Until recently, it had been accepted that Hendon Football Club was founded in 1908 as Hampstead Town, and in their first season, they won the Finchley & District League's third division. Even the honours board at Hendon shows this, but is it correct? Apparently not. The final League table at the end of 1908/09 shows no trace of Hampstead Town FC - the third division champions were Christ Church Hampstead.

Writing in the Amateur Cup Final for the Wembley game against Wealdstone, respected local sports journalist Fred Harris, then sports editor with the Hendon Times states "Founded in 1908, reputedly under a lampost on a street corner, Hendon, the Hampstead Town, played in the Finchley League." Just where Fred got this little gem from is unknown, but the lampost theory is not unique to this club.

Simon Inglis writes in his book The Football Grounds of England & Wales in the section on Tottenham Hotspur that it is widely recorded that the early Hotspur team had no headquarters of their own until 1886 and so the committee had to meet under a gas lampost.

The history of AFC Bournemouth recalls a similar story. The present football club can trace it's roots as far back as 1890 when Boscombe St. Johns Institute FC were playing local football. They disbanded in 1899 and from the remains of that club, Boscombe FC were formed under the streetlights in Gladstone Road, Boscombe.

Jack Rollin writing in the 1972 Amateur Cup Final programme adds fuel to the fire. After describing Enfield's formation in 1900, he goes on to add "Hendon were formed eight years later as Hampstead and entered the third division of the Finchley League, they won the championship first time, won the second division the following season and went on to complete a hat-trick by topping the first division 12 months later. Quite a start." and indeed it was.

Most writers accept the hat-trick theory, but they don't agree on the name. They are divided in the use of Hampstead Town, or just plain Hampstead as the original title.

Enter Harold Whiddon who in his superb book 100 years of playing the game writes under a chapter titled "The beginning of the present Hendon Football Club" that it is worth noting that in "1878/79 there was in existence a successful Hendon Football Club and records show that they took part in the F.A. Cup first round that season, losing to Reading away 1-0. However, the present Hendon club was founded in season 1908/09 and entered the Finchley & District League under the name of Christ Church Hampstead. Around that time there were three clubs in the league under the name Christ Church, the other two being Christ Church Barnet and Christ Church Finchley."

The Amateur Football World magazine of 1947/48 confirms the Christ Church theory, but changes that date as it goes on to state "Actually the club started in 1909 when a bunch of lads who were attending the Christ Church, Hampstead, decided to form a football team, and with such a good start off (the three titles) they have not, literally, looked back".

We have discovered that a large number of sources have different views on the club's original name - all that the writers have in common is that they voiced their opinions many years after the clubs formation. We leave the last word with Lieut.Col.C.D.Crisp. When performing the ground opening ceremony here at Claremont Road in 1926 he stated in his speech that "Eighteen years ago, some young men belonging to Christ Church Hampstead formed a junior team, and in three years they were able to enter senior ranks. This was a fine performance, more particularly because they were out to play clean and sportsmanlike foorball, a tradition which Hampstead Town - now Hampstead - had always endevoured to maintain."

That speech places the Colonel closest of all (datewise) to the club's begining, and his mention of the Hampstead titles is the best proof we have, as yet, that the Christ Church and then Hampstead Town were one and the same. We now leave it to you to draw up your own conclusions.

That first season was 1908/09 and the club's results are proving hard to find. The Finchley Press of 18 September 1908 mentions the league and some clubs, but it appears as if the season had still not started, we have to wait until November 20 to find the results from games played on November 14. No result for Christ Church Hampstead, but in the fixture list for the following day we see, at last : Division Three Christ Church Hampstead v Caledonian Old Boys. The result 0-0, was printed in the paper a week later (27/11/08).

That was not the club's first game though, that fixture is still elusive, because the first league table that we have takes in games played on 28th November, a week after that game, and shows Christ Church Hampstead in second place having played four games, so the 0-0 was probably our third league game.