After 112 years, the turnstiles of West Ham United’s famous Boleyn ground in east London will crank for the last time at the end of next season. When the club moves the few miles into the Olympic Stadium, the Boleyn – also known as Upton Park – is set to be redeveloped as a “village” of 838 homes.

Yet community campaigners and supporters are angry that, in an area with a crippling lack of social housing, only 6% of the homes are earmarked as affordable, and many local people would never be able to afford the luxury flats on offer. The planning application, which was presented for approval earlier this month, makes no mention of any social housing in spite of a requirement in Newham council’s core strategy that big developments must deliver 35% to 50% affordable homes, of which 60% should be social housing.

Sean Whetstone, a West Ham fan who blogs on the website westhamtillidie.com says: “Many of us feel that there should be more support for local people where there is a desperate need for social housing.”

In spite of being the home of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Newham is the second poorest borough in England, and one of the most ethnically diverse. It has the severest housing need in London and the highest rates of overcrowding. There are 15,300 families on the housing waiting list and, according to the London Poverty Profile, one home in four (25%) in the borough is overcrowded, rising to one in three in wards surrounding the ground.

Newham’s housing shortage hit national headlines last year when a group of single mothers occupied vacant council homes in protest at plans to evict them and demolish a housing estate. The Focus E15 women argued that moving them out would “break down families”, and they said it was a prime example of Londoners being forced out of the capital because of a lack of cheap accomodation.

A cap on the total amount of benefits a family can receive annually means that Newham, along with other London boroughs, is moving families out of the capital to areas where there are cheaper rents. Angela Moore, the head of St Antony’s primary school, which is less than a mile from the ground, explains its impact on some of her pupils: “Social housing is a real concern for our school. A few of our families have been relocated overnight, often to homes outside London where they have no support network, severely disrupting children’s education and undermining the social resilience of families.”

A few hundred yards from the ground, the stallholders of Queen’s Market don’t think that a colony of “online Waitrose shoppers” in the Boleyn ground will do them any good. Saif Osmani, leader of the campaign group Friends of Queen’s Market, which was set up to protect the market from redevelopment, says: “We were asked for our view and stressed that, for local people, there was no way of getting on to the housing ladder at all, and that this development should be 100% social housing.”

Osmani believes the long-term impact of the development could be devastating. “Who is going to buy?” he asks. “Foreign investors, who might well keep them empty. I can’t understand why Newham has not demanded a greater stake for local people.”

Labour MP Stephen Timms, whose constituency includes the ground, is concerned that local people will be unable to afford to buy or rent homes. “It does seem a particularly small proportion of the development that, in the context of Newham, seems very difficult to justify,” he says. He plans to raise the issue with the developers, and hopes the council will do the same in negotiations.

West Ham originated as the works team of The Thames Iron Works and Shipbuilding Company. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

West Ham football club did not want to comment on the planning application. But it explains that the developer, Galliard Homes, was chosen because of its origins in east London. It points to Galliard’s “impresive links with the local community” and its commitment to honouring the legacy of the club, which was originally the works team of shipbuilders Thames Iron Works.

The proposed development will include a library and community centre, and the centrepiece will be a statue of Bobby Moore, captain of West Ham and of the England 1966 World Cup team, set in a landscaped garden. Fans and local residents are to be invited to enter a poll to name each building after a legendary player or a historic event at the club.

Though many West Ham fans no longer live near the ground, they are uneasy about the plans. Whetstone points out that just up the road in Canning Town, where there is another Galliard development, the penthouses are sellingfor between £410,000 and £600,000. “There is 6% affordable – but affordable to whom? These will be shared ownership, so people will still be asked to find a mortgage of £150,000 to £200,000, so we do feel for them,” he says.

It is rumoured that Galliard has paid between £30m and £50m for the site, although the developer refused to comment on the price.

“If you are building 800-odd homes at £400,000 each, that’s a good return,” says Whetstone. He warns that, given that many of the football club’s fans are now wealthy, there may be the same effect as happened at the former Arsenal FC stadium, Highbury, where fans bought many of the luxury flats when the club moved to the Emirates stadium eight and a half years ago.

Newham members of the East London Communities organisation (Telco) – a grassroots campaign group that is part of Citizens UK, which pioneered the living wage campaign, have sent a letter of objection to the council. It calls for the application to be rejected, as it fails to reflect the needs or desires of local residents and community groups.

Emmanuel Gotora, Telco’s senior organiser, says: “This area has arguably the most acute housing need in the whole of London, and it is incredible that there is no social housing provision [for people on low incomes]. The offer of only 51 affordable homes is a missed opportunity to give professionals who earn at least £27,821 – the median income salary for Newham – real choices to live, work and stay in the borough. Furthermore, the model proposed is not genuinely affordable in the long term.”

In a statement, Galliard Homes says: “Galliard has consulted with the local community and Newham council over the past year on what facilities are required in the local area. Discussions continue on the best way to deliver the right balance of high-quality housing, community facilities and sustainable regeneration for local people.”

The application will go the council’s strategy and development committee, but no date has been set for a hearing.

However, it looks as if it may have to go back to the drawing board. In a strongly worded statement, Sir Robin Wales, the Labour mayor of Newham, describes the initial application as “insulting and totally unacceptable”.

“The developers need to drastically rethink this ridiculous offer and ensure it offers a good mixture of tenures, including social, affordable and intermediate rents.

“It’s not just about new homes, though – I also want job opportunities for local people and community space that residents will be able to utilise. Newham residents must get the best deal out of any regeneration projects in the borough.”

Wales lays the blame for the lack of social housing in the borough firmly at the feet of the government.

He says: “Not only are they selling off social homes on the cheap through the right to buy, but they have in effect stopped subsidising the provision of new lower-rent homes.”

The London Plan, an overall strategic plan for the capital, stipulates that about 20% of housing developments should be for social housing. London boroughs’ local plans need to be in general conformity with the plan, and its policies guide decisions on planning applications . A spokesman for the London mayor, Boris Johnson, says the Galliard Homes application is due to be scrutinised on Wednesday 25 February. “The application will be assessed by the mayor and deputy mayor to see how it weighs up against the requirements of the London Plan,” the spokesman said. “If it doesn’t meet the criteria, we can go back to the developers and ask them to make suitable changes.”

Campaigners have protested outside the ground. They hope that, if all else fails, West Ham’s most famous supporter, Russell Brand, who visited the Focus E15 mums, will take up their cause.

How football came to the Boleyn

West Ham United started life as the works team of Thames Iron Works and Shipbuilding. In May 1895, David Taylor, a foreman at the company, which built battleships for the Royal Navy on the Thames at Blackwall, suggested it should form its own football club.



Company director Arnold Hills, jumped at the idea. He felt it might “wipe away the bitterness” left by a recent strike, but he was also concerned about the living conditions of local people. Hills commented that “the lack of recreational facilities was one of the worst deprivations in the lives of West Ham residents”. He added “the perpetual difficulty of West Ham is its poverty, it is rich only in its population.”

Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn in BBC2’s Wolf Hall. Photograph: Joan Wakeham/Rex

About 50 workers responded to an article in the company newspaper and the Thames Iron Works football club was born. The first team featured Francis Payne, a senior clerk, Charlie Dove, an apprentice riveter, Thomas Freeman (ship’s fireman), Johnny Stewart (boilermaker), Walter Parks (clerk), Walter Tranter (boilermaker) James Lindsay (boilermaker), William Chapman (mechanical engineer), George Sage, (boilermaker), George Gresham (ship’s plater) and William Chamberlain (foreman blacksmith).

The club became an established part of English football. By 1900, Hills decided to finance the takeover of another company by making Thames Iron Works a public company accountable to shareholders.

Under this arrangement he could no longer pump company cash into football so he decided to sell shares in the club. The capital of West Ham United was £2,000 (4,000 shares at 10s each). Hills purchased 1,000 shares and remained the major influence at the club. However, he was unable to enforce the idea that all players should be teetotallers.

In 1904, faced with problems renegotiating the rental of its established home at The Memorial Ground in Canning Town, it was suggested the club take a look at the Green Street House and grounds in East Ham. Green Street House was known locally as Boleyn Castle because of its imposing nature and a link with Henry VIII’s wife Anne Boleyn, who is traditionally believed to have either stayed there or owned the house, although there is no evidence of this.

