The Valley (stadium)

In Charlton Athletic's early years, the club had a nomadic existence, using several different grounds between its formation in 1905 and the beginning of the First World War in 1914. The Valley dates from 1919, at a time when Charlton were moderately successful and looking for a new home. Fred Barned, the club’s honorary chairman, found an abandoned sand and chalk pit in Charlton, but did not have sufficient funds to fully develop the site. An army of volunteer Charlton supporters dug out a flat area for the pitch at the bottom of the chalk pit and used the excavated material to build up makeshift stands. The ground's name most likely comes from its original valley-like appearance. The club played its first game at the ground before any seats, or even terraces, were installed. There was simply a roped-off pitch with the crowd standing or sitting on the adjoining earthworks. The unique circumstances of the ground's initial construction by its supporters began an unusually intense bond between the club's supporters and the site that still exists.

For six months during the 1923–24 season, Charlton played at The Mount stadium in Catford as part of a proposed merger with Catford Southend FC which ultimately fell through, resulting in Charlton moving back to The Valley.^[2]

In 1967, Len Silver the promoter at Hackney made an application to open Charlton as a British League speedway club, and plans were proposed to construct a track around the perimeter of the football pitch. The application was enthusiastically supported initially, but was eventually ruled out on the grounds of noise nuisance.^{[citation needed]}

For many years, The Valley was one of the largest Football League grounds in Britain.^[3] However, Charlton's long absence from the top level of English football prevented much-needed renovation, because funds dried up and attendances fell. Charlton were relegated from the First Division in 1957 and did not return until 1986. In 1972, the club was relegated to the Third Division for the first time in the post-war era. In the early 1980s, the club's debts led to it almost going out of business. A consortium of supporters successfully acquired the club in 1984, but The Valley remained in the possession of the former owner, and the club was unable to finance the improvements needed to meet new safety requirements. Shortly after the start of the 1985–86 season, Charlton left The Valley, entering into an agreement with Crystal Palace to share the latter's Selhurst Park, the first official groundsharing arrangement in the Football League in 36 years.

In 1988, the ownership of the club and The Valley were again united and, in a "grass roots" effort that harked back to the ground's initial construction, thousands of supporters volunteered to clean the venue, eventually burning the debris in a huge bonfire on the pitch. By that time, however, the large terraces were no longer seen as desirable or safe. Charlton Athletic supporters proposed to completely rebuild the stadium so that the club could return there at the beginning of the 1990s. However, the Greenwich Council overwhelmingly turned down the plans to renovate the ground. Club supporters formed their own local political party, the Valley Party, in response to the council's decision. The party ran candidates for all but two Greenwich Council seats, sparing the two councillors who had approved the new stadium plans. The party won almost 15,000 votes in the 1990 Greenwich Council election,^[3] successfully pressuring the council to approve the plans for the new stadium.

In 1991, construction began on the new Valley, and the club moved from Selhurst Park to West Ham's Upton Park. It was originally hoped that the club would return to the stadium before Christmas that year, however the re-opening faced a series of delays before finally occurring in December 1992. Charlton celebrated their return to The Valley on 5 December 1992 with a 1–0 victory over Portsmouth.^[4] Following which, the ground underwent several significant changes. The north, east, and west sides were almost completely rebuilt, giving the ground a capacity of over 27,000 by December 2001, when Charlton were in their second season of a stay in the FA Premier League which would last for seven seasons. The club had ambitions to extend the ground's capacity to over 40,000 by expanding the east side and completely rebuilding the south side,^[5] but these plans were abandoned after Charlton were relegated from the Premier League in 2007.^[6]

The 2004 edition of the Unity Cup was held at The Valley from 29 May to 2 June. Nigeria, Jamaica and Ireland competed in the tournament, with Nigeria being the eventual winners of the cup.^[7] The 2026 edition of the Unity Cup will be held at The Valley from 26 May to 30 May, featuring Nigeria, Jamaica, Zimbabwe and India.^[8]

On 21 May 2017, The Valley hosted a charity match, in which the YouTube group Sidemen played against other major YouTube personalities, who formed the YouTube AllStars. The match, the Sidemen's first one of three at The Valley, ended 2–0 for the YouTube AllStars and raised £210,000 split between the NSPCC and the Charlton Athletic Community Trust (CACT).^[9]

Charlton's former owner Roland Duchâtelet retained ownership of The Valley after selling the football club in 2020, but subsequent owner, Thomas Sandgaard, negotiated a lease for the club to use the stadium until January 2035.^[10] This lease was extended to June 2040 by the club's current owners, Global Football Partners.^[11]

In March 2024, Charlton announced their intention to build a safe standing area which would be completed over the summer.^[12] Additional to this, the club had worked alongside the Charlton Athletic Supporters Trust to implement one of the UK's first 'Youth Specific Sections' for fans.^[13] In 2024, it was also announced a new 'Desso', (now GrassMaster), hybrid pitch would be installed as part of a six-figure investment by the club's owners, and a £750,000 grant from the Premier League Stadium Fund. The pitch began to be laid in May of that year. As part of the investment, Charlton Athletic Women's Football Club would play all of their home matches at The Valley.^[14]