History of Arsenal FC

HISTORY OF THE GUNNERS

The Early Years – 1886 – 1910

Arsenal were founded as Dial Square in 1886 by a group of workers employed by the Dial Square workshop at the Royal Arsenal, an armourments factory in Woolwich, South east London.

They were led by a Scotsman, David Danskin, who purchased the club’s first football. Also amongst their number was former Nottingham Forrest goalkeeper Fred Beardsley, who would later along with Morris Bates, obtain a set of red kit from his old (Nottingham Forrest) club, thus giving Arsenal the colours they still wear today.

Dial Square played their first match on 11 December 1886 against Eastern Wanderers on an open field in the Isle of Dogs, which they won 6-0. The club were renamed Royal Arsenal soon after, reportedly on Christmas day that year. Initially, the club played their games on Plumstead Common, but soon sought alternative homes, firstly the Sportsman Ground in Plumstead before moving to the adjacent Manor Ground in 1888. Unhappy with the Manor Ground’s poor facilities, the club moved to the nearby Invicta ground in 1890, before returning to the Manor Ground three years later as the Invicta Ground’s rent proved too expensive.

Arsenal FC team of the 1888-1889 season

During this period, Royal Arsenal started to win local trophies, winning both the Kent Senior Cup and the 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.

The Great North South Divide

The gulf between Arsenal and the professional sides from the north of England 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.

During the same year, Royal Arsenal decided to turn professional, and at the same time they changed their name to Woolwich Arsenal.

Woolwich Arsenal’s move to professionalism 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 Woolwich Arsenal, they attempted to set up a southern equivalent of the Football League, but the move failed.

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.

The Rise up the Divisions

Woolwich Arsenal played in the Second Division for eleven seasons, and generally occupied mid-table before the appointment of Harry Bradshaw as manager in 1899. Bradshaw and his star signings, including goalkeeper Jimmy Ashcroft, Arsenal’s first England International, and captain Jimmy Jackson, won promotion to the First Division in 1903-04.

However, Bradshaw moved on to Fulham in May 1904, before the Gunners had kicked a ball in the top flight. Despite some strong performances in the FA Cup — the club reached the semi-finals in both 1905-06 and 1906-07 – Arsenal were never able to challenge for the League title, only twice finishing above tenth place in the First Division between 1904 and 1913.

Woolwich Arsenal (In the dark shirts) vs Newcastle United at the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1906

The chief cause of this decline was the club’s ongoing financial problems, despite the boom in football during the early 20th century, the club’s geographic isolation, in the relatively under populated area of Plumstead (then on the outskirts of urban London), meant attendances and thus income were low.

To stay afloat, Woolwich Arsenal were forced to sell their star players and slowly started to slip down the table, which compounded their financial situation as crowds fell. By the end of the decade the average attendance at Manor Ground was 11,000, a little over half of what it was in 1904.

The club were close to bankruptcy, and in 1910 went into voluntary liquidation before being bought out by a consortium of businessmen, the largest shareholder amongst the new owners was property magnate Sir Henry Norris, who was also chairman of Fulham.