By Jemma Tappenden
May 21 2009

The current location of Wembley Stadium has housed football and cricket pitches since the 1880s. In 1889 in a bid to encourage people to use the railways, Sir Edward Watkin – Chairman of the Metropolitan Railway decided that the site should be used to house a brand new attraction which would be linked to central London by Rail.

He had planned to build a tower within the grounds, which would span 350 meters in height.  But the project ran out of money before it was completed.  Oddly though, Watkin’s incomplete structure which had in fact only reached a height of 61 meters became a bizarre tourist attraction, with people coming to visit ‘Watkin’s Folly’ as it had been nicknamed until its demolition in 1907.  The site then evolved into an 18 hole golf course.

Wembley as we really know it was conceived in 1918.  The end of the First World War sparked the British Government into planning a series of events to celebrate the British Empire.  They planned a British Empire Exhibition, which was to have at the very heart of it a stadium to act as a national sports centre.   The exhibition would cover an area of land which measured 219 acres, and the site which had once housed Watkin’s Folly was chosen as the ideal place for the stadium.

In January of 1922 The Duke of York (Later to become King George VI) cut the first turf to mark the beginning of the stadiums development.  It took less than a year to complete at a cost of £750,000.  The exhibition was opened on 23^rd April 1923 by King George V.  It closed the following year in October, by which time there had been over 4.5 million admissions to the stadium alone. 

Wembley Stadium in 1924 

The first football match to be held at Wembley was the 1923 FA Cup final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United.   The match very nearly didn’t take place at all as a crowd of over 200,000 people turned up, way over the full capacity of the new stadium.   But the good nature of the crowd and efficiency of the police meant that the match was able to go ahead as normal.

Billy the white horse and rider Constable George Scorey help control masses of fans who turned up for the unticketed FA Cup Final in 1923

From here on in Wembley Stadium became the stage for every FA Cup final – excluding the war years when the competition was cancelled, until 2000.

 Inside the old wembley

The Stadium saw many changes over its years to ensure that it moved with the times.  Floodlights were installed in 1955, and the famous encircling roof was added in 1963.  Despite the cosmetic changes however, the stadium remained structurally the same until its closure in 2000, when it was closed to mark the start of the Wembley redevelopment. 

Demolition begins on Wembley's famous Twin Towers 

After several delays the brand new Wembley finally opened in 2007, with Chelsea beating Manchester United to take the first FA Cup played in England’s national stadium for 7 years.  Whilst the stadium underwent redevelopment FA Cup finals were played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

The new Wembley has now become the centre of England’s bid to hold the 2018/2022 World Cup.

 The New Wembley