We have mentioned elsewhere on this site about the fact that football club nicknames can sometimes be really obvious and sometimes be a little bit off the beaten track. Some clubs have a name that comes from the colour of the kit they’ve worn for most of their existence, for example, whilst others have a moniker that has emerged from something such as the place where they play their games. It is the latter category that Fulham fall into, having played their matches at Craven Cottage since 1896 and therefore being known as ‘the Cottagers’ almost ever since they moved in.
About Craven Cottage
Fulham Football Club was founded in 1879, playing at a number of different locations around the local area in the years that followed. They played matches at the likes of ‘The Mud Pond’ on Star Road, for example, as well as The Half Moon in Putney. At the same time, the location where their home ground would actually be built had had a cottage constructed on it in 1780. It was built by William Craven, who was the sixth Baron Craven, and located close to where one of the stands exists nowadays. It was lived in by numerous well-known people, including author Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
The cottage was destroyed by fire in the May of 1888, with the site being abandoned as a result. Representatives of the football club came across the land in 1894, but it was so overgrown that it was impossible to build a football ground on it initially. It took two years for the location to be made suitable, during which time a deal was struck with the owners of the location to carry out work, giving them a portion of the gate receipts in return. The first stand was built towards the end of 1896, following the first match played there between Fulham St Andrew’s Church Sunday School F.C. and Minerva.
The Nickname’s Origin
When Fulham began playing their matches, they did so as Fulham St Andrew’s Church Sunday School Football Club, with the idea being that playing the sport would keep people fit. It was during these early years of existence that the club’s first nickname came about, being referred to as ‘the Saints’ by those who watched them because of that link to St Andrew’s Church. Obviously, the nickname didn’t stand the test of time, if for no other reason than the decision was taken to shorten the football club’s name right down to just ‘Fulham’, based on the area in which it was based.
The church team played in black and white, which is something that the football club chose to stick with once it turned professional. For a long time, Fulham played with white shirts and black shorts, which resulted in some people calling them the Whites and some referring to them as the Black & Whites. That remains the case even today, although it isn’t the nickname that they are known best by. That honour unquestionably goes to ‘the Cottagers’, which is a reference to the fact that the West London club play their games at Craven Cottage, with an obvious new nickname coming into play.