By Chris Wright
With Wembley stadium – or at least the new incarnation of it – taking an awful lot of flak over the course of the week after a record low crowd turned out for England’s dull-as-ditchwater friendly against Norway, we thought it’d be nice to remind ourselves of the damned thing’s origins.
Purely coincidentally, Getty Images have sent us a few complimentary hi-res photos of Wembley from their cavernous archives to be getting on with, documenting the early nascent years of English football’s spiritual home.
Here’s a wonderfully atmospheric shot of work beginning on the one of the original stadium’s two famous towers, January 1st 1923 (full-size image)…
The finished article, filled with around 300,000 fans during the infamously hectic “White Horse” FA Cup Final, April 28th 1923 (full-size image)…
Pies have more on the chaos and confusion which accompanied that match here.
Here’s another great photo of further construction getting underway to improve Wembley in February of 1924, with steps being constructed on the concourse outside and stairways being built within the famous twin towers to enable latecomers to take their seats without interrupting earlier arrivals (full-size image)…
Cracking stuff!
As it happens, these wonderful photos are to be included in a new exhibition being put on Wembley in association with Getty Images, which charts the extraordinary history of events and memories to have taken place at the national stadium – from the 1948 Olympics, to the 1966 World Cup right through to Live Aid in 1985.
Sir Geoff is bloody loving it…
If you’re interested, the Century of Wembley Memories Exhibition is open now and is free as part of the Wembley Stadium Tour.
For more information on Wembley Tours, step this-a-way please.