West Ham United Women

Roger Morgan, the club's Football in the Community officer, put the idea of a women's section to West Ham United in early 1991. A friendly that March gave the side its first outing, and a full competitive season followed in 1992, the club working its way up through Essex and London's non-league grades over the following decade, taking the Greater London Regional Premier League in successive seasons either side of 2000 and the South East Combination League a few years later.

Growth brought silverware rather than a settled home. The team collected the Essex FA County Cup three times through the 2000s and into 2013–14, then, after years at Rush Green, losing out to Manchester City. The previous season had already delivered a domestic double of sorts, the Isthmian League Women's Cup and the FA Women's Premier League Plate both won in 2017–18.

Money strained the club before the trophies did. In 2016, captain Stacey Little led a walkout of players over funding, a dispute that preceded the club's climb into the professional game. Two years later, West Ham signed Gilly Flaherty and Claire Rafferty from Chelsea, and brought in Jane Ross and Tessel Middag from Manchester City, a run of recruitment that marked the team's arrival among the country's leading sides. Viviane Asseyi has since served as vice-captain, with Katie Zelem now wearing the armband.

A league match against Tottenham Hotspur Ladies at the Boleyn Ground on 2 May 2016 drew a crowd of 1,741, a record at the time, and the rivalry with Tottenham has stayed the fiercest of the club's London derbies, alongside meetings with Arsenal and Chelsea. In September 2019 the team played its first match at the London Stadium, against Tottenham Hotspur Women, a world away from the school pitches at Brampton Manor and grounds in Harlow and Thurrock where the club had played in its earliest years.