Full name | SOUL Tower Hamlets Football Club | ||
---|---|---|---|
Founded | 2000 2013 , as Tower Hamlets | , as Bethnal Green United||
Ground | Mile End Stadium | ||
Capacity | 2,000 | ||
Chairman | Tarik Khan | ||
League | Southern Counties East League Division One | ||
2023–24 | Eastern Counties League Division One South, 15th of 22 (transferred) | ||
Website | Club website | ||
SOUL Tower Hamlets Football Club is a football club based in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. They are currently members of the Southern Counties East League Division One and play at the Mile End Stadium.
Bethnal Green United was established in 2000 by Mohammed Nurul Hoque and Akhtar Ahmed as a community club. [1] The club played in several leagues, including the Canary Wharf Summer League, the Inner London Football League and the London Intermediate League, before joining the Middlesex County League. They were granted Senior status after winning the league's Premier Division in 2009 and were promoted to the Essex Senior League. In the 2009–10 season, they finished fifth in the ESL and won both cups operated by the Essex Senior League, beating Burnham Ramblers 4–1 in the final of the Gordon Brasted Memorial Trophy.
In 2013, the club was renamed Tower Hamlets. [2] During the 1990s, an unrelated club, also by the name of Tower Hamlets, played at the Mile End Stadium. [3] At the end of the 2019–20 season, the club were transferred to the Premier Division of the Southern Counties East League after moving to Phoenix Sports' ground in Barnehurst from the Mile End Stadium. The 2021–22 season saw Tower Hamlets finish bottom of the league and suffer relegation to step 6 and were moved back to the Eastern Counties League after moving back to the Mile End Stadium. Hamlets finished 14th in the 2022-23 season and 15th in the following year, however they were once again moved to the Southern Counties East League for the 2024–25 season, along with Clapton FC and Clapton CFC, despite still playing at Mile End. [4]
Ahead of the 2024–25 season, the club merged with Soul Football Club and was renamed as SOUL Tower Hamlets FC. [5]
In 2008, the club moved from Meath Gardens in Bethnal Green to the Mile End Stadium. [6] In 2020, Tower Hamlets moved to the Phoenix Sports Ground in Barnehurst. [7] In 2022, the club moved back to the Mile End Stadium. [8]
Bethnal Green is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By the 16th century the term applied to a wider rural area, the Hamlet of Bethnal Green, which subsequently became a Parish, then a Metropolitan Borough before merging with neighbouring areas to become the north-western part of the new Tower Hamlets.
Leyton is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River Lea, to the west. The area includes New Spitalfields Market, Leyton Orient Football Club, as well as part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The town consists largely of terraced houses built between 1870 and 1910, interspersed with some modern housing estates. It is 6.2 miles (10 km) north-east of Charing Cross.
Stepney is an area in London, England located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and part of the East End. Stepney is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name applied to a much larger manor and parish. Stepney Green is a remnant of a larger area of Common Land formerly known as Mile End Green.
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a borough of London, England. Situated on the north bank of the River Thames and immediately east of the City of London, the borough spans much of the traditional East End of London and includes much of the regenerated London Docklands area. The 2019 mid-year population for the borough is estimated at 324,745.
Mile End is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and part of the East End. It is 4.2 miles (6.8 km) east of Charing Cross. Situated on the part of the London-to-Colchester road called Mile End Road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London.
Clapton Football Club is a football club in east London. One of the most successful clubs in non-League football during the first quarter of the twentieth century, they won the FA Amateur Cup five times between 1907 and 1925 and had several players selected by the England national team. In 2019 they were evicted from their long-time home, the Old Spotted Dog Ground in Forest Gate. After playing at other grounds for several seasons, they withdrew from the non-League pyramid at the end of the 2023–24 season.
Mile End Stadium, also known as the East London Stadium, is a multi-sports stadium in Mile End and situated in the park of the same name, east London, England. The stadium comprises an athletics stadium and a number of floodlit Astroturf football pitches, tennis and netball courts.
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The Middlesex County Football League is a football competition based in England loosely drawing teams from the central, northern and western parts of Greater London. The league was founded in 1984 and initially had only one division, although it has since expanded greatly. It currently has a total of seven divisions. The Premier Division sits at step 7 of the National League System. It is a feeder to the Combined Counties Football League and the Hellenic Football League. The league is currently sponsored by Cherry Red Books.
Woodford Town F.C. was an English football club based in Woodford, Greater London.
Beaumont Athletic F.C. is an English football club based in Mile End in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England. It plays in the Inner London Football League, which is not part of the English football league system.
Phoenix Sports Football Club is an English football club located in Barnehurst, Kent. The club plays in the Isthmian League South East Division. Phoenix Sports spent most of its history in the Kent County Football League, with a six-year stint in the Spartan League in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The club was accepted into the newly formed Kent Invicta Football League for the inaugural 2011–12 season.
Hackney Wick Football Club is a football club in Essex, England. They are currently members of the Eastern Counties League Division One South and play at Spa Road in Witham.
The 2013–14 season was the 43rd in the history of Essex Senior Football League a football competition in England.
Athletic Newham Football Club is a football club based in London, England. They are currently members of the Essex Senior League and play at the Terence McMillan Stadium in Plaistow.
The 2023–24 Eastern Counties Football League was the 81st season in the history of the Eastern Counties Football League, a football competition in England. Teams are divided into three divisions, the Premier Division at Step 5, and the geographically separated Division One North and Division One South, both at Step 6 of the English football league system.