How Was Chelsea Football Club Founded?

Chelsea Football Club was founded on March 14th, 1905 at the 'Rising Sun' pub which is now known as 'the Butcher's Hook' and is situated opposite the main entrance to the ground on Fulham Road.

A businessman called Gus Mears and his brother Joseph bought the Stamford Bridge Athletics ground in 1896 with the idea of holding football matches there. However they were unable to persuade Fulham to adopt it as their home ground and Mears was on the verge of selling the ground in 1904 when his friend Fred Parker persuaded him to start up a new football team to play there instead.

The name of the club proved to be something of a dispute in the early years. London FC, Kensington FC and Stamford Bridge FC were all rejected as options. There was already a Fulham team in the area, so eventually the name of 'Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea' was settled upon.

Mears decided that the team would play in blue, which was the racing colour of Lord Chelsea.