Millwall FCMillwall FC is a club whose name has outlived the place it was taken from. The team was founded in 1885 as Millwall Rovers by workers at the canning and preserve factory of J.T. Morton in the Millwall area of the Isle of Dogs in East London, and played its first match on 3 October 1885. Morton's opened its first English plant at Millwall Dock in 1872 and attracted employees from across the country, particularly from the east coast of Scotland and above all Dundee. In 1910 the club left the Isle of Dogs for New Cross, south of the Thames, but kept its name.
In its early decades Millwall, playing as Millwall Athletic, won the inaugural Southern League in 1895 and reached the FA Cup semi-finals in 1900 and 1903. The club joined the Football League in 1920, won the third-tier title in 1927–28 with crowds of more than 40,000, and reached another FA Cup semi-final in 1937. From 1988 to 1990 it played in the top flight, but it has never won the English league title or a European trophy.
The club's history is marked by its grounds. The Den, the present stadium, is Millwall's sixth, after Glengall Road, the Lord Nelson Ground, the Athletic Grounds, North Greenwich and the Old Den. The Old Den, opened on 22 October 1910 at a cost of about £10,000, was the club's home for 83 years. The last match there was played on 8 May 1993. Just a quarter of a mile away, in Bermondsey, a new stadium opened on 4 August 1993, first called the New Den and now simply The Den. It was opened by opposition leader John Smith, and Sporting CP won the opening friendly 2–1. It was the first stadium built for a professional club in London since 1937. The ground holds about 20,000 spectators, and the team plays in blue and is known as The Lions.
The most famous chapter of recent history came in 2004. Millwall, led by player-manager Dennis Wise, reached the FA Cup final. In the semi-final against Sunderland, the decisive goal was scored by the Australian Tim Cahill. In the final in Cardiff Manchester United won 3–0, but Millwall were the first finalists from outside the top flight since 1982. Because United had already qualified for the Champions League, the UEFA Cup place went to Millwall. In 2004–05 the club therefore played in Europe for the first and so far only time, going out in the first round to Ferencváros after the second leg in Budapest.
Outside that one exception, Millwall's standing has been built in less visible moments. In 1983 the club won the Football League Group Cup, and in 2010 and 2017 it won play-off finals. For most of its history it has played outside the elite and in recent years it competes in the second tier, while keeping a very loyal supporter base. At Millwall, belonging to the club and to the community it grew out of has mattered for generations as much as trophies. It is this attachment to the working-class district where the club was founded that remains the central element of its identity.