The story of West Ham’s Football Club, begins not with the founding of a professional club but with the formation of a works team. Which is as it should be, for ever since those earliest days the West Ham club has found its supporters among the people of London’s busiest, most hard-working area. The Club belongs to the crowded streets, the docksides, the manufactures, the print shops and transport depots of East London. West Ham United is truly of the place and the people.