Wembley Stadium Tour: FAQs

Published: July 17, 2024

What is Wembley Stadium?

Wembley Stadium is a London landmark and perhaps the most famous stadium in the world. It is the largest stadium in the country, and the second largest in Europe by capacity. It was one of the main venues during the 2012 London Olympic Games, and hosted the fondly-remembered and groundbreaking Live Aid charity concert in 1985. And, as all English football fans will know, it was the setting for the England Mens Football Team’s only ever World Cup triumph, way back in 1966. You can find out all about the stadium and its history on the Wembley Stadium Tour.

Is this the original Wembley Stadium? Is this the Wembley Stadium?

Yes, this is the Wembley Stadium. But your question is justified. This Wembley Stadium replaced a former one, which once stood on the exact same plot of land.

The original Wembley Stadium was constructed in 1923, and was the home of the England Football Team until its closure in the year 2000. It hosted the FA and League Cups annually, the final of Euro 96, five European Cup finals and the 1966 World Cup Final. It was well-known for its famous Twin Towers, which were demolished, to much consternation, along with the rest of the stadium. The old Wembley (when Health & Safety legislation wasn’t as it is now) had a record attendance of 126,047. With crowds positioned right around the pitch at ground level, the number is thought to actually be as high as 300,000. All those folks were there to watch Bolton Wanderers take on West Ham United in the inaugural FA Cup Final held at the national stadium. Bolton won 2 - 0. The modern Wembley Stadium was built on the same site, and officially opened in 2007. Designed by Populous and Foster & Partners, it is known for its iconic, striking arch, which towers over the main stands, reaching a 113m at its highest point. The public have warmed to the stadium in recent years, and few consider the design to be anything other than a triumph and a fitting symbol of the modern city. Event-wise, it has carried on the legacy of the old Wembley, hosting the FA Cup Final and many other sporting events, as well as concerts. The record attendance for football stands at 89,874. But Adele smashed that figure when she played Wembley. She brought 98,000 fans along with her.

What can I see on the Wembley Stadium Tour?

The great thing about the Wembley Stadium Tour is the amount of access to roped-off visitors enjoy. You’ll get onto seats usually warmed by the bums of the super famous, from sports stars to pop icons and royals. The England dressing room is perhaps the most behind-the-scenes part of the tour. You’ll be talked through the footballing history of the stadium and the England team, including all the triumph and glory of 1966. What must have been going through those England players’ heads as they came out for the second half? And what must have been going through the mind of Gareth Barry as he sat in the dressing room at half time during the qualifier against Montenegro, the score at 0 - 0? Not much. It ended 0 - 0. What a time to be alive.

Then you get to live out your childhood dreams (or at least watch others living out theirs) by running down the players tunnel and out onto the hallowed turf of Wembley. A big treat for footy fans is getting the chance to lift a replica of the FA Cup in front of the Royal Box, like every victorious captain in the competition’s history. There’s a whole exhibition devoted to the 1966 World Cup victory too (not that they’re going on about it) and lots of historical artefacts, including items from the 1948 Olympics and the first rulebook of association football, dating back to 1863. You’ll also see Steven Gerrard’s 2005 captains armband and David Beckham’s Manchester United jersey from their treble-winning 1999 season.

How long do the tours last?

The Wembley Stadium Tour lasts around 75 minutes. However, set aside another half hour or so for the Wembley Stadium Store.

The Wembley Stadium Store?

Yep, it’s a great place for picking up souvenirs. You can find an awful lot of Wembley-themed merch, including scarves, t-shirts, badges, mugs and the like. If you want to pick up a football kit, England or otherwise, this is a great place to come.

How much does the Wembley Stadium Tour cost?

If you buy them from the venue on the day, the tours cost £20 for adults and £12 for children under 16. If you book in advance, it’s £19 for adults and £12 for kids. Concession tickets are £12. However, entry is free with your London Pass.

What if I’m booking for a group?

If you’re booking the Wembley Stadium Tour for a group of 25 or more (enough for two starting XI’s), book online to secure a discount.

When do the tours run?

Tours run between 10am and 3pm between 1st November and 31st March, seven days a week. Between 1st April and 31st October, they run between 10am and 4.30pm, seven days a week. They leave every half hour. However, when there are major events taking place at the stadium, timings can change, and whole days will be closed for tours.

What language is the tour in?

The Wembley Stadium tour guides present their tours in English, but a multimedia device allows you to access lots of info, videos, text and graphics in different languages, including English, Mandarin, Spanish, German and French.

How do I get to Wembley Stadium for the tour?

Head to the Wembley Stadium Tour Entrance, which is well-signposted and is situated next to the Bobby Moore statue. Transport-wise, you’re best off getting off at Wembley Park Station, which is on the Jubilee and Metropolitan lines. It takes you right into the stadium complex. Alternatively, get off at Wembley Central station (Bakerloo and London Overground). It's then a 20 minute walk to the stadium. Wembley Stadium Station on the Chiltern Line is also right next to the stadium. If you need to drive, there is official parking, operated by Wembley Park. They also run the blue badge parking which is directly beside the stadium. Check their website for more details. Looking for another London landmark to explore? Get a perfect view of the city's Olympic stadiums on a trip up the ArcelorMittal Orbit.

Matthew Pearson

London Travel Expert

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How to get Cheap London Attraction Ticket Deals

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that London is not a cheap place to visit. Indeed, it’s regularly cited alongside the likes of Hong Kong, New York, Singapore and Sydney as one of the most expensive cities in the world. That’s largely due to its well-deserved reputation as one of the planet's top bucket-list destinations, with household-name attractions like Westminster Abbey, The Shard, Oxford Street, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the Tower of London around almost every corner. And, as surely as night follows day, high demand means high prices. But London isn't just for lottery winners, celebrities and Russian oligarchs. No! This vast playground of historical attractions, world-class museums, stellar theatrical performances, and destination dining is for everyone to enjoy. And it is possible for savvy travelers to visit on a shoestring, as detailed in our self-explanatory blog ‘How to Visit London on a Budget’ right here. Read on below as we take a deeper dive into how to get cheap ticket deals at London attractions, including all the most highly sought-after landmarks and theaters. The London Pass Serious sightseers who plan to hit up a lot of major attractions and tours should consider The London Pass – basically a catch-all way of ticking off the big (and little) hitters in town while saving cash in the process. It’s the only pass of its kind that gives you access to Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral and Tower Bridge (plus some 80 or so additional attractions and tours across London), and it’s conveniently stored on your phone or mobile device for speedy scan-through access at each address. And here’s how it works. You choose a duration for your London Pass package – (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 10 consecutive days) – download the Go City app to your phone and you’re good to go. Your pass activates as soon as you scan in at your first attraction and is valid for consecutive days (not 24-hour periods), so you should make sure to start early on your first day of sightseeing. The London Pass can save you up to 50% on gate prices if you make full use of it and visit several attractions each day, but its value weakens when you only visit one or two places each day. Fear not though: the pass’s savings guarantee means that, if you visit at least three attractions each day for the duration of your pass, and don’t save money, you can apply for a refund of the difference. Some of the 80+ attractions you can visit with your London Pass include: The Tower of London – William the Conqueror’s notorious 1,000-year-old fortress on the Thames. The View from The Shard – dizzying panoramic views from atop the UK’s tallest building. London Zoo – a family favorite with over 750 species of weird, wonderful and downright cute critters. Hampton Court Palace – the grand former home of gouty serial monogamist Henry VIII. Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre – lovingly reconstructed replica of the bard’s 17th-century London playhouse. Kew Gardens – kaleidoscopes of colorful wildflowers, tropical foliage, treetop walkways and more at London’s best botanical garden. Get The London Pass here. More Cheap London Attraction Ticket Deals There are several other straightforward methods of making savings on tickets to London attractions. Traveling to London by train? National Rail runs a promo that gives you 2-for-1 prices on major London attractions when you buy train tickets. There’s a decent list of attractions included in the promo, such as Madame Tussauds, London Dungeon, the ArcelorMittal Orbit and the Tower of London. You’ll need to register on National Rail’s Days Out website, from where you can then download and print vouchers for your chosen attraction. Present these with your train ticket (bearing the National Rail logo) at each attraction to claim your discount. You’ll get these when you take pretty much any train into London (with the exception of the Tube and some airport trains), or you can get them by buying a London Travelcard at any London railway station (as opposed to Tube station) such as Victoria, Liverpool Street, Paddington, Charing Cross and Waterloo. Remember to check your chosen dates are available before pitching up at the attraction – some of the biggies have blackouts on the 2-for-1 offers during peak periods. Other potentially money-saving options include the likes of the Merlin Pass, which includes access to Merlin attractions like the London Eye, London Dungeon, SEA LIFE London and Madame Tussauds, but has a lot of date restrictions during school holidays on the cheaper basic passes. Then there are cash-saving voucher sites like Groupon and Wowcher, which are great for finding bargain London attraction tickets, especially outside of peak season. Cheap London Theater Tickets The West End’s reputation for astronomical ticket prices is almost as famous as its world-class plays and musicals. We’re talking the likes of Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, Matilda and The Mousetrap (only the world’s longest-running play, fact fans). Incredibly, it is in fact possible to bag cheap last-minute tickets to all of these and more, as long as you’re a) savvy and b) willing to queue for several hours at the box office on a wing and a prayer. Here’s the lowdown: very few shows are ever completely sold out and many West End venues offer day seats. Tickets for these are cheap and are generally released between 9AM and 11AM for same-day performances, so you’ll need to be flexible and yes, for the more popular shows, you’ll definitely have to queue and may still end up disappointed. Some shows also run lotteries via their website or app. This is much the same as the day-seat option, but means you can avoid schlepping to the venue and do it all from the comfort of your armchair. Winners are chosen at random. You can also get last-minute bargains from the tkts booth on Leicester Square, again for shows that same evening. If you can afford to be really flexible about your plans, it’s also well worth taking a gamble on ultra-last-minute cheapies direct from the theaters. And by ultra-last-minute we mean, like, an hour before the performance begins. The Royal Court does 10p tickets. Yes, that’s just ten new pence. These are standing only but hey, that’s a small price to pay, right? Similarly, the hip Donmar theatre in Covent Garden has been known to release £10 tickets for same-day performances, and you can bag tickets to the pit at Shakespeare’s Globe for £5-£10 at most performances. An absolute bard-gain. Save on things to do in London Save on admission to London attractions with the London Pass. Check out @londonpass on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.

Stuart Bak

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How to Visit London on a Budget

London’s reputation as one of the most expensive cities on the planet is not without justification. Grimacing out-of-towners can often be seen experiencing this first-hand as – in a state of utter bewilderment and disbelief – they count the meager change from a ten pound note after purchasing their first London pint. Luxury hotels, Michelin-starred restaurants, and consistently high demand due to its evergreen status as one of the world’s top bucket-list city destinations: all of these things help keep London prices sky high. Now the good news: it is possible to visit London on a budget. A little savvy here, a willingness to sleep in the suburbs there and hey presto, you have the beginnings of a wallet-friendly London adventure on your hands. Read on for our top tips on how to visit London on a budget... Budget London Accommodation Ok, so you’re going to have to manage your own expectations here. You’ll be hard-pushed to find anything but the most basic hotel room in central London for under £100 a night. And there’s no way in a zillion years you’re going to be staying at The Ritz. The key here is to focus your accommodation search outside London’s zones 1 and 2. Zones 3–6 are still well-connected, but obviously the further you get from the center of town, the more palatable the prices. Find somewhere with a Tube station nearby to keep you within reach of the main attractions and you’re sorted. You’ll find deals that won’t break the bank in the likes of Stratford, Hammersmith (pictured below), Islington and even King’s Cross. Budget hotel chains like Travelodge, Ibis and Premier Inn also help keeps cost down and, if you don’t mind sharing, hostel chains including Safestay and St Christopher’s Inns have properties in convenient locations including Greenwich, Holland Park, Camden and London Bridge. Airbnb can also be a good money-saving option, especially if you’re traveling in a group. Again, aim for the suburbs for the best bargains Getting Around London on the Cheap London’s iconic black hackney cabs are great for #humblebrag vacation selfies, but bad bad bad for the bank balance! Instead, stick to public transport. A one-day travelcard covering unlimited tube and bus travel within zones 1-3 costs less than £10. You can tap in and out of public transport to your heart’s content using your bank card, safe in the knowledge that you’ll never exceed that daily cap. If you must take a cab, apps like Uber provide cheaper alternatives to black hackneys, especially for longer trips. Walking London can be fun, too. Yes, it’s huge, but a lot of the major attractions are within a short distance of one another. For example: you could stroll from Westminster Abbey to Leicester Square, taking in Big Ben, 10 Downing Street and Trafalgar Square along the way, in around 30 minutes. Just grab a map, plan your route and off you go! Free and Discounted London Attraction Tickets Budget-conscious travelers with even a passing interest in art and history will be in clover in London, where a huge number of museums and galleries are absolutely gratis to enter. And not just any old museums and galleries either. We’re talking the likes of the National Gallery, a celebration of European art through the ages, from da Vinci to Turner. Then there’s the mighty Tate Modern, that IG-tastic former power station that houses crucial works by Pollock, Picasso, Rothko, Klee, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Monet and more. Also free is the mighty British Museum, only the largest collection of historical artifacts on the planet (eight million-ish, in case you were wondering), including the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, and an Easter Island statue. Meanwhile Kensington’s neighboring Natural History and Science museums are the kinds of places kids and adults alike can lose themselves in for hours at a time – and it’s all fantastically, unbelievably free! There are further savings to be made with the London Pass. If you’re planning to visit a number of bucket-list landmarks and take a tour or two, this could be very much the option for you. Holders of the pass can access as many attractions as they like for up to 10 consecutive days, including major hitters like Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, The View from The Shard, London Zoo, the Cutty Sark and Kew Gardens. It also includes hop-on hop-off bus tickets, football stadium tours, canal cruises and much more. You can save up to 50% compared to what you’d spend on the door. An absolute boon for budget travelers, in other words. Find out more about it and get yours here. It almost goes without saying – but is worth pointing out anyway – that strolls around London’s most Instagrammable neighborhoods will also cost you absolutely nada. We’re talking Portobello Road with its candy-colored houses and lively bric-a-brac stalls; atmospheric Whitechapel and Brick Lane, the picturesque village vibes of pretty Greenwich, and the embarrassment of riches that is the Thames’s South Bank. Wander from bustling Borough Market to the London Eye for a visual feast that takes in soaring Southwark Cathedral, painstakingly replicas of Sir Francis Drake’s Golden Hinde galleon ship and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern, and stunning cross-river views of St Paul’s Cathedral. London’s Cheapest Eats If you’re visiting London on a budget, you’ll definitely want to familiarize yourself with the nicest and cheapest ways to eat. Dodge the fast food chains and give tourist traps around Covent Garden and Leicester Square as wide a berth as possible. With the exception, that is, of Chinatown, where you can still bag a satisfying bowl of noodles or fried rice for less than the cost of a London pint. Eating early or late is also a good trick. Pre-theater set menus available between around 5PM and 7PM offer genuinely good value in the heart of town, while apps like Too Good To Go are worth checking out for end-of-night bargain bites, when unsold restaurant meals are turned into pocket-friendly takeaways to avoid having to throw them away. It’s also worth checking out voucher sites like Groupon and Wowcher for discounted dining experiences in London pubs and restaurants. London’s street food is also second to none and – while perhaps not exactly cheap by international standards – means you can have a filling meal on the move for waaay less than the cost of a sit-down London pub or restaurant dinner. Hit up Brick Lane for some of the best falafel and bagels in town. The only danger in this East End foodie mecca is that you’ll be tempted into emptying your wallet at one of the many inviting Bangladeshi restaurants or vintage boutiques that line the street. Then there’s the sensory saturnalia that is Borough Market by London Bridge station. Here, beneath the atmospheric railway arches lies a whole world of gourmet treats. Think delectable duck confit sandwiches, farm-fresh pork burgers, halloumi salads, regional cheeses, giant cream-filled donuts, craft ales, freshly brewed specialty coffee and, well, pretty much anything else you can think of. Yum! Save on things to do in London Save on admission to London attractions with the London Pass. Check out @londonpass on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.

Stuart Bak