Farewell to Highbury: The clock ends

You can walk by and not know it's there, but today a monument becomes history

To say that Highbury will be missed is not only an understatement but a clue to its mystery and magnetism. How many first-time visitors to this most venerable of all club stadiums have emerged from Arsenal tube station and still needed to ask where it was? You could miss it. Obscured by houses, only the huge, ornate cliff which is the 1930s-style façade of the East Stand openly displays itself as a monument to Herbert Chapman's teams who brought Arsenal world renown.

Chapman's contemporary counterpart, Arsène Wenger, appreciates the club's history and leaves Highbury with mixed feelings. He began his Arsenal career looking at the bust of Chapman in the marble hall and wondered whether he would ever emulate the man whose ghost is still supposed to walk the corridors. That bust has haunted a lot of managers, but Wenger has an affectionate relationship with Arsenal Stadium - its official title. He said: "I always sensed that it had a special soul. It's strange. You don't have the same feeling anywhere else. Yes, you do ask where is the stadium and suddenly you're in front of it. I love it because it's among the streets and houses and people."

Much has been made of the fact that because the stadium had to be built in a small area, the pitch is not large. Great players, from Alex James to Thierry Henry, have had to adapt before treating Arsenal fans to their unrestricted skills. Henry says his love of Highbury is hard to explain "because you have had to play there to understand."

He added: "I've scored many goals there but the pitch is smaller than many others and I usually need space to run. But I'm happy on it. The stadium itself is special. You can't say 'Arsenal' without mentioning Highbury."

Highbury has always had a curious atmosphere. It can be intimidating to visiting players, yet not bitterly so. On occasions the home fans have seemed more inclined to show bitterness towards players of their own team who have not won their favour. Chapman recalled that a promising apprentice came to his office in tears and told him he was giving up football because the crowd had been on his back before giving him a chance. In another era, similar treatment made life hell for Jon Sammels, who was a member of the 1970-71 Double winning team.

Arsenal's leaving of a rare stadium of genuine architectural importance and footballing significance is a huge wrench. Buy an apartment in the redeveloped Highbury and you will pay a high price, and so you should. You will live on land bought from the Eccl-esiastical Commissioners early in the last century (the document was signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury himself) and turned into the fruition of many men's dreams, especially Henry Norris and Herbert Chapman.

The ambitious Norris had searched high and low for somewhere that would allow Woolwich Arsenal to move out of Plumstead to an area close enough to the centre of London to catch casual spectators and have a well-populated residential area. He was a wheeler-dealer of the first order (in 1919 he even talked Arsenal into the First Division, at the expense of Spurs). The proximity of Gillespie Road tube station, which Chapman later cleverly arranged to be called Arsenal, was ideal.

So, despite local opposition, Arsenal moved to Highbury and played their first game there on 6 September, 1913, against Leicester Fosse.

The architect of the original Highbury was Archibald Leitch, who designed a two-tier stand that cost £50,000. The rest was open to the elements. Eventually the old stand decayed, and in the early 1930s the ground took shape in its famous form, reflecting the status of the Chapman teams who dominated the League. During work on the North Bank a horse and cart fell into a hole. The horse had to be shot and was buried there.

The new West Stand was the most modern ever built, including lifts. Chapman arranged for the famous clock to be installed. The FA objected, claiming it reduced the authority of the referee, but Chapman got his way. He usually did, but when he put in floodlights the FA again jibbed, and it was not until the 1950s that League games were played under lights.

Football fans the world over recognise the front of the East Stand, which opened in 1936, had two tiers, each holding 4,000 spectators, and a paddock in front. Inside was the marble hall (slightly less impressive than its reputation would have us believe) and dressing rooms that had underfloor heating. The elegant East and West Stands hardly changed in 70 years.

The stadium has seen periods of modest football (boring, you might say); seasons of great drama (not least 2003-04, the unbeaten one) and a vast number of memorable matches. None was more poignant than Man-chester United's 5-4 victory in February, 1958. It was United's last match in England before the Munich air crash took the lives of eight Busby Babes and was a true epitaph.

Nostalgia for the old home is something the club underestimated when they agreed that the new one would be named the Emirates Stadium. The need to have a bigger ground and greater income is a persuasive argument, but bowing so low to the great god sponsorship was an insult to the memory of Highbury.

'Farewell to Highbury - The Arsenal Story' by Norman Fox will be published by the Bluecoat Press in July

From Dennis to end of red menace

DENNIS BERGKAMP'S 11 years at Arsenal neared the end with a whimper (his, after being left out of the squad for the derby against Tottenham and not appearing against Manchester City on Thursday) rather than a bang. The 36-year-old has declared he wants "a complete break" from football, despite splashing out £150,000 on an exec-utive box at the Gunners' new Emirates Stadium, though given his fear of flying he is not thought to be considering any closer ties with the sponsoring airline.

ALAN CURBISHLEY has also called it a day after 15 years of over-achievement on a tight budget at Charlton. His own desire to get right away from football for a while makes him an obvious candidate for the managership of Middlesbrough or Aston Villa should the chairman, Doug Ellis, decide to dispense with the uniquely irritating, faux folksy, "talents" of David O'Leary.

SWATHES OF THE WEST MIDLANDS are in even direr straits than Villa, as Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion fall into the Championship. The odds are not with them for a swift return; only 27 per cent of the teams relegated since the start of the Premiership have got back at the first attempt.

ALAN SHEARER is another ever-present looking for a rest, and he deserves one more than most after scoring 260 goals in 441 Premier League appearances spread over 13 years. Forget a mere Golden Boot; his award from the League's sponsors is a one-off platinum model.

BSKYB'S MONOPOLY on live tele-vision rights for Premiership matches was broken on Friday, by order of the EU, but there is not much cause for viewers to hang out the bunting. BSkyB snaffled four of the six available packages for 2007-10 and the other two went to Setanta, the Irish satellite channel. So still no live games on terrestrial TV, but another £1.7bn for the Premier League.

DERMOT GALLAGHER hands in his League referee's whistle today after more than 1,000 games. Suggestions from those who watched Dan Smith's ankle-breaking tackle on Abou Diaby in the Sunderland v Arsenal game last Tuesday, a match officiated by Mr Gallagher, that he has retired because he has lost his red card are malicious and ill-founded. We'll hear no more of that, please.

Simon Redfern