DEN OF INIQUITY
PAUL CLAYDON REMEMBERS MILLWALL’S FORMER HOME
The Den in 1981
Photo: Bob Lilliman
Aside from the new grounds opened by Walsall and Chester City in 1990 and 1992 respectively, Millwall's New Den was the first Football League stadium built in the post-Taylor Report era. It was the first constructed in line with Lord Justice Taylor's edict that all football
grounds in the top two divisions must be all-seater by 1994. Millwall's move did however
consign one of the game's more characterful grounds, The Den, to the history books. Almost a quarter of a century has passed since the Den closed, so in this article we turn the
clock back to remember what this infamous ground was really like.
Formed in 1885 as Millwall Rovers by jam factory workers on the Isle of Dogs, close to
where Canary Wharf now stands, the club spent their first season on a pitch at Glengall
Road before switching to a field behind the Lord Nelson pub on East Ferry Road a year
later. Soon afterwards they were on the move again, this time further up East Ferry Road
to some wasteland close to where Crossharbour station is now. Despite being described as
one of London’s better grounds this ground was sold in 1901 by the owners to be turned
into a timber yard and the club were
Millwall v Everton at the North
on the move again. Next up was a
Greenwich Ground in 1902/03
former potato field, close to the current Mudchute station, named the
North Greenwich ground. In 1910
the club took the momentous and
controversial decision to move from
their homeland north of the Thames
to a new site, south of the river, in the
New Cross area.
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