Catford Southend FC
Full nameCatford Southend Football Club
Nickname(s)The Kittens, The Enders
Founded1900 (1900)
Ground"Bromley Road" (Catford Wanderers) 1900 - abt 1908

The Mount, Catford circa 1908-1925

"Whitefoot Lane" aka Waygood Athletic Ground (Know 1925-1927
CapacityApprox 10,000
Catford Southend colours

Catford Southend Football Club was an English football club from Lewisham, London. Founded around the turn of the 20th century as an offshoot from a previous side, Catford Rovers,[1] they played in various local leagues until joining the London League Division 2 ahead of the 1903/04 season.[2]

An early mention of the team is in a newspaper article advertising trials at what is the modern day St. Dunstan's School playing fields on Canadian Avenue, Catford. In a 1904 edition of the Lewisham Borough News, Catford Southend's ground is listed as 'Bromley Road'. This may allude to the Catford Wanderers ground which can still be found in the same location today and points to the Southend in their name as this area of Catford is known by the same name.

Newspaper article from 1900 advertising trials for the new team
Article from the Kentish Mail and Greenwich and Deptford Observer, Friday Sept 12th 1902. It announces Catford Southend's official colours as Chocolate and Light Blue (the chocolate stripes would later be changed to Navy Blue).

London League

Finding their new surroundings to their liking, they gained promotion to Division 1 as champions in their inaugural season, finishing 11 points clear of second place Woolwich Polytechnic.

However, for reasons that are not know they did not compete in 1904/05, resuming in Division 1 for the 05/06 campaign. Here again they flourished, finishing top of the table ahead of the reserve team of Chelsea FC, who had been founded the year before.

Unable to gain promotion to the Premier Division of the London League due to it being restricted to the reserve teams of Football League clubs, Chelsea took their place and they remained in Division 1 until 1910. Whilst the league underwent various restructuring changes in the following years, The Kittens were promoted to the Premier Division (Section A) ahead of the 1910/11 season. They would remain stalwarts of the league before and after the breakout of the Great War up until 1922/23 which would be their last in the league.[2]

Mooted merger with Charlton Athletic

In 1923, a merger was proposed with Charlton Athletic which would include keeping Catford Southend's colours and name. In response, Charlton supporters formed a new team, Old Charlton. However, the merger was never completed and Old Charlton applied for Catford's place in the London league, which they were granted for the 23/24 season. The Old Charlton team were former Charlton players and Catford Southend players.[3]

Kent League and decline

On leaving the London League, the team joined the Kent League for the 23/24 season. There they stayed until 1926/27 when after failing to meet their financial obligations they folded.[3]

References

  1. ↑ B, Paul (September 7, 2017). "Catford Southend – The Non-League Club that nearly took over Charlton Athletic – Part 1".
  2. 1 2 "London League 1896-1910".
  3. 1 2 Charlton Athletic A History by Ramzan, David C. (ISBN 9781445616575)
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