The time has come, the walrus said, to move to the Olympic Stadium—and suddenly, with the news that we’ve sold the Boleyn ground, everything feels rather final.
The ground has been sold to property firm Galliard, who are planning to develop the ground into a residential and retail area, with the pitch as a central garden paying tribute to Bobby Moore.
We certainly knew something would have to happen to our beloved Boleyn, but to actually have the plans brutally finalized has brought on a tidal surge of sentimentality and nostalgia for our home since 1904. This is not helped by the Evening Standard’s “Football Ground Razed” headline, which makes me feel a little bit queasy at the thought of a ground which held the hopes and dreams of so many being reduced to rubble and bricks.
I guess there’s a tiny part of me that naively thought we wouldn’t have to hear about life after leaving until after we had sung a few rounds of bubbles at our new stadium.
It’s just a shame that we now know how firmly the door has closed behind us before we’ve walked through our new open door, but hey, that’s life in today’s Premier League.
So lets open our own doors for our sentimentality and appreciation for all that was good, bad, and so damn loveable about the Boleyn. We can not and will not forget the greatest moments there; whether they happened on the pitch, in the bar, or with the 20,000 people stumbling into the Queens, they made us who we are as people, and as West Ham supporters.
We can talk about attendances, and results, but can we measure the impact of the ground on those that went there? How many rounds of bubbles were sung out over the decades? How many friendships were forged? How many life-long hero worships and inspirations were borne out of that ground? How many pints were drunk, how many laughs echoed out at halftime from behind the stands?
How many kids had their first ever game there with their parent? I’ll never forget how excited I was the first time my Dad took me to the ground, even if we did lose 1-0 to Ipswich Town. I remember the sausage roll, the crowds, the noise, the chants (“Foot and Mouth Foot and Mouth Foot and Mooooouth”), the spirit– and four years later, when I moved to England it was the first place I ran back to.
It’s strange for me, as a supporter who is emotionally attached to the Boleyn, to think that those of my generation and younger (I’m a spritely 27) will potentially end up with more memories of the Olympic stadium as part of our personal football-watching histories, something which feels alien and strange to me.
We are now at a point where we are going forward, and hopefully, onwards and upwards— but it’s also important to reflect on all the great moments we’ve experienced in our past.
With that in mind, let’s hear your favourite Boleyn memories – we’d love to know about your first trip, your best day, the funniest chant you heard in the ground, and anything in between. Let’s make the most of our last few seasons there, and build even more memories before we have to pack up and depart.
And if you get a bit misty eyed on the last day there, I’ll pass you some tissues – after I’m done ripping my seat out of the ground, of course.
Best momeries for me were in 1968, when standing behind the goal in the Nth Bank, I saw Geoff Hurst charging in on goal to connect with a volley & score a goal that won goal of the month, that almost took Peter Shilton’s hand & the net off against Leicester City in a 4-0 West Ham win, & then the next home game against reigning champions Man City, we came from behind with a goal apiece from Hurst & Peters to win 2-1. We should have been champions in that 1968/69 season, ah those were the days, when I was a young teenager. TONIGHT, WEST HAM PLAY ONE OF THEIR MOST IMPORTANT GAMES EVER, FOR ALTHOUGTH WE HAVE JUST WON OUR 1ST BACK-TO-BACK GAMES UNDER SAM, THIS IS EXACTLY THE TIME NOT TO SLACKEN OFF!!! WE SHOULD BEAR IN MIND THAT WE HAVE ONLY JUST MOVED AHEAD OF AVRAM GRANT’S RECORD AFTER 25 GAMES BY 1 POINT, & THAT AFTER GRANT WON HIS 25TH GAME & WEST HAM MOVED ONTO 24 PTS, THAT FROM THE NEXT 13 GAMES, AVRAM & WEST HAM ONLY WON 9 POINTS, SO DON’T GET TOO CARRIED AWAY WITH OUR CURRENT FORM, DO NOT LULL, IT WAS LONG OVERDUE ANYWAY. NO, QUITE THE OPPOSITE, WEST HAM HAVE TO GO OFF OF THEIR BRAINS TONIGHT IN MENTAL STRENGTH & ATTITUDE. FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE, REALLY GO FOR IT WEST HAM, AS IT’S GAMES LIKE THESE TONIGHT THAT HAVE TO BE WON. WIN TONIGHT & THE NEXT GAME AGAINST SOUTHAMPTON & YOU’LL DO ALL OF US A BIG FAVOUR, & THEN WE ALL REALLY CAN LOOK FORWARD TO MOVING INTO THE STADIUM, THAT WITH BETTER ACCESS TO TRANSPORT & CLOSER TO THE CITY, WILL TURN WEST HAM INTO A BIG CLUB, BUT WIN THIS GAME TONIGHT AS THOUGH YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT, THIS IS A CRITICAL STAGE,C’MON, LETS MAKE IT 4 WINS IN A ROW, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, STAY FOCUSED ON THE JOB & NOT ON THE STADIUM.
When we never had the previous owners
Although I’ve followed the (mis) fortunes of West Ham for nearly 50 years because I live 130 miles away it wasn’t until the early 80’s that I made my first trip to the ground. I was in my early twenties and met a girl, now my wife, from Essex whilst she was on holiday in my home town. She had a nan who lived in Dagenham and we travelled down to stay with her. I made an excuse, on the Saturday afternoon, that I would leave them catching up whilst I wandered off around the local shops near the Heathway. What she didn’t find out for many years was that I jumped on the tube to Upton Park. As I walked to the ground, in the days when you could pay at the gate, a street vendor stopped me and asked if I was going to the match. When I said I was, he gave me his ticket saying he couldn’t go. By the time I got to my seat in the main stand, with the old wooden lift up seats, the game had been going for about 5 or 6 minutes. During the game I saw Southampton score and the Hammers reply. As there was still hooliganism about in those days I decided to leave about 5 minutes from the end to avoid any possible trouble. Arriving back at her Gran’s house I was happy to have attended my first game, spent very little and we’d got a 1-1 draw. My girlfriend never suspected a thing. The next day I walked down to the Heathway and bought the Sunday rag so I could read a report on the game. I was stunned to read that the final score wasn’t 1-1 but 3-1 to the Saints! It turned out that by the time I sat down they’d already scored and were leading 1-0 and to top it all they scored again after I’d left!
My other memorable time was an evening cup game many years later. I think it may have been a quarter final against Sunderland. My wife said she would like to go to a game and so we stayed at her Grans again. The game was being shown live by Sky TV. We stood in the queue, waited and waited for ages and just as we got to the turnstile, with one person in front of us, they rang the bell to signal the ground was full and promptly shut the gate in our face! We stood by the Sky truck hoping to watch it on one of the monitors but the old bill made us leave. To top it all I think we were 2 or 3 down in about 20 minutes.