Why Palace left the Palace – 110 years on

In the first instalment of a two-part feature, historian Peter Manning tells us why the move had to happen, and how it transpired...

It’s August 1914, a momentous month for the Crystal Palace – and even more so for the wider world. The Crystal Palace had been home to the Crystal Palace Football Club for more than 50 years, but now it, and the club’s future, was threatened like never before. But first, we must go back a few years...

The Crystal Palace Company, which owned the Palace and was also the majority owner of the football club, had struggled financially ever since the Palace had opened in 1854, and in 1909, it finally collapsed. It was given time to try and find a solution to its financial troubles, but without success, and in 1911 the courts gave an order for the Crystal Palace to be sold.

The Palace was put up for auction but there were those, led by the Lord Mayor of London, who saw the Palace as a national institution, and felt it should be saved for the nation.

Just a few weeks before the auction was due to take place, the wealthy and philanthropic Earl of Plymouth, who had always shown a great interest in the Palace, stepped forward and offered to buy the Crystal Palace ‘for the use of the public for all time’ for £230,000.

He paid a deposit of £20,000 and was given a year to come up with the balance of £210,000, equivalent to nearly £30 million in today’s money, which he planned to do by raising a public subscription, the 1912 equivalent of GoFundMe. The fundraising took far longer than expected and was still well short of its target when time ran out, and the Earl was forced to complete the purchase from his own pocket in May 1913.

Not only did the Earl now own the Palace, but he also owned Crystal Palace Football Club, and for the only time in our history, we had a member of the aristocracy as our owner and President!

The fundraising continued and was completed with the help of The Times newspaper, and with the fact that the Earl agreed to accept just £200,000, taking a loss of over £4 million in today’s money, the Palace and our football club could finally be handed over to the nation.

An Act of Parliament had to be passed and the date for handover to the new Crystal Palace Trustees was set for Thursday, 6th August, 1914. But it was overtaken by events. Britain and the world were plunged into World War, with Britain declaring war on Germany on 4th August in response to Germany’s invasion of Belgium.

It was not until four days later, on Monday, 10th August, the completion of the sale, and purchase of the Crystal Palace by the nation, took place and the first meeting of the Trustees was held on the same day, chaired by the Earl of Plymouth. He told the new executive committee that he had offered the Crystal Palace to the War Office as a hospital in view of the present national emergency and the 32 new trustees agreed and approved the offer.

The War Office immediately accepted the offer and, in early September, it was announced that the Admiralty would be using the Palace, not as a hospital, but ‘for naval training purposes’.

In the summer of 1914, Crystal Palace Football Club had been looking forward to the new season. Palace Chairman Sydney Bourne was hoping that the club could build on the progress made in 1913/14, when Palace had only missed out on the Southern League title on goal average to Swindon Town. Attendances were up, having touched 25,000 against Brighton on Easter Monday, and finances had improved following further success in the London Challenge Cup.

But Bourne’s optimistic outlook was to be cruelly quashed. By the time the handbook was published, Britain was at war with Germany, and the consequences would have an immediate and ultimately devastating impact on the Crystal Palace Football Club.

From the outset of the new season, the future of both the Palace and the football club were uncertain. Despite the outbreak of war ,and with the initial belief that the war would soon be over, the F.A. decided the football season should go ahead, but individual clubs should do what they could to support the war effort, including, where clubs had professional players, ‘to give every facility for their temporary absence’.

Crystal Palace suggested ‘that players of all the London professional clubs should be placed at the disposal of the War Office for two days each week for drilling… and that on two afternoons they should be released from football training to practise rifle shooting under instructors provided by the War Office' – a relatively easy exercise for Crystal Palace, had it been taken up, as they would have had all the facilities on their doorstep, courtesy of the Royal Navy!

The first of 5,000 recruits began arriving at the Palace in mid-September for training in what was officially called The Royal Naval Division, but which soon became known informally as ‘H.M.S. Crystal Palace.’ The Palace was transformed and rapidly put on a war footing; by November the Palace was already housing 6,000 recruits.

Palace made a terrible start to the 14/15 season and, having lost players to the war effort and injuries, failed to register a win in their first seven games. At the end of September, they were bottom of the Southern League, the only team without a win to their name and only three goals scored.

Things could only get better for the Palace... or would they get worse?

Part Two – published tomorrow (6th February) on the anniversary of our final game at the Palace – will cover the continuing ‘life-changing’ events of this momentous 1914/15 season for the club.

With continued thanks to Peter Manning.