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
1895–96 Thames Ironworks F.C. season Millwall 0–6. 25 December saw Thames Ironworks face South West Ham at home, and they won 4–1, beginning a run of ten straight wins that ended on 17 February 1896, when they lost to South London team Vampires F.C. 1–3. In the semi-finals of the West Ham Charity Cup held on 15 February 1896, Thames Ironworks beat Park Grove 1–0, in a game staged in Plaistow. Park Grove protested over a technicality and forced a replay at Beckton Road, which The Ironworks won 3–0. On 7 March Thames Ironworks played Fulham for the first time in a friendly, winning the