Building Wembley Stadium, 100 years ago - a special anniversary article

Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

 

1. (Photo of the new Wembley Stadium in 2007 by Roy Beddard)

 

This month sees the centenary of the opening of Wembley Stadium. Most of us will have watched the new stadium being built, between 2003 and 2007. This article will share the story, and some pictures, of the first stadium being constructed.

 

It was on a snowy day in January 1922 that the Duke of York ceremonially dug out the first turf for the stadium, but it was another three months before construction really got underway. The stadium had been designed by Sir John Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton, with consulting engineer, Sir Owen Williams, to be built of reinforced concrete. Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons were appointed as contractors, because they had experience of using this relatively new technique. They hired more than 1,000 men, many of them unemployed ex-servicemen from the First World War, to provide the labour.

 

2. The early stages of constructing the stadium at Wembley Park, mid-1922.
(From Geoffrey Hewlett’s 2002 book “Wembley”)

 

The site chosen for the stadium was at the top of a hill, where the ill-fated Wembley Tower had once stood in the Wembley Park Pleasure Grounds. The four craters, where the tower’s foundations had been dynamited, had to be removed, to prepare for where the football pitch would be, while construction of the terraces and stands which would hold 125,000 spectators went on around it.

 

There was a very tight schedule for the work, as the organisers of the British Empire Exhibition, which the stadium would form part of (that’s why it was known as the Empire Stadium for many years), had agreed that the Football Association could hold their Cup Final there in 1923. Britain’s top playing fields expert, Charles Perry, was tasked with preparing the pitch, and on his instructions sections of the fairways and greens on the former Wembley Park Golf Course were fenced off to provide the turf.

 

3. The stadium construction site, September 1922. (From Geoffrey Hewlett’s 2002 book “Wembley”)

 

The clay ground at Wembley would not provide good drainage, so Perry sloped this down towards the edges of the pitch, allowing water to run-off. Then he laid layers of clinker and cinders, 10 inches (25cm) thick, across the area, and topped this off with at least 5 inches of top soil. By September he was ready to start laying the turf, which was cut in 18” x 12” (45cm x 30cm) rectangles, 2½ inches thick. These were moved to the stadium on flat-bed trolleys and butted together straight away. Laying the pitch took a month, but by keeping the grass growing the “hallowed turf” of the Wembley pitch was ready by the end of October 1922.

 

 4. The structural steelwork for the stands and terraces, winter 1922/23. (From an old film)

 

By this time, the 1,400 tons of structural steelwork that would support the stands and terraces was being put in place. From then on, it was concrete which would be the main material used, 25,000 tons of it in all. Wooden formwork was put in place, miles of steel reinforcing rods were cut and inserted, and the concrete poured in by the workmen, from barrows or buckets.

 

  5. Workmen building the outer concrete wall of the stadium, winter 1922/23. (From an old film)

 

There was little in the way of “health and safety” then. The men wore their ordinary working clothes, with cloth caps, not hard hats. It was heavy, physical, manual labour, with wages only around £1 a week, plus extra for any overtime. And with their hard work, the stadium was beginning to take shape.

 

6. The North Stand under construction, December 1922. (From an old film)

 

It was on the north side of the stadium, looking out over the British Empire Exhibition site and towards Wembley Park Station, that Ayrton and Williams had designed their feature wall. Using the ability of semi-liquid concrete to run into moulds, then keep that shape when set, they delivered the iconic frontage that would symbolise Wembley Stadium for the next 80 years. This was emerging from the site by February 1923.

 

 

7. Work on the North Front of the stadium, February 1923. (From a 1923 McAlpine’s brochure)

 

The domed tops of the twin towers, with their concrete flag poles capped with concrete crowns, were the last parts to be finished. The photograph below gives an idea of the fairly primitive (by today’s standards) method of getting the concrete to the top of the formwork. It was carried by teams of workmen up ramps in buckets, which were then raised by rope and pulley to the men above!

 

 

8. Constructing one of the twin towers, February 1923.
(From “Glorious Wembley” by Howard Bass, 1982)

 

By April 1923, the stadium was finished. It had taken just 300 working days to build (not four years, like the new Wembley!). Sir Owen Williams, speaking about the choice of concrete for Wembley, said: ‘Its architectural possibilities, its adaptability, and its rapidity of construction demanded attention, but these alone were not the decisive factor. It was the economy of concrete which compelled its use.’ Wembley’s Empire Stadium had cost £750,000 to construct, equivalent to around £57m today. The new Wembley Stadium, when completed in 2007, had cost £798m.

 

Just one thing remained to be done before the 1923 FA Cup Final could take place on 28 April. The structure of the stadium had to be tested, to make sure that it was safe for spectators to use. All 1,200 workmen on the site had to march round the stadium as a group, visiting all parts of the terraces and stands. Following instructions and in unison, they had to stamp their feet, lean against the safety rails, and sit down then up on the seats, to recreate the effect of the crowds at an actual event.

 

 

9. 1,200 workmen, testing a section of the terraces, April 1923. (From an old film)

 

One of the first aerial photographs of the completed stadium was taken by the Kilburn-based Central Aircraft Company. In this picture (below) you can see the open terraces at either end, and the covered sections along the sides, which included the seats for 30,000 spectators, as well as the Royal Box. The pitch has been mowed, ready for a football match. But outside the stadium walls, it still looks like a construction site, and there is little sign of the pavilions which would house nations from across the British Empire at the exhibition that would open just one year later.

 

  

10. An aerial view of the stadium, from the east, April 1923. (Image from the internet)

 

 

11. The stadium during the British Empire Exhibition in 1924. (Brent Archives – WHS Collection)

 

Sir Robert McAlpine (proud of his firm’s achievements) called the stadium: ‘... a triumph of modern engineering.’ Through the efforts of Arthur Elvin and others, it would go on to become a world famous “Venue of Legends”, host an Olympic Games, World Cup and Euros football finals, numerous other sporting events, and many concerts, including Live Aid. But in 2002/03, it was demolished to make way for a new Wembley Stadium. 

 

  

 12. The concrete flagpole base in Brent River Park, near Pitfield Way. (Photo by Philip Grant, 2013)

 

The concrete marvel, built 100 years ago, has gone from Wembley – apart from one small fragment. The base of a concrete flagpole, from the top of one of the twin towers, was donated to the Council by the new stadium company in 2003, and now sits in Brent River Park, as a memorial to the original Wembley Stadium.

 

Philip Grant,
Wembley History Society,
April 2023.