club's impact is revealed. From a football perspective the support
afforded to the club was fairly predictable given the contemporary climate, even
if the large scale it came to take on at the Palace was perhaps less so, but
given the above the impact of the club can be seen as a wider social phenomenon.
Whether or not a resident of Anerley, for example, was a football fan he or she
would not have been able to ignore the way the club had visibly affected his or
her community.
Despite the immense disruption the Great War had upon the club, Crystal Palace
FC continued to prosper in the years afterwards, gaining promotion to Division
Two of the Football League in 1921. This ultimately revealed the club's strength
and the relative depth of impact it had had upon the community between 1905 and
1918. Crystal Palace clearly did not become one of England's leading clubs and
certainly had had a great head start by its prestigious and popular location so
we must not over exaggerate its impact. Yet the evidence we have does attest to
a significant degree of identification with the club amongst its supporters and
that the club gained considerable status within the community. Whilst there is
no numerical scale we can use to answer this question we can certainly conclude
that the club's very survival points to a degree of impact on the community and
its net progress between 1905 and 1918, despite its difficulties, indicates that
this impact was far reaching and not temporary.