Let’s kick off with a potted history…
Let’s kick off with a potted history…
Arsenal first emerged as a club way back in 1886, just three years after the formation of our beloved Football Association. Queen Victoria was on the throne, the first ever glass of Coca-Cola was served, motor cars and gramophones were in their infancy, and VAR was mercifully still 130 years in the future.
The team’s origin story commences in October 1886, when Woolwich munitions worker David Danskin held a whip-round of his colleagues, raising enough cash to buy a football. And so Dial Square FC – as the raggle-taggle club was initially known – was born. Though injury meant Danskin didn’t stay with them for long, this didn’t prevent the team going from strength to strength. They became Royal Arsenal, Woolwich Arsenal then The Arsenal before settling permanently on plain old Arsenal in 1919 (though you’ll still hear fans, pundits and players referring to them as ‘the Arsenal’ to this day).
Now one of the most decorated teams in English football, Arsenal have won the First Division/Premier League 13 times (unlucky for some: their most recent win was the 2003-4 season) and lifted the FA Cup a record 14 times. The team has been in its current home at the Emirates Stadium (aka the Arsenal Stadium, aka Ashburton Grove) in Holloway, North London, since upgrading from their historic Highbury base (1913-2006), and has also been home to Arsenal’s women’s team since 2024.
Give us the stats, stat
Give us the stats, stat
- The Arsenal Stadium holds a seated crowd of some 60,704 fans, making it one of the largest stadiums by capacity in the UK. By comparison, Wembley can host 90,000 and Arsenal’s former Highbury home a relatively dinky 38,149.
- The highest attendance for a football game here came in 2019, when 60,383 fans pitched up to watch Wolverhampton Wanderers hold Arsenal to a 1-1 draw.
- The pitch measures 105 metres by 68 metres with a total grass area of 113 metres by 76 metres.
- The total cost of construction for the Emirates-sponsored Arsenal Stadium was £390m.
And now for the fun facts…
1. The club’s emblem is a cannon
Because Arsenal… geddit? The cannon has featured on every iteration of the team crest since 1888. Originally three cannons pointing north, it has slimmed down to a single cannon facing east, then west, and now east again. The club’s nickname ‘The Gunners’ also derives from those humble origins at the Royal Arsenal munitions factory in Woolwich.
2. Arsenal nicked their kit from Nottingham Forest
2. Arsenal nicked their kit from Nottingham Forest
Two of Dial Square’s founding members had previously played for Notts Forest, so the team that would become the Arsenal found themselves in donated wine-red hand-me-downs from their Midlands pals. The colour stuck until 1933 when legendary manager Herbert Chapman updated the kits to the tomato-red shirt with white sleeves that’s still worn today. Chapman also led the team to its first FA Cup and (two) First Division titles and they went on to become one of the top teams of the pre-war era. The rest, as they say, is history.
3. The famous stadium clock came from Highbury
It might look like an ordinary clock, but it’s become such a part of Arsenal lore that, when Highbury was being redeveloped into apartments, it was carefully removed, transported and reinstalled at the Emirates. An innovation of our hero Herbert Chapman in the early 1930s, the clock spent some 70 years at what became known – appropriately – as Highbury’s Clock End. It took a 25-tonne crane, four workmen and nine hours to install it in its new home at the south end of the Emirates Stadium, where it can be found ticking over to this day.
4. You can share a seat with Arsenal royalty
Well, sort of. The Arsenal Stadium tour includes a chance to walk through the players’ tunnel and imagine the roar of your adoring crowd from pitchside. There’s also an opportunity to take a seat in the very dressing room once graced by Arsenal legends like Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Freddie Ljungberg.
Pro-tip: you can take the Arsenal Stadium tour and save on many more London attractions with The London Pass®. Click to learn more and choose your pass!
5. The club mascot is a jolly dinosaur
Gunnersaurus Rex – a smiling seven-foot dino of unspecified genus – made his first appearance at a home match against Manchester City back in 1994. Like the famous clock, this jolly green giant followed Arsenal to the Emirates from Highbury in 2006 where he has been bringing smiles to supporters’ faces ever since. Side note: some say Gunnersaurus was designed by an 11-year-old competition winner, but others swear he was hatched from an egg found during excavation work at Highbury decision. The real truth may have been lost to the mists of time…
6. The stadium’s maximum capacity is actually 72,000
6. The stadium’s maximum capacity is actually 72,000
Yes yes, we know we said it was more like 60,000 earlier, but that’s when it’s fully seated for football matches and the pitch is, well, in use. In fact the stadium has an overall capacity of 72,000, which makes it ideal for rock bands and musicians who occupy the hallowed globe-conquering colossi category. To wit: Bruce Springsteen, Green Day and The Killers have all rocked the stage here.
If you enjoyed our interesting facts about Arsenal Stadium, you might also enjoy a behind-the-scenes tour there, available with The London Pass®. You might also enjoy our guide to London’s top sporting attractions. Or check out our fun facts about Chelsea FC Stadium here.
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