London Historians' Blog

A guest post by London Historians Member Ed Glinert on the 60th anniversary of England’s only World Cup win, at Wembley Stadium. This article first appeared in London Historians Members’ Newsletter July 2026.

The World Cup, some might say the greatest show on Earth despite the best efforts of the organisers, FIFA, to ruin it, kicked off in the USA, Canada and Mexico on Thurday the 11th of June. Only once has it been held in England – in 1966 – and London was at the centre of activity. Only 16 teams took part (this year was a ridiculous 48) and only two stayed in London. England resided at the Hendon Hall Hotel, while Mexico chose the Alexandra National Hotel in Finsbury Park, probably unaware that it was a favourite haunt of Frances Shea, ill-fated wife of Reggie Kray.

World Cup Willie, claimed to be the first ever official mascot of any international sports festival. 

But preparations weren’t especially professional. The Observer wrote of “a shabby story of dithering and neglect”. Humiliation soured the build-up when on the 20th of March the Cup itself, the Jules Rimet Trophy, was stolen from a display cabinet at Westminster Central Hall. The thieves were Sidney (“Mr. Crafty”) Cugullere and his brother Reg, but they weren’t fingered for decades. Fortunately, the trophy was found in a garden in Norwood a week later by Pickles the dog. Interest in the tournament was slight. The media had not yet discovered football and then re-invented it as the be-all and end-all of existence. So for the opening match, England v Uruguay, Wembley wasn’t even sold out and there was no difficulty in obtaining tickets. A similar match in the future will probably result in the entire country going into meltdown as one billion people try for tickets. The England-Uruguay score was 0-0. Probably Arsenal’s fault. 

During the tournament, the England team passed time by going on a variety of outings. Off to Lord’s to watch Essex play Middlesex. Off to Muhammad Ali’s gym to watch him prepare for his fight against Brian London at Earl’s Court. A trip to Pinewood Studios saw them meet Sean Connery, Yul Brynner and Lulu. Plus there were cinema trips to Hendon Odeon. Nowadays the England players each have their own private cinema. Not every London match was held at Wembley. White City hosted Uruguay 2, France 1. The stadium stood at the south-west junction of Wood Lane and the Westway: no sign of it remains. 

Old Wembley Stadium, first opened in 1923. The roof over the stands was only completed in 1963.

This was not a tournament to rival the skills later seen in Germany, 1974, or the beautiful football of Spain 1982. Games veered from boredom to brutality. Pele, the world’s greatest player, was kicked off the park by Bulgaria and Portugal. The two most astonishing games in the run-up to the final were in the quarter-finals: England-Argentina and Portugal-North Korea. In those days, sendings-off were rarer than the transit of Venus. Nevertheless, Antonio Rattin, the Argentine captain, managed it for “violence of the tongue”. Predictably, he refused to go … for eight minutes. Later, the England manager, Alf Ramsey, in his inimitable manner, called the Argentinians “enimels” [not “animals”]. Oh, and England won 1-0. Less violent of the tongue was Portugal-North Korea at Goodison Park, Everton. The North Koreans brought with them myth, mystique, mystery (so what’s changed?) and went 3-0 up after 25 minutes. But it was clerico-fascism that triumphed over communism as the Portuguese fought back to win 5-3 thanks to four goals by Eusebio, top scorer at the tournament. 

Alf had promised England would win the World Cup. The hosts usually don’t. By the time of the final, apathy had finally turned to excitement. On the morning of the final, 30 July 1966, Ray Wilson and his room-mate, Bobby Charlton, went clothes shopping. “We went down the main street near Hendon,” Charlton recalled. “We walked down and not a lot of people knew us at all.” Look at videos of the crowd for the final. A host of Union Jacks, but no St George’s flags. Yet this was England, not the United Kingdom, and some Scots weren’t bothered. Denis Law, all-time Manchester United and Scotland goalscoring legend, was playing golf in Chorlton near Manchester during the match and claimed to his dying day that he never knew what the score was. The rest of the world knows it was England 4, West Germany 2 after extra-time, with one dodgy goal as part of Geoff Hurst’s hat-tirck. Equally well-known is Kenneth Wolstenhome’s commentary as the game drew to a close: “Some people are on the pitch, they think it’s all over!”, and as Hurst scored England’s fourth. “It is now!”. 

Then London went wild. Fans flooded Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. The team headed to the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington for the official banquet through packed roads and a police cordon. The players came out on the balcony to greet the crowds as prime minister Harold Wilson pushed the ever shy Alf Ramsey onto the platform: “It’s only once in a lifetime, you know”. More likely once in a millennium.