The former home of Arsenal, one of England's most historic football clubs, has undergone a remarkable conversion into flats - but their sales have been caught offside by the credit crunch. The final whistle blew on Highbury Stadium in north London on May 6, 2006, ending 93 years of rich football tradition, but the roar of the crowd soon gave way to the noise of diggers as the developers moved in.
Space once filled by 38,000 cheering fans now contains Highbury Square, a complex of 725 luxury apartments - including 70 units of social housing - surrounding a landscaped garden where the old pitch lay. "You feel this could have been completely destroyed, this could have disappeared completely and (yet) there's still enough here to realise that it is a museum of Arsenal Football Club," said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
He returned to the stadium to officially open the development alongside current and former players, including Gael Clichy, George Graham, who also managed the club to two English league titles, and Martin Keown - and admitted the venue still stirred deep emotions in him. "When you come in here, you realise how deep the attachment to this place was," said Wenger, who has managed the Gunners since 1996.
The art deco facades of the East Stand are listed buildings, classified as being architecturally, historically or culturally important and cannot be knocked down. That impeded Arsenal's options for expanding the ground's capacity and in part triggered their departure from Highbury. The new development therefore has preserved the art deco facades bearing the Gunners' crest, as well as the famous Marble Halls inside the East Stand.
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