The Mount (stadium)

For the former greyhound racing stadium in Catford, see Catford Stadium.

The Mount

Catford Stadium in 2003
Location	Catford, London
Opened	Approx 1900
Closed	Approx 1950
Tenants
Catford Southend FC, Charlton Athletic FC

The Mount was a football stadium in Catford, located in the south west corner of Mountsfield Park where football was played as early as the mid 19th century. Catford Southend F.C. (founded c1900) used this as their home ground and eventually developed the land into a proper stadium with terracing. The stadium was unusual as it was elevated above the surrounding area and thus that may be a possibility for its name.

Proposed Charlton Athetic move

The Mount was the polar opposite to The Valley, which was a sunken ground that was originally a chalk pit. The Mount was a more modest stadium compared to The Valley and had an appearance like a fort owing to concrete pylons having to be raised to support the terraces which were erected on sloping ground.

At the Charlton Athletic AGM, which took place on the 6th of April 1923, representatives of the club and supporters association, confronted the board of directors over the proposed decision to move the club from The Valley to The Mount, home of Catford Southend. Several of the members had previously opposed to move into professionalism and entry into the football league, protested against any such move.

It was expressed that the board of directors did not believe The Valley would bring in enough regular support to make the club financially viable. After the club made financial losses at the end of the previous season and with money still owed for the ground works carried out at The Valley, the board assumed that moved to Catford would be financially preferable to the club.

At a hastily arranged board meeting on the 23rd April, the board unanimously agreed the relocation to The Mount. It became clear that in addition to the hopes of increased gate receipts, Charlton had been approached by a representative of Catford, Harry Isaacs, owner of The Dartmouth Hotel public house in Laleham Road adjacent to the park who was a passionate racing and football fan and son of Sam Isaacs, founder of the UK's first table service Fish & Chip Restaurant chain. He was prepared to finance the move, including paying off Charlton’s debts.

An agreement had also been made to merge Charlton Athletic and Catford Southend into one team, but keep the name and colours of the Catford side. Charlton directors later countered this by suggesting a change to red and white stripes and ‘Catford FC’ as the name. The merger came to a halt when the Football League refused to permit a name change if the club were to continue playing in the Third Division South (which Charlton wished to). However, the ground move went ahead.

In protest to the move to The Mount, members of Charlton’s supporters committee formed a new amateur team called Old Charlton. They applied to the London League to take the place of Catford Southend and were elected were elected with a team consisting of former Charlton Athletic players who had played for them before turning professional and players from Catford Southend.

Ordnance Survey map showing the location of The Mount stadium within Mountsfield Park

The 1923–24 season was one of the wettest on record and being far from their fan base in Charlton it meant that attendances were very poor throughout the season. Upon drawing Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup second round, Charlton requested the game played back at The Valley in order to make the most of the anticipated large crowd (Wolves had won the cup as recently as two years before). This was proved prudent as a crowd of 20,000 people watched a 0-0 draw. Added to this, the concrete pylons supporting the stands at The Mount began to slide into the mud taking a bankrupt Harry Isaacs with them, and The Addicks back to The Valley the next season.

Catford Southend remained a modest local team who eventually folded in 1927. The Mount thus became vacant and fell into disrepair and, by the 1950s, had been completely demolished. The land still remains as a grassed area within Mountsfield Park.