Hermit Road Hermit Road Hermit Road was a stadium located in Canning Town in London, England. It was the first home ground of football club Thames Ironworks, the works team of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company. The club would later be reformed as West Ham United. The ground was used by Old St Luke's from 1892 and continued to be used after the club merged with Castle Swifts to become Old Castle Swifts, the first professional football club in Essex, for the 1894–95 season. Thames Ironworks took over the tenancy of the ground from Old Castle Swifts in the summer of
Thames A.F.C. Thames A.F.C. Thames Association Football Club were an English football club from Custom House, east London (at the time part of Essex), who briefly played in the Football League between 1930 and 1932. Unlike other AFCs such as Sunderland A.F.C., the word Association was initially presented as part of the club name – i.e. Thames Association or Thames Association FC. The "Association" was abbreviated upon joining the Football League, giving the team the more regular name of Thames AFC. They were founded in 1928, in a similar manner to Sheffield United, Liverpool, New Brighton Tower and nearby Chelsea: to play