at least we don't have this problem

[craig]

since moving to London i haven't really had chance to see any non league football, however about 1/4 of a mile down my road is the home of dulwich hamlet fc (and also fisher f.c who formed from the ashes of fisher athletic) and this past Saturday i had nothing on so decided i was going to go down and check them out, after looking on the website before leaving i saw that the game had been called off due to "a police investigation" after asking and looking around i found out that the night before there had been 1 person stabbed to death and 2 people shot in the car park of the ground.

that has to be one of the strangest, and also scariest reasons for a game to be postponed ever. i did manage to get down there last night though and watch them play horsham ymca, and i have to say that they have a very nice set up and well run club there, the ground was built by sainsbury's in a similar situation to Dorchester's. although this ground is on a bit of a smaller scale. is there no way we can talk asda or somebody into buying the land we're on and see if they can build us a new ground

[Steve T]

Rather like Cambridge City, Dulwich had an enormous old stadium, far too big for their needs and in a state of disrepair, and just like CC they sold a part of the site to build a smaller ground in the remainder of the plot (the area previously occupied by the training pitch). Attendances of 20,000 were regularly recorded at the old ground; the official record is given as 23,485 for a match in the 1948 summer Olympics, though it is thought that as many as 30,000 may have been inside at other times.

Pictures of new stadium.

I can find only one photo of the old stadium, at the bottom of this page.

The club has had constant problems with vandalism at the ground, despite having a major supermarket next door and all the human presence and activity that comes with that but as for shootings...well, this is Sarf Lundun and Peckham's just up the road – we all know what that area stands for today.

[Deleted]

Dulwich Hamlet's old ground was the first non-league ground I ever went to - other than Banbury's

I remember standing at the back of the stand that you can see in the photo. It seemed huge to me at the time - most impressed in terms of size but even then the old ground was showing its age

I have been tempted to go back to the new ground on a couple of ocassions in recent years but have never done so - I guess I missed my best opportunity when I had a year in London doing teacher training in the mid 1990s!

Born in Dulwich I was - I can imagine what certain individuals will call me now that I have admitted that - "Cockney *******!"

[turpentine]

Edgar Kail in my heart,keep me Dulwich.....

[brockie]

I was reading these posts with interest but a a non-member at the time was unable to participate with a reply until now.
Dear old Dulwich Hamlet, what a terrific little non-league ground it was until the supermarket appeared and across the road you will see the pub which, if you look up on the ledge around halfway up the outside you will see it adorned with stone footballers in various poses.
As a London boy who was brought up min Banbury, my earliest experiences were going down to Specer Stadium to see games because we couldn't afford to go to London for games in those days and I even attended the ground for fund raising for the Sea Cadet Corps - SCC Lion - as a youngster.
In later life it was down to the club house for the 'Disco's' they used to put on sporadically (does that still happen today?) and on a visit back to the UK a few years back I again popped doen to the ground for a wintery day's game where the Puritans managed to snatch a 2-2 draw from the jaws of victory where I was to attend with the local Banbury Guardian reporter but he didn't meet me in my old local - The Banbury Cross in Butchers row - so I attendned alone.
However, back to Dulwich Hamlet in a roundabout segway and as I had moved back to London in 1981 I used to live up the road in Nunhead Lane (Peckham) and would often pass by the gorund on my way to work or coming home...or when visiting the delightful ale houses up on Denmark Hill!
However, my son was born in East Dulwich hospital right behind the ground and I found out many years later that so too was Martin Tyler's a few months later as I lived on the Peckham side of Peckham Rye Park and he on the other which, much to our amusement, we discovered on one of my trips back to England when we had lunch together in the North Bank Restaurant before an Arsenal vs. Chelsea game that he was commentating on and I was co-presenting David Seaman with an award prior to the game on the pitch with a few of my colleagues.
Sad to day, the demise of the Dulwich Hamlet ground etc. is really a symptom of the South London way of life and violence was never very far away from the surface although it never truly was always like that.
It used to be an ecclectic mix of races, smells and music around that area but as usual it seems the focal point of local areas seems to be turning away from the football club which is a great pity as they have always proven to be the breeding ground of players and the clubs often depended on the income from the sale of promising starlets to survive.
Anyway, more than enough for a first post so I will wish you all well.
Be lucky
Brockie