Millwall’s Changing Communities Research Project

Experiences of football, community, and neighbourhood are central to the Millwall’s Changing Communities project. Conducted over a period of two years, this Lottery-funded initiative was led by Bede House. Millwall FC sits in an increasingly diverse part of South London. And yet black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) fans are a largely undocumented part of its history. Accordingly, the project focuses on the club’s past and present role within a rapidly changing local population.

Why Millwall? The club is infamous for the chant ‘No one likes us, we don’t care’. It is historically known less for footballing achievements than for a fan base with a reputation for intimidation and racial abuse of opponents. But by tapping into memories and experiences of BAME Millwall fans over a 50-year period, the project challenges existing perceptions. It presents a more nuanced understanding of what it means to be ‘Wall’.

The recorded oral histories at the core of the project are held by the Southwark Local History Library. There, they are available to the public. But most of the thematic pages presented here also hold excerpts from these interviews.