85% Of West Ham Fans Agree – One Word Has To Go

By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)

West Ham supporters have delivered a pretty emphatic verdict on the club badge.

As Claret & Hugh reported, 15,911 supporters responded to the club’s recent crest consultation, with 15,314 verified responses.

And the headline figure is difficult to ignore: 85% of supporters who responded favour changing the current crest.

I’m firmly among them.

I’ve written previously about my feelings on the badge, and while everybody will have their own idea of what a new West Ham crest should look like, there is one particular change I desperately want.

Get rid of the word London.

Just get rid of London

I’ve never liked it.

I understand why it was put there and what the thinking was at the time, but West Ham United doesn’t need to tell anybody where it comes from.

The club is West Ham United. That’s the identity.

For me, removing London would immediately improve the badge before anybody had even started discussing what else should replace it.

There will obviously be plenty of debate about whether the castle should return, whether we stick with the crossed hammers and what shape the new crest should take.

Personally, I’m not particularly precious about the castle.

I don’t need the castle back

I know the old castle badge means an awful lot to many supporters and I completely understand why.

But I don’t necessarily need West Ham to recreate an old badge.

I’d be perfectly happy with the crossed hammers remaining the main feature, but I’d like the crest itself to have something of the old castle about it.

Perhaps rather than the straight line across the top of the current shield, it could have a turret shape which gives a nod to the castle without simply bringing the old badge back.

I’d also be quite happy to see the hammers in blue rather than yellow, with West Ham United underneath them.

Something recognisably West Ham, something simple and something which takes the best bits of the club’s badge history without trying to reproduce any particular era.

So I had a go myself

Having spent the last couple of months watching other people produce their own designs of the club badge, I thought I’d have a go myself.

Now, you’ll have to excuse the wonky writing. I’m not much good at this kind of stuff, but something like this would work well enough for me and possibly gives the best of both worlds with the hammers and the castle.

Although I am very aware I won’t be winning any awards for graphic design anytime soon.

Supporters are finally being asked

The most encouraging thing about all of this is that supporters are actually being consulted.

West Ham have confirmed that the next stage will involve focus groups before proposed designs are presented in spring 2027, with the intention of introducing a new crest in summer 2028.

That’s how it should be done.

The club and the Fan Advisory Board have an opportunity to come up with something supporters actually feel belongs to them rather than simply presenting us with a finished product.

Almost 16,000 people taking the time to respond tells you there is considerable interest in getting this right.

There will never be a badge which pleases absolutely everybody. Some will want the castle back, some will want crossed hammers alone and others will have completely different ideas.

But 85% agreeing that the current badge needs changing is a pretty substantial starting point.

For me, they can start with one very simple alteration.

Lose London.