FC London Scottish

[honestly united]

If your going down the road of bringing London Caledonians back from the grave, their original ground Caledonian Park still has pitches

https://goo.gl/maps/E68e3AApwBEa1soZA

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by honestly united

[RabidAI]

I should have declared my bias at the beginning that, although I was born and raised in Scotland and so consider myself a Scot...

...go back one generation and I have a parent born in London, making me one-quarter Londoner I suppose...

...go back two generations and similarly I'm one-eighth a Yorkshireman...

...and so on.

All of which makes me a mongrel, I reckon.

My point being - how many others have mixed parentage that would see them identify themselves with a London Caledonians? Londoners with Scottish heritage, and vice versa?

I'm sure it'll never happen, but I like the idea all the same.

Edited September 24, 2020 by RabidAI
To confess: I've never been to London. Michty me!

[Ivo den Bieman]

It would be interesting to know why the original club didn’t re-emerge after World War Two.
Sadly no chance of this type of club re-emerging. Scots always were the most invisible diaspora in London. Other than the very occasional evening watching the NT in the William Wallace pub there was virtually no connection down there.

 

[honestly united]

Having looked at Wiki for the original club, it appears they were an amateur club playing in the Isthmian League I had wondered if it was the advent of professionalism, as they were originally one of the top teams but by the time of the second world war had slipped down the ranks, but the Isthmian League was amateur until the 70's.

Without doing too much digging it may have just been the better players gravitated to the professional ranks rather than play the odd amateur game?

[anonanist]

Interesting one.

In terms of Scottish football, Glasgow Irish and Edinburgh Irish seem to do well enough.

There might be many a mongrel in London, resident or visiting, who would look at a London Caledonians favourably.

[Tutankhamen]

Michael Gove for chairman and that other Tory MP that sang the rebs on the Bishopbriggs Celtic bus.

[Ivo den Bieman]

19 hours ago, honestly united said:

Having looked at Wiki for the original club, it appears they were an amateur club playing in the Isthmian League I had wondered if it was the advent of professionalism, as they were originally one of the top teams but by the time of the second world war had slipped down the ranks, but the Isthmian League was amateur until the 70's.

Without doing too much digging it may have just been the better players gravitated to the professional ranks rather than play the odd amateur game?

Either that, or the people running the club in 1939 didn't make it through the war. It's incredible how just one untimely fatality / walking away can be fatal for a club. Nithsdale Wanderers- once a SFL club and active at a lower level until the late 50s- being a case in point. Can't remember the name of their long serving chairman but the original ex-SFL club didn't long outlive him.

[Cal]

I find the idea slightly nationalistic (in a bad way)

To be honest there aren't that many scots in london anyway that I can see.. not in comparison to irish, spanish, italian, polish etc anyway.

Ps on millwall, I think the team was started by scots to do with the docks. Millwall area is actually north of the river at isle of dogs (where canary wharf is) but they moved south of the river. there is actually a big scottish influence in east london generally when it was being built up in the early victorian times, particularly in dockland areas.. theres a lot scottish street names.. poplar, plaistow etc have a lot of these but they're elsewhere as well.. I believe this was the scottish entrepreneurs around that time who built houses for the dock workers and named the streets after scottish places.

Edited December 12, 2020 by Cal

[Jacksgranda]

On 23/09/2020 at 09:07, Oldster said:

£100. Plus another £500 if the government pays me if I have to self isolate.

I think people respond to what they identify with and loyalty comes from that.

But you can't make a sow's purse out of a silk ear so maybe it's a non-starter.

I think Neil Lennon has proved otherwise...

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Prior to professionalism when even international level Rugby players had day jobs London Scottish were attracting Scotland qualified top level players who were pursuing careers down south. They've provided more full Scotland internationals than any other club and were also the basis of "the exiles", the 5th team in the Scottish district championship.

In the era of professionalism top level players who find themselves in London are there because they've signed for a professional club in London as opposed to working as an accountant or a doctor so the old model didn't fit any more and the club failed to survive as a professional outfit.

They had however spit the professional side off from the amateur operation which continued and thrived so having been non league at the start of the century the club's first XV are in the English second tier and moving back towards professionalism but they're now an "open" club so you don't need to be even vaguely Scottish to play for them