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The Corinthian League was an English amateur football league in and around London.

The league was formed in 1945 on the resumption of football after World War II with nine clubs - Grays Athletic, Erith & Belvedere, Slough United, Maidenhead United, Windsor & Eton, Walton & Hersham, Twickenham, the London Fire Forces and Epsom Town. The reason for its creation being dissatisfaction amongst several of these clubs when, after years of war-time competitions (such as the Herts & Middlesex league and the South-East Combination) when they had played, with reasonable success, against supposedly 'bigger' clubs from the Athenian and Isthmian Leagues, they found themselves ordered back into the weak Spartan and London Leagues.^{[citation needed]}

The Corinthian was a great success^{[citation needed]} - as was football in general immediately after the war, and the following season Uxbridge, Hounslow Town, Eastbourne, Carshalton Athletic, Edgware Town and Bedford Avenue joined (with Twickenham & the Firemen dropping out due to loss of their grounds). In 1948 Chesham United joined. In 1949 so did Epsom (with Bedford Town leaving and Walton & Hersham joining the Athenian League). A year later Tilbury came from the London League and four seasons of stability reigned and 14 clubs stayed the norm.

In 1954 Yiewsley arrived from the Delphian League to replace Hounslow, who joined the Athenian. This was to set a patern for the rest of the Corinthian league's history as Carshalton left for the Athenian in 1956. Despite the addition of Clubs with the stature of Dagenham (Delphian League Champions), Wembley and Dorking, the eyes of the league's top clubs were always looking elsewhere and, although it had expanded to 16 teams by 1963, it was absorbed that year into the Athenian League to create its first division, with the Delphian league becoming the Athenian second division.