Highbury – former stadium of Arsenal | The Football Stadiums.com

London - Highbury 24.02.2017: The ground, named after the district of Highbury, North London, was also known as Arsenal Stadium. Highbury, built already in 1913, used to be the home ground of Arsenal F.C. until they moved to the new Emirates Stadium in 2006. The stadium capacity was 38,419 seats. However, before the stadium was turned into an all-seater, it could hold much more spectators. A record for the number of spectators was set in 1935, when more than 73,000 people came to see Arsenal play Sunderland.

Arsenal had been planning to expand Highbury, which could then hold more than 38,000 spectators, ever since 1997. However, the stadium expansion was not approved by the council of the London Borough of Islington, within which Highbury is located. The club therefore decided to build a completely new ground on the site of a former factory, only 300 metres from Highbury. This project was eventually approved by the Islington Council in 2000.

Foto: Qwghlm (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Soon enough, the cost of the stadium construction exceeded the planned budget and the club was forced to suspend the construction works until February 2004. That same year the Arsenal management sought cooperation with the airline Fly Emirates, which also gave its name to the stadium. Emirates funded the completion of the stadium, and the total cost of construction went up to 390 million GBP. In July 2006 the construction was completed and the fans, players and all the other people affiliated with the club could finally enjoy the new stadium.

The former Arsenal stadium was then completely rebuilt and turned into luxury flats and offices. These are built on the site of the four former stands around the pitch, which was turned into a huge garden. Apparently, there are not many people who can afford such flats built on such an attractive site with such a history.