STRANGE LOCATIONS
"Are there any English clubs apart from Arsenal not named after a geographical location? I might even be wrong about Arsenal. For example, I can think of several clubs from Ireland and South America that feature non-placename names: Shamrock Rovers, Bohemians, Vasco Da Gama, Newell's Old Boys, etc." asks Alan Gregg.
You're right to say Arsenal aren't named after a geographical location: the club began life in Woolwich, south-east London, as the team of the local Royal Arsenal armament factory. The penchant for odd names was there from the off: the club were initially known as Dial Square, after the sundial over the entrance to the workshop. But after one game they changed their monicker to Royal Arsenal, and a few years later to Woolwich Arsenal.
So between 1891 and 1913, the club's name made perfect sense. Then, three years after an aborted merger plan with Fulham which would have seen the club move to Craven Cottage, Woolwich Arsenal moved to a church field in north London next to Gillespie Road Underground Station. Highbury. Meanwhile, the "Woolwich" part of their name was quietly dropped, and within 20 years team manager Herbert Chapman had bullied London Underground into changing the name of the tube station to Arsenal, making everyone feel nicely at home.
As for other English teams? We can only think of two others who aren't named after the place they come from. There's Port Vale, who reside in the Burslem area of Stoke-on-Trent - although there are several places called Port Vale in the Potteries region. And there's west London's Queen's Park Rangers, who are named after Queens Park in north-west London, where most of the team's players lived at the time of the club's inception. But strictly speaking, Arsenal are the only league club in England not named after a geographical location.
Scotland, meanwhile, can offer you Celtic and Rangers (there are no Glasgow prefixes), Hibernian, the Rovers Albion and Raith (of Coatbridge and Kircaldy respectively) and, unless you're being really picky, Dumfries giants Queen of the South.
"Are there any English clubs apart from Arsenal not named after a geographical location? I might even be wrong about Arsenal. For example, I can think of several clubs from Ireland and South America that feature non-placename names: Shamrock Rovers, Bohemians, Vasco Da Gama, Newell's Old Boys, etc." asks Alan Gregg.
You're right to say Arsenal aren't named after a geographical location: the club began life in Woolwich, south-east London, as the team of the local Royal Arsenal armament factory. The penchant for odd names was there from the off: the club were initially known as Dial Square, after the sundial over the entrance to the workshop. But after one game they changed their monicker to Royal Arsenal, and a few years later to Woolwich Arsenal.
So between 1891 and 1913, the club's name made perfect sense. Then, three years after an aborted merger plan with Fulham which would have seen the club move to Craven Cottage, Woolwich Arsenal moved to a church field in north London next to Gillespie Road Underground Station. Highbury. Meanwhile, the "Woolwich" part of their name was quietly dropped, and within 20 years team manager Herbert Chapman had bullied London Underground into changing the name of the tube station to Arsenal, making everyone feel nicely at home.
As for other English teams? We can only think of two others who aren't named after the place they come from. There's Port Vale, who reside in the Burslem area of Stoke-on-Trent - although there are several places called Port Vale in the Potteries region. And there's west London's Queen's Park Rangers, who are named after Queens Park in north-west London, where most of the team's players lived at the time of the club's inception. But strictly speaking, Arsenal are the only league club in England not named after a geographical location.
Scotland, meanwhile, can offer you Celtic and Rangers (there are no Glasgow prefixes), Hibernian, the Rovers Albion and Raith (of Coatbridge and Kircaldy respectively) and, unless you're being really picky, Dumfries giants Queen of the South.
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