Eminent Victorians

The excellent Historical Kits website has updated its Eminent Victorian Clubs page to include Dulwich Hamlet. The illustration of the kit carries the date of 1896, three years after the foundation of the club.  

In the very early days the 'club colours' were red and blue, with playing kit a basic “white sweater and dark knickers.” By January 1896 the Hamlet were wearing its famous colours, the South London Press newspaper referring to them as‘the pink and blues’.  

The earliest Dulwich Hamlet team photograph we have dates from the 1900/01 season at the very end of the Victorian era. It shows the players wearing a buttoned-up shirt of pink and blue halves, which the 'historical kit' is clearly based on.. However, we cannot assume the style of the playing strip had been the same for the previous six or seven years.

As the twentieth century progressed Dulwich began to sport a variety of stripes and the occasional hoops, before finally settling on the bold blue stripe, pink sides and blue sleeves, which remained unchanged for four decades. See Gentlemen's Outfit for our own article about the many changes to the Dulwich Hamlet strip.

At the Historical Kits site you can check out all your other favourite teams.