The Valley (London)

The Valley

The Valley, Floyd Road
Aerial view of the stadium in 2008
Location	Charlton London, SE7 England
Coordinates	51°29′11″N 0°2′11″E / 51.48639°N 0.03639°E / 51.48639; 0.03639Coordinates: 51°29′11″N 0°2′11″E / 51.48639°N 0.03639°E / 51.48639; 0.03639
Public transit	Charlton
Owner	Charlton Athletic F.C.
Capacity	27,111
Field size	112 x 73 yards
Surface	Grass
Construction
Broke ground	1919
Opened	1919
Renovated	1991
Expanded	1994: east stand re-built 1998: west stand re-built 2001: north stand re-built
Closed	1985–1992
Tenants
Charlton Athletic Football Club (1919–1985, 1992–present) London Broncos Rugby League Football Club (1996–1997, 1999–2000)

The Valley is a 27,111-capacity sports stadium located in Charlton, London, England and is the home of Charlton Athletic Football Club.

In Charlton's early years, the club had a nomadic existence using several different grounds between its formation in 1905 and the beginning of World War I in 1914. The ground dates from 1919, at a time when Charlton were moderately successful and looking for a new home. The club found an abandoned sand and chalk pit in Charlton, but did not have sufficient funds to fully develop the site. An army of volunteer Charlton supporters dug out a flat area for the pitch at the bottom of the chalk pit and used the excavated material to build up makeshift stands. The ground's name most likely comes from its original valley-like appearance. The club played its first game at the ground before any seats, or even terraces, were installed; there was simply a roped-off pitch with the crowd standing or sitting on the adjoining earthworks. The unique circumstances of the ground's initial construction led to an unusually intense bond between the club's supporters and the site that exists to this day. In the 1923–24 season, Charlton played at the Mount stadium in Catford but in a much more highly populated area. A proposed merger with Catford South End FC fell through and thus Charlton moved back to the Valley.

In 1967, Len Silver the promoter at Hackney made an application to open Charlton as a British League speedway club, and plans were put forward to construct a track around the perimeter of the football pitch. The application to include speedway at the Valley was enthusiastically supported initially, but was eventually ruled out on the grounds of noise nuisance.

For many years, the Valley was one of the largest Football League grounds in Britain, although its highest maximum capacity of 75,000 was only half the capacity of Glasgow's Hampden Park. However, Charlton's long absence from the top level of English football prevented much-needed renovation. Eventually, the club's debts led to bankruptcy administration. A consortium of supporters successfully acquired the club in 1984, but the Valley remained under the ownership of the club's former owner. However, the club was unable to finance the improvements needed to make the Valley meet new safety requirements. Shortly after the start of the 1985-86 season, Charlton left the Valley, entering into an agreement with Crystal Palace to share the latter's Selhurst Park facilities, the first official groundsharing arrangement in the Football League in 36 years. In 1988, the ownership of the club and the Valley was again united, and in a "grass roots" effort that harkened back to the ground's initial construction, thousands of supporters volunteered to clean the ground, eventually burning the debris in a huge bonfire on the pitch. By this time, however, the large terraces were no longer seen as desirable or safe. Charlton Athletic supporters then proposed a brand-new stadium to surround the original pitch. However, the Greenwich Borough Council overwhelmingly turned down plans to renovate the ground. Club supporters formed their own local political party, the Valley Party, in response to the council's decision. The party ran candidates for all but two Greenwich Council seats, sparing the two councillors who had approved the new stadium plans. The party won almost 15,000 votes in the 1990 elections, successfully pressuring the council to approve the plans for the new stadium.