Cass Pennant column: Returning to West Ham’s beloved Upton Park and Green Street for the longest, saddest walk

Rise of the stall-holder – Old School origins

Ever since I had the matchday stall in Green Street I’ve always had an interest in someday producing my own clothing range. I gave it a go and launched Old School Football Clothing. It is home to several collections, including the Cass Pennant Collection, and takes inspiration from the various British sub-culture influences that shaped those crazy, mad times of my football casual days.

The Collection has been designed to appeal as much internationally as it does domestically and give my customers a product that can become both an expression and a focal point.

They’re ‘shirts that make a statement’ and by going online as a brand it means that I can reach further afield and a wider audience. That said, you do miss the personal contact with fans that physical trading brings.

Luckily for me it’s not all limited to my social media as I still get to pose for the odd picture and to enjoy sharing a few memories about our football-going days when I get to a match.

‘Everything at the new ground feels like it’s designed to wind me up’

The interaction with our fans is the main reason I still enjoy going to games as everything else at the ‘new’ stadium seems like it has been specifically designed to wind me up. Whenever I go the ‘new’ stadium (which we’ve now played at for seven years) I still get lost just trying to find the right exit coming through the Westfield Shopping Centre.

The fact that you get steered through the mall on the way in means that if it wasn’t for the fans there wouldn’t be any evidence that you were even going to the football. There’s not even a proper pub between the station and the ground!

The Cow is really good for what it is but is in no way a ‘proper pub’ like the Boleyn, Green Street or The Central, Barking Road. The disappointment in the experience continues when I notice that the traders who line the approach to the stadium are all arms out wide and draped in half and half scarfs; something this trader would never engage with.

VAR has made modern football a show

Still more walking, but now I’m feeling every bunion and corn painfully rubbing since I left the station. I’ve now crossed the bridge (there are many – more than Milton Keynes has roundabouts) only to be stopped in my tracks with the words, ‘Excuse me Sir, you got anything on your person that you shouldn’t have?’

Why do they always ask? What do they think anyone who did would answer FFS! Still, they’ve got a job to do and I see no point in moaning as the real wind-up starts after the game. When you leave, they replace the stop and search with lolly pop man security saying ‘Stop, Go, Stop.’ I find this is as humiliating a wind-up as when they used to make you walk halfway to Plaistow to join the queue for Upton Park Station. It’s all slowly becoming normal to me now but I’m not a fan of all this change.

Even the entrance turnstiles have been made difficult with all this scanning of barcodes. Every time, it seems that this old guy that use to be someone is now getting abused for holding everyone up getting through the turnstile. No matter who I copy or what I do the light still won’t go green and the same routine plays out. “Turn it the other way” someone says impatiently behind, “no do it this way” says someone else and then a young hand grabs my paper ticket and does it for me, It all works out and I’m in and on time for the live ‘show’ (it used to be a game before VAR) at the soulless bowl called the London Stadium.

Finally, as I take my seat without worry about lack of leg room, I feel I’m at least at a modern football match.

Why Italian photographer who has worked for Vogue loves West Ham and wanted to do a shoot with me

I’m saying all the above to Pierguidio Grassano, a professional photographer who had flown in from Italy to do a photo shoot with me.

I’d looked him up and had seen he’d worked for Vogue and laughed to myself thinking why would a renowned photographer want to photograph beautiful fashion models when he could come to Soho to meet me, Del and Ed?

He said he wanted a new challenge, that he followed his local third tier Italian team, Alexandria Calcio, and that he liked West Ham and their fans.

We had a good chat and it was clear to me that everything he gave as a reason for liking West Ham was related to when they played at Upton Park.

Returning to West Ham’s beloved Upton Park and Green Street for the longest, saddest walk

It was such a big part of my life and so l suggested that we should go and wrap up the shoot there. I was curious as to what we would find there now and wondered whether revisiting would be therapeutic in a strange kind of way.

The train pulled in, flashing past the tube sign Upton Park and I found myself half waiting for that gentle hurrah and cheer. It always reminded me of when your airplane lands at your favoured destination but nowadays it’s just another stop of many on the District Line.

We left the station and I briefly lost myself in time. I subconsciously felt a bit like I was back in a football crowd once more as the noises were similar, familiar but not quite the same.

There is noise, but it’s the sound of traders from Queen’s Market and it’s enough to trigger old memories of my teenage self, slipping into the market record shop after taking a butchers in the menswear store next door.

Some things were still exactly the same, the tower block at the end is unchanged and always reminds me of the leader of the Southbank crew who lived there with his mum and brother. Sometimes we saw her shopping in the market and we’d say ‘Hello’ then hear her telling the stall holders we were nice boys.

‘Will yer come, will yer come to Upton Park…’

We passed the market and walked past the Queen’s pub (which could be a big mistake if you were an away fan back in the day, for your day’s carry-on would usually start from there).

The terrace chant ‘Will yer come, will yer come to Upton Park’ was not without meaning and Green Street being known as the longest walk needed no explanation.

It’s fair to say that would have been a long day for any half and half scarf seller trying to earn a crust.

We all have our own memories, but the reality is that everything is either gone or going. Take Ken’s Cafe as an example, it was once the favourite cafe of players and fans alike, matchday was first come first serve and if you couldn’t wait you would grab a burger off the table outside and go and have a chat with Gary ‘getchyer brand new OLAS folks’ Firmager looking down at you from his ladder.

I always preferred his fanzine to the official programme and would routinely buy it and save it to read on the tube home. As far as official programmes go, the club has always done a quality job and at a good price-point as you can go to some away grounds and think, ‘why do they even bother?’ I particularly liked the style of The Hammer programmes we did back in the 70s and 80s.

Our church is gone but the church still stands strong

That’s all gone from here and so too has our church, the Boleyn Ground/Upton Park, to be replaced by this huge red-brick eyesore of apartments blocks. It made me immediately think back to that amazing Iron Men documentary. If you’ve not watched it then you should, it really does cover every aspect of West Ham’s move.

In it, David Gold states that all of our memories are here but then he ends it by saying that we have to move.

I just think WHY? And looking out and up from the shadows of these flats I just wonder if I now have my answer, the prices are on Right Move, you do the maths.

Many a Church today has also been redeveloped to become swanky apartments and so walking on, it was interesting to see that both Our Lady of Compassion Catholic Church and St Edwards Primary School still defiantly remain as we pass the location of the old main gate.

Raising a glass to the adapted Boleyn pub, a massive part of West Ham’s history

The mini cab office adorned in West Ham colours on the corner still has the Hammers Social Club building looming up behind it, but that has been closed since 2017.

So many businesses that served us fans have gone under with the club’s move and so it was heartening to see that The Boleyn pub is still standing strong.

It did close briefly in 2020 to be restored to a pub and restaurant and now serves a different clientele.

It’s good to see that it has adapted and continues to do well as the pub’s history dates back to before West Ham arrived.

But whilst the club was there it was a big part of our history.

Pie, mash and money talks

From the position of this statue I can see the location of Nathan’s Pie and Mash shop which once had queues all down the road on any matchday, that’s now gone.

The owner, Richard Nathan, told the Newham Recorder his view on the club move to the London Stadium after 40 years trading in Barking Road, saying: “I know they call it progress but it all just seems to be driven by money.”

There was still one last worthwhile photo opportunity to be had, the World Cup sculpture of our Champions.

I always wondered why it wasn’t located inside or by the club gates but I guess the council wanted a public place for everyone and simply don’t buy into the fact that it was West Ham who won the 1966 World Cup.

‘Felt right to end pilgrimage at where it all began for me in 1966’

We did and that is why the statue features our famous three of Hurst, Moore and Peters, plus Ray Wilson as he needed to lift aloft our captain and hero Bobby Moore.

It felt right ending the shoot sitting under the statue because my first game was in 1966, aged eight, and I continued coming as a result of these heroes until the doors closed in 2016.

We silently pack up the shoot and walk back up Green Street, this time in total silence, as the longest walk becomes maybe the saddest walk of the most proud memories.

FAREWELL TO THE BOLEYN

Farewell to the Boleyn

Our favourite place on earth

Where once our leader Bobby

Graced the hallowed turf.

The Chicken Run is silent.

The North bank bar is dry.

And as our famous anthem claims

Our dreams they fade and die.

The ghosts of Lyall and Greenwood

Always will remain.

But Barking Road and Green Street

Will never feel the same.

The South Banks sung its final hymn.

The West Side is now at peace.

Let’s hope we take the atmosphere!

To the new gaff that we lease

Farewell to The Boleyn

It’s time to say goodbye.

Some say it was just a building.

But it made a grown man cry.

©Danny Fenn the Boleyn poet

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