During my Holiday 2022/2023 UK trip, one of my main goals was to fully embrace the British football culture. I’ve been a Fulham fan for over a decade now, but my new football love is also the show Ted Lasso. If you didn’t know, Ted Lasso is set in Richmond and Richmond is actually a suburb of London and only a 30 min tube / train ride from Kensington. One day I decided to head out that way and soak in all the Ted Lasso feels.

One of the best things about going to Richmond is stopping into THE pub. The show used an actual pub, the Prince’s Head, and they have fully embraced the Ted Lasso fame. They keep a scarf at the bar so you can take a photo, but make sure to peek at one of the back booths on the way to the loo. They have a great array of show memorabilia and signed photos from cast and crew. Such a great embracing of the local pub!

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Note: If you want to have lunch there, make a reservation ahead of time, the dining room can get pretty packed. I was able to squeeze into a single seat in the bar area but if you have more than 1 or 2 flexible people, definitely book ahead.

I loved walking around Richmond (I stopped into a local bookshop and also took a 15 min stroll down the road to Kew. More on both of those later). This is definitely a stop worth making if you’re a Ted Lasso fan!

FULHAM V southhampton, 2022-12-31

I’ve been a Fulham fan for over a decade, but the last time I was able to go to a match in person was… about 12-13 years ago. So when I found out that my family friends were still season ticket holders and could help me get a ticket for the New Years Eve home match against Southampton, I was ECSTATIC (thank you Nick & Hilary!). It was a classic drizzling British day, but that didn’t matter. I had my Fulham beanie, I had a warm coat, and I had a legion of fans around me happy to support a home win! What a great way to spend New Years Eve before heading back into town for some proper new year celebrations.

If you’re looking to see a premier league football match when in England, most teams / games will give you an option to buy single-match tickets. If you’re American like me, it might take emailing the ticket office to confirm your billing info since many of the sites only have room for British addresses. For this particular game there were some special conditions though so having the local friends helped. When in doubt… just call or email the ticketing office if you’re traveling from abroad.

There’s nothing better than a win at home, and the boys delivered.

Thanks for coming along with me on a football filled couple of UK days. Next time you’re in the UK, even if you’re not a football / soccer fan… try to go to a match. It could be Premier League, it could be a tiny local team with standing-only fan areas. There’s something purely British about going to a match and you’ll no doubt enjoy it!

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Throwback memories from my 2016 UK trip:

See this post for the time I saw a Championship level match in Bristol.
I also saw AFC Wimbledon play during the same trip, but didn’t include any pictures. For info on that much smaller team, see this post and scroll down to the “Day 9” section or just search for “Wimbledon”.

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Happy Travels, V

All photos taken on a first-gen iPhone SE