A man stood by a front door decked with West Ham items
Anthony Pemberton, known as Westy, whose Cardiff home is a shrine to West Ham
When you live more than 190 miles from your team's stadium, it's not easy to feel connected, but Anthony Pemberton has managed to find a way to make Cardiff feel a little more like the London stadium.
His Grangetown home is a shrine to the Hammers. He is parent to a 16-year-old son called Upton, whose name is inspired by West Ham’s old stomping ground Upton Park. Upton has the middle name Brooking, after Trevor Brooking who scored the winning goal against Arsenal in the 1980 FA Cup final.
Anthony’s life-long obsession with West Ham United began when, aged five, he saw a black football player on TV for the first time. That player was Clyde Best – a striker for West Ham United, one of the first black footballers to play in the English Premier League.
"I saw a black player that looked like my dad or myself,” says Anthony, whose parents moved from the Caribbean to Cardiff during the Windrush era. "He drew me to West Ham being black, with dark skin and Afro hair. It was like ‘woah’ because there was nobody else black then playing English football."
Anthony's home is decked with Hammers merchandise (Image: Rachel Fergusson)
Soon, his school friends started calling him "Westy" – the nickname that people in Grangetown still know him by 50 years later.
With his huge, booming personality and decades working in council-run children’s services, Anthony has made a name for himself in the community. "You could just walk around here, and ask people if they know Westy," he said. And most people know exactly where he lives too – because his house is the only one in Grangetown painted in West Ham’s claret and blue.
His son is called Upton Brooking, after the club's former ground and legendary player (Image: Rachel Fergusson)
"My house has been like this for 20 years. I remember when I first decided to do it, I did check with a few of the neighbours. I said ‘look, I’m going to do my house claret and blue, with the hammers and the irons’. No one cared, because I think they would all say I’m a great neighbour."
Pictures of Anthony's son, Upton, in West Ham shirts adorn a wall (Image: Rachel Fergusson)
Inside, there is West Ham-themed carpet running up his stairs, the walls are framed West Ham football kits and even his radiators are painted purple to fit the colour scheme. Until last year, his entire living room was painted sky-blue with claret-coloured skirting boards. Now replaced with a vibrant floral wallpaper, he decided to redecorate after a female friend told him it wasn’t very tasteful.
But mostly, he doesn’t really care what anyone thinks. “I’m a bachelor!” he said.
His home is painted in the distinctive club colours and draws attention from passers by (Image: Rachel Fergusson)
While he doesn’t buy as much any more, he says he used to spend thousands of pounds on memorabilia and football kits for his son. I’d go up to catch a game and go to the shop afterwards. I knew the manager there on first name terms and she’d always get me a personal shopper. She’d say ‘walk around with Mr Pemberton’." For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here
His house often grabs the attention of passers-by and occasionally he catches people taking pictures. When the US President Barack Obama visited Wales he got an unexpected knock on the door. It was armed policemen.
"They said ‘we’re from Essex, we can’t believe this house!’ I told them, leave your guns there, you can come in and have a little look around."
The West Ham carpet on Westy's stairs (Image: Rachel Fergusson)
When Upton was christened, Anthony says: “Everybody in the church was thinking, typical Westy. There’s no kids named Anfield, Old Trafford or Highbury. No other guys are doing that, he’s unique.”
But despite being showered with all things West Ham since he was born, Anthony, 60, says Upton isn’t that much of a fan while Anthony has been to more than 100 West Ham games – taking the coach from Cardiff to East London.
To this day, Clyde Best remains his biggest idol. "I’d like to think that if you walk around Grangetown and ask people if they know Westy, they might say he’s loud and don’t shut up, but it would be said with genuine love and affection and respect."