Charlton Athletic

Despite having called The Valley home since 1919, Charlton Athletic have had something of a love-hate relationship with their purpose-built stadium. Between 1905, when the club was formed, and 1919, when The Valley was built, Charlton played at no less than four different grounds. Even when The Valley opened the club didn’t feel totally comfortable, with the 1923-1924 season seeing Charlton play their home games at The Mount Stadium in Catford ahead of a possible merge of the club with Catford South End FC. When that fell apart Charlton returned to The Valley, much to the relief of the the club’s fans. There is a unique relationship between Charlton fans and The Valley. Though the club might prefer to play their games elsewhere the fans are very much behind the storied old stadium. That is, perhaps in part, because they helped to build it. When the club found an abandoned chalk pit that they believed would be the ideal location for their new ground it was actually an army of Charlton supporting volunteers that cleared the space at the bottom of the pit for the pitch, whilst the excavated material was used to create makeshift stands.