Milwall FC

No one likes us – we don’t care.

Millwall.

At the height of the football hooliganism phase in the late 1960s, Millwall were singled out by the media as some of the worst culprits. London newspapers written by society’s bigwigs decided the working class of the East End obviously had to be at fault somehow. That reputation has stuck for decades. But there is far more to this club and its heritage than just a handful of dockers beating unfortunate fans black and blue in cul-de-sacs on away days.

Millwall is a club born in a factory, shaped by the docks, and carried by a working-class community whose identity has always been central to its badge.

So let’s #GetTheBadgeIn and take a clear look at how Millwall came to be so notorious — and why on earth there is a lion on their badge.

Millwall were founded in 1885 on the Isle of Dogs, not in Bermondsey where they play today. Their origins lie in J.T. Morton’s jam and preserves factory. Morton’s was not a local company; it was originally founded in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1849 to supply sailing ships with preserved foods. When the firm opened its first English processing plant on the Isle of Dogs in 1870, it brought with it a large Scottish workforce, especially from the Dundee dockyards. These workers — many of them young, skilled, and used to physical labour — formed Millwall Rovers, the club that would later become Millwall FC. They adopted the dark blue and white of their nation’s colours, and it stuck.

The first players were dockers, labourers, engineers, and lightermen — classic East End trades. Millwall grew out of these communities, and the club’s reputation for toughness was shaped long before it became a media stereotype.

The Isle of Dogs was more than warehouses. It was a major centre of shipbuilding and heavy engineering, including the Millwall Iron Works, which produced steel and armour plating used in Royal Navy ship construction. At the Battle of Jutland, the largest — and most vicious, if inconclusive — clash of the battleship age, the Royal Navy threw over 1.5 million tonnes of steel into the fight. Much of it was moulded, beaten, and welded by Millwall fans.

Crowds were difficult to build on the Isle of Dogs because few people actually lived in the area. After a series of basic early grounds, the club moved in 1910 to The Den on Cold Blow Lane. The Old Den became one of the most intimidating stadiums in the country, where the noise level and the closeness of supporters created the famous “Millwall Roar.”

In 1993, the club moved a short distance to the New Den, the first all-seater stadium constructed in England after the Taylor Report, which stated that following the Hillsborough Disaster, grounds must provide more seating and be safer. It lacks the closeness of the Old Den, but that does not stop the supporters turning it into an intimidating place for visiting teams.

So why The Lions?

The common myth is that the lion comes purely from the Scottish founders. The truth is more mixed. Millwall were originally known as The Dockers, which makes perfect sense given their factory and shipyard background. The lion badge only appeared in the early 20th century, 30-40 years after the club was founded. It was a time when nationalism and pride in “Britannia” were booming after the bruising experience of the Boer War (where Britain initially got its arse handed to it by a bunch of Dutch farmers – before mass mobilisation of Britain’s workers levelled the score).

The lion was the animal at Britannia’s side. It suited the club’s emerging identity, and over time the lion replaced the Dockers nickname.

The artistic origin of the lion is a bit cloudy. The version used from the 1970s onwards may have come from an illustration in the Lion comic by Geoff Campion, but the club could not trace the original artist when trying to trademark it, forcing later redesigns.

Others suggest it comes from the long tradition of the Red Lion pub sign in Britain. The red lion appears on royal coats of arms (today shown in yellow on a red background). Scottish heraldic lions were also popular — the Scottish FA fly a red lion, and Middlesbrough’s own red lion has similar Scottish roots.

Millwall’s badges have taken many subtly different shapes. A single rampant lion (standing on its back legs) was used from 1978, though its quality varied on replica shirts. In 1992, Bukta introduced a roundel crest featuring the lion within a circle spelling out the club’s name. Later versions returned to more traditional shield designs with two lions and a football, before the modern rampant lion — almost reaching out of the badge and looking a little like the Detroit Lion’s badge — became the club’s long-term crest.

Despite changes in shape, the underlying identity remained the same. Millwall is a club founded by Scottish migrants working in a London jam factory, shaped by the docklands and ironworks of the Isle of Dogs, and carried south of the river by supporters who walked through the Greenwich Foot Tunnel to follow their team. Their reputation — good and bad — is rooted in their industrial origins: hard jobs, strong communities, and a straightforward outlook on life.

Nobody likes them. But they don’t care.

With thanks to research from whatsbehindthebadge.com.