 | |
| Full name | Invicta Ground |
|---|---|
| Location | Plumstead, London, England |
| Owner | George Weaver |
| Capacity | c.12,000 |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1890 |
| Closed | c. 1894 |
| Demolished | ? |
| Tenants | |
| Woolwich Arsenal (1890–1893) Royal Ordnance Factories (1893–1894) | |
The Invicta Ground was a football stadium in Plumstead, south-east London, that was the home of club Royal Arsenal, now known as Arsenal.
Named after Invicta , the motto of the county of Kent, the ground was Arsenal's first proper stadium, being equipped with a stand, a row of terracing and changing rooms. The arena stood on the south side of Plumstead High Street with Arsenal's old home, the Manor Ground, which was upon the opposite side of high street and north of the railway lines, being much smaller by contrast.
When Royal Arsenal first moved to the Invicta Ground, they were an amateur team with a following of only about 1,000, but within a year the club had turned professional and had renamed themselves Woolwich Arsenal. They started to attract much larger crowds, including a record 12,000 for a match against the then Scottish Cup holders Heart of Midlothian on 30 March 1891, which Woolwich Arsenal lost 5–1.
Woolwich Arsenal intended to use the Invicta for 1893–94, their first season playing in the Football League. However, the ground's owner, George Weaver (a mineral water magnate), wishing to make the most out of the rise in Arsenal's fortunes, put the annual rent up from £200 to £350, a sum which the club could not afford. Arsenal returned to the Manor Ground, which they bought outright after a share issue, and spent the summer of 1893 building proper stands and facilities.
An amateur side, Royal Ordnance Factories, set up in response to Woolwich Arsenal joining the League, played some home games in the Invicta Ground. However, they had left by late 1894 and Weaver could not find a permanent tenant for the ground. He eventually demolished it, building houses on the site. Today Mineral Street and Hector Street stand where the stadium used to be; some of the stadium's concrete terracing still survives in the back gardens of houses in Hector Street.
The Arsenal Football Club, commonly known as Arsenal, is an English professional football club based in Holloway, North London. Arsenal compete in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. In domestic football, Arsenal have won 13 league titles, a record 14 FA Cups, two League Cups, 17 FA Community Shields and a Football League Centenary Trophy. In European football, they have one European Cup Winners' Cup and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. In terms of trophies won, it is the third-most successful club in English football.
Plumstead is an area in southeast London, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, England. It is located east of Woolwich.
Woolwich is a town in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
Arsenal Stadium was a football stadium in Highbury, London, which was the home of Arsenal Football Club between 6 September 1913 and 7 May 2006. It was popularly known as "Highbury" due to its location and was given the affectionate nickname of the "Home of Football".
The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich is an establishment on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England, that was used for the manufacture of armaments and ammunition, proofing, and explosives research for the British armed forces. It was originally known as the Woolwich Warren, having begun on land previously used as a domestic warren in the grounds of a mid-16th century Tudor house, Tower Place. Much of the initial history of the site is linked with that of the Office of Ordnance, which purchased the Warren in the late 17th century in order to expand an earlier base at Gun Wharf in Woolwich Dockyard.
Underhill Stadium was a stadium in Chipping Barnet, London, that was the home of Barnet Football Club between 1907 and 2013. The club's under-19 team played fixtures there; it was also the training ground of the London Broncos rugby league club, and hosted Arsenal reserve games until 2012. At the time of its closure, the stadium had a capacity of 6,023; it was demolished in 2018, and is now the site of the Ark Pioneer Academy, which opened in 2019. The stadium was famous for its slope from the North to South end.
Plumstead Common is a common and urban park in Plumstead in the Royal Borough of Greenwich (SE18), south-east London. It is part of the South East London Green Chain.
Priestfield Stadium is a football stadium in Gillingham, Kent. It has been the home of Gillingham Football Club since the club's formation in 1893, and was also the temporary home of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club for two seasons during the 1990s. The stadium has also hosted women's and youth international football matches and a London Broncos rugby league match.
David Danskin was a Scottish mechanical engineer and footballer. He was a principal founding member of Dial Square F.C., later renamed Royal Arsenal, the team that are today known as Arsenal.
Burnham Ramblers Football Club is a football club based in Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, England. They are currently members of the Eastern Counties League Division One South and play at Leslie Fields.
Sheppey United F.C. is a football club based on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. The club are members of the Isthmian League South East Division and play at Holm Park. The club is affiliated to the Football Association and is an FA Charter Standard club.
Royal Ordnance Factories Football Club were a football club from south east London, England, that existed in the late 19th century.
The Manor Ground located in Plumstead, south east London was a football stadium. This arena was the home of football club Royal Arsenal, which was later named Woolwich Arsenal, and as such came to be known as Arsenal F.C.
The following are the association football events of the year 1893 throughout the world.
The history of Arsenal Football Club between 1886 and 1966 covers the time from the club's foundation, through the first two major periods of success and the club's subsequent decline in the early 1960s.
Manor Ground may refer to:
Beresford Square is a pedestrianised town and market square in Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich in London, England. It was formed in the early 19th century and was named after the Anglo-Irish general William Beresford, Master-General of the Ordnance and Governor of the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. With its lively street market and lined with shops, pubs and restaurants, Beresford Square has been the heart of Woolwich for over two centuries. Since 2019 the square is part of a conservation area.
The 1890–91 season was the fifth in the history of Royal Arsenal, the club that was to become Arsenal F.C. This was the club's first season as a professional side, with overwhelming support to do so from the players. Their achievements in the previous season saw them granted direct admission to the first round proper of the FA Cup, marking their first full appearance in the competition. This season also saw them move grounds from Manor Field to the Invicta Ground, also in Plumstead. During the season, the team played in three cup competitions: the FA Cup, the London Senior Cup and the London Charity Cup. After finishing as runners-up the previous season, they won the London Senior Cup for the first time. Turning professional meant that they rescinded their membership of both London and Kent FAs, though support for the club continued to soar, with average attendances of 6,600, higher than half the teams in The Football League.
The 1892-93 Royal Arsenal season was their seventh since foundation as Dial Square F.C., and their fourth since their first official entry into the FA Cup. This campaign turned out to be one of the most tumultuous in the clubs history. After elimination in the first round proper of the FA Cup to Sunderland in late January, the club was taken to court by former centre-forward George Davie, who demanded fifty pounds for breach of contract earlier in the season.
During the late 1880s and early 90s, Royal Arsenal started to win local trophies, winning both the Kent Senior Cup and London Charity Cup in 1889–90 and the London Senior Cup in 1890–91; they also entered the FA Cup for the first time in 1889–90. However, the gulf between Arsenal and the professional sides from the North soon became apparent, and Arsenal faced the threat of their amateur players being lured away by the money professional sides could offer; after Derby County had played Arsenal in an FA Cup tie in 1891, they attempted to sign two of Arsenal's amateur players on professional contracts. Royal Arsenal's move to professionalism in 1891 was frowned upon by many of the amateur southern clubs, and they were banned from participating in local competitions by the London Football Association. With friendlies and the FA Cup the only matches available for Royal Arsenal, they attempted to set up a southern equivalent of The Football League, but the move failed. The club changed its name to Woolwich Arsenal in 1893 when it formed a limited liability company to raise capital to purchase the Manor Ground. Woolwich Arsenal's future looked bleak until the Football League came to their rescue by inviting them to join in 1893. Arsenal were the first Southern club to enter the League, initially joining the Second Division; in response, some of the club's amateur players who rejected professionalism and wanted a workers' team to represent just the Royal Arsenal, broke away to form a short-lived alternative side, Royal Ordnance Factories.
| Teams |
|
|---|---|
| History | |
| Home stadiums |
|
| Training grounds |
|
| Players | |
| Rivalries | |
| Songs |
|
| Media |
|
| Supporters | |
| Related clubs | |
| Related articles | |
