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Episode 1: Thames Ironworks — The Birth of the Hammers (1895–1900)

Before there was West Ham United, there was a shipyard. In June 1895, workers at Thames Ironworks — one of Britain's largest shipbuilders — formed a football club on the banks of the River Thames in East London. This episode tells the story of those origins: the industrial landscape of Victorian Canning Town, the visionary owner Arnold Hills, the foreman Dave Taylor who first organised the players, and the fierce early rivalry with Millwall that began almost immediately. Five years after the club's founding, Thames Ironworks FC was dissolved and reborn as West Ham United. This is where it all started.

All book references across the series:

John Powles — Iron in the Blood: Thames Ironworks FC, the Club That Became West Ham United (Soccerdata, 2005) — amazon.com/dp/1899468226 — Out of print; second-hand copies available.

Charles Korr — West Ham United: The Making of a Football Club (Gerald Duckworth & Co., 1986) — amazon.co.uk/dp/0715621262 — Out of print; second-hand copies available.

Elliott Taylor — Up The Hammers!: The West Ham Battalion in the Great War 1914–1918 (2012; Third Edition 2015) — amazon.co.uk/dp/1479279463

John Spurling — Syd King: The Man Who Built West Ham — Referenced in Episode 2 for King's management years.

Charles Booth — Life and Labour of the People of London (1889–1903) — Referenced in Episode 1. Searchable free via LSE Digital Library.

John Lovell — Stevedores and Dockers — Referenced in Episode 1. Background on dock labour conditions in Victorian East London.

Jonathan Schneer — Ben Tillett: Portrait of a Labour Leader — Referenced in Episode 1. Context on the 1889 Great Dock Strike.

Jeff Powell — Bobby Moore: The Life and Times of a Sporting Hero (Queen Anne Press, 2002) — amazon.co.uk/dp/1861055110

Matt Dickinson — Bobby Moore: The Man in Full (2014) — amazon.co.uk/dp/0224091727 — Supplementary to Powell.

Josh C...