The Travelling Football Clubs of London

Two interesting maps of football clubs and London:

First, Dean of The Londonist has mapped out the various locations of London’s football clubs over time. Many of them have moved a surprisingly large number of times. In the extract above, Fulham appears to be particularly nomadic, especially compared to neighbouring Chelsea which has always been at Stamford Bridge.

The map was produced just before the decision on which football club might be moving to the Olympic Stadium was made. West Ham has since been selected as the preferred club for the move. This map, though, shows that moving grounds is nothing new in London’s footballing history. One club (Wimbledon) moved so far away, from SW London to Milton Keynes, that a new one (Wimbledon AFC) has taken its place, based near Kingston.

Secondly, The Football Supporter Map of London by “norre” on QPR.org attempts to categorise parts of London by their allegiances to clubs. Potentially very controversial and inherently simplified – with internal migration within London, can an area really have just a one or two allegiances (the latter represented with stripes)? Nevertheless it is a nice visual piece of work, particularly as it screens out the larger parks and the unpopulated areas within Greater London, as well as including some populated areas beyond the boundary, i.e. a “true” population map of the city.

The colours used are taken from one of the “core” colours for each football team.

Top map: Background by Google Maps, data collated by Londonist. Bottom map: See caption on map for sources.