Meridian Valley Park Football Club is a
football club
A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all- ...
located in
Charlton, in the
Royal Borough of Greenwich,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, England. Affiliated to the
Kent FA, they are currently members of the and play at the Meridian Sports & Social Club.
History
The club was founded in 1995 as Meridian S&S. They joined the Dartford & District League, finishing as runners-up in 1999–2000 and winning the League Cup in 2002–03 after losing the final in three of the four previous seasons. In 2003 they joined Division Three West of the
Kent County League. The division was disbanded at the end of the 2003–04 season and the club were moved up to Division Two West.
Despite finishing second-from-bottom of the division for three consecutive seasons between 2008–09 and 2010–11, they became founder members of the
Kent Invicta League
The Kent Invicta Football League was a football league in England, formed in 2011 to commence operations for the 2011–12 season. It covered the traditional English county of Kent, some of which is now in Greater London. It merged with the South ...
, moving up three levels. In 2013 the club was renamed Meridian VP,
following a merger with Valley Park. In 2016 the league merged into the
Southern Counties East League
The Southern Counties East Football League is an English football league established in 1966, which has teams based in Kent and Southeast London. Until 2013, it was known as the Kent League. There was a previous Kent League, that existed from ...
, becoming its Division One.
[
]
Other teams
The club also ran a veterans team. In 2012 Derek May, still playing at the age of 74, scored his 1,300th goal.
Ground
Meridian play their home games at the Meridian Sports & Social Club on Charlton Park Lane in Charlton. The social club was established in 1921 by employees of Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad.
The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
who worked at the company's Woolwich
Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...
factory, with staff contributing money towards its running from their weekly pay. The sports ground was bought in 1933, with the clubhouse built in 1936.[The History of the Meridian Sports and Social Club]
Charlton Parks The site was left derelict after the company closed the factory in 1967, but was reopened in 1977 when it was leased by Greenwich London Borough Council
Greenwich London Borough Council is the local authority for the Royal Borough of Greenwich in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Greenwich is divided into 23 wards, electing ...
.[ Once reopened, the site hosted football, hockey, rugby and athletics. During the 1980s it was the home ground of ]Thamesmead
Thamesmead is an area of south-east London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located east of Charing Cross, north-east of Woolwich and west of Erith. It mainly consi ...
.Thamesmead Town
Pyramid Passion
Honours
*Dartford & District League
**League Cup winners 2002–03
Records
*Best FA Vase
The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...
performance: Second round, 2017–18[
]
References
External links
*
{{Coord, 51.478587, N, 0.047646, E, display=title
Football clubs in England
Football clubs in London
Association football clubs established in 1995
1995 establishments in England
Kent County League
Kent Invicta Football League
Southern Counties East Football League