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A tube station and former football stadium in
north Highbury, south of Finsbury Park. The football club, of course, is far from obscure but parts of its history are not
widely known. In 1913 St John’s College of Divinity leased its sports ground at Highbury to Woolwich Arsenal football
club, which had been founded in 1886 as the works team of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. Tottenham Hotspur and Orient football clubs (the latter then playing at Clapton) objected to the relocation but were overruled.
The club’s achievements were modest until Yorkshireman Herbert Chapman took over as manager in 1925. A strict disciplinarian
and canny businessman, Chapman guided Arsenal to FA Cup victory in 1930 and then to three league championships. To honour
the club’s successes, Gillespie Road station was renamed Arsenal in 1932. Highbury stadium was erected during the following
few years, to the design of Archibald Leitch, who was responsible for most of the great British stadia of the interwar era.
St John’s College was demolished after a fire in 1946 and the institution subsequently relocated to Northwood before
settling in Bramcote, Nottinghamshire in 1969. St John’s has a website that makes absolutely no mention of the secular detail that north London’s premier football club owes its Islington
existence to the college.
Arsenal played
their last competitive game at Highbury on 7th May 2006, beating Wigan Athletic 4-2 and in the process securing a place in
the 2006–7 Champions League, at the expense of north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Since the 2006/7 season, Arsenal
have played at the newly built Emirates Stadium at Ashburton Grove in nearby Drayton Park (see image below).
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