Canvas For Change

Kirsten Allen, England

We have teamed up with MiXR, the app that helps you find the best pubs and bars to watch football, to showcase the diversity of fan and pub culture throughout England and Scotland during the 2024 Euros. Eight passionate fans have documented the tournament atmosphere at MiXR pubs across the UK while cheering on their national team to show there is a place for any fan, whatever you’re for.

Kirsten Allen is a football-focused photographer and artist who cheered on England with her friends at the Whittington Stone in London.

My name is Kirsten and I am 35, an artist and photographer, and I live in London. I was brought up in Wales on a tiny island, so Match of the Day and England tournaments were the extent of what was available to me as a football fan. Now I reside on what I call the Golden Road because it leads straight to the Spurs stadium turnstiles. I am Tottenham till I die and into the afterlife. 

Football is pretty much my reason for living: it is the subject matter of my art practice and how I structure my life and my community. It is the lens I use to understand the world and my method for achieving transcendence. There are certain moments in football, often connected to a special goal, a last-minute winner, or achieving a tournament dream, where we detach from reality and lose ourselves as the crowd becomes one. 

I am working on a photography project called TRAINING GROUND which is centred on ‘bloke culture’ at Tottenham, showcasing how the pavements from pubs to stadia are the route boys take to become men and the potential for football to change the world. I also make works by shaving text into artificial grass which utilises protest language and the laws of the game to interrogate the intersection between football pitches and women’s land rights.

Zero To Ultra

My football journey started when I was about nine, sitting on a coach bus filled with singing Everton fans and my Dad as we wound our way towards Liverpool over the Welsh hills. I remember the red bricks reaching into the sky, the warmth of the crowd, the girl lobbing toffees, and the thick Scouse accent yelling BACK-O-THE-ECHO behind me. It was a formative experience but Everton was not my team and as a girl, I lost my way with club football. 

It is easy for women to assume football is not for them as the male-dominated spaces trap the magic within. I felt a resistance to it, that by not choosing it I was also not choosing the negative aspects of society it contained.

There is a reason football in England has traditionally been kept from anyone who is not a straight white male and that is because it is liberating. Once I found Spurs, I went from zero to ultra overnight and now think of my presence as an important role in making space for others.

Not A Jinx

My first vivid memory of England was Beckham’s kick on Simeone and my brother crying himself to sleep on the bottom bunk. That was the moment that I realised football is life. 

Supporting a team is life-affirming because it is driven by dedication and hope. For me, this means not knowing if I will see the England men lift a trophy in my lifetime. I was lucky enough to be at Wembley when the Lionesses won the Euros and it is a privilege I will never take for granted. I saw the world change for girls in front of my eyes and knew I could die having witnessed my dream come true. I called my mum as soon as I got phone signal and hearing what it meant to her as a woman born in the 50s will always stay with me. 

She was from an age where women were taught sewing instead of science. It was an unbelievable spectacle for her to see Wembley overflowing with support for women’s football and for the Lionesses to triumph in front of the world. She died this year and I think about her at every game. That is what football is and the depth at which it runs. 

I have an England bag which is my tournament kit and it goes everywhere with me. It is filled with flares, fireworks, merch, flags and props. The English flag is loaded and contentious but it can be reclaimed. I try to do what I can to make English football a progressive and inclusive place because it can be a powerful canvas for discussion and change. 

I got an ‘It’s coming home’ doormat into Wembley for the women’s Euros final and that seemed to work! I also like to whack a ketchup and mayo St George’s Cross on my match day fry-up!

You must also remember, if you predict something such as your team winning you have to say ‘NOT A JINX’ straight after or it will not come true! 

I also like to design flags that repurpose the identifiers and language of football to question how we can move forward. Superstitions are woven into the belief system of football and fans as a collective can influence events.

Footballers often step onto the pitch with the same foot while fans wear lucky socks and sit in the same chair at the pub where they last got a result. Simultaneously, the feeling of a nation can influence the belief of the team, the crowd can drive their confidence and the media affects the weight of pressure on their shoulders. It is a balancing act between reality and superstition.

Our Communal Living Room

I am making the pilgrimage to Germany for the Denmark game, and hopefully some other matches if the stars align. Otherwise, I will be watching with mates in a selection of London boozers. 

Pub culture is one of the best things about England; pubs are our communal living room. The way club rivalries and differences melt away to unite strangers in collective dreaming is magical. Nothing is better than being with your mates, making new ones over pints, and then throwing those same pints into the air and over them all when a goal goes in. 

Full Spectrum

I took photos at Whittington Stone, a lively community pub in Archway. It is interesting to consider what drives the impulse to click the shutter on a camera, and this is something I am still figuring out with my art practice. 

I enjoy building a story through images and trying to show the journey through a match. I wanted to show the characters we met along the way and the moments that united England fans in pubs around the country. 

In addition to the intense emotions of football, I am also drawn to the quiet moments and the spaces in between, as this shows the full spectrum of fandom.