Walk down Avenell Road in North London today and the old Art Deco facade still looks like a football stadium — right up until you notice the curtains in the windows. Highbury, Arsenal’s home for 93 years, was never bulldozed. It was converted, piece by piece, into a private housing estate that still carries the ground’s DNA in its brickwork, its marble halls, and even its old players’ tunnel.
This guide covers exactly what happened to Highbury after Arsenal left in 2006: the demolition, what was saved, how the redevelopment unfolded, what the site looks like today — and, further back, where the name “Highbury” itself actually came from.
Quick Answer
Highbury stadium was not demolished. After Arsenal played their last match there on 7 May 2006, the ground was redeveloped between 2006 and 2009 into a private residential complex called Highbury Square. The North Bank and Clock End stands were torn down, but the Grade II listed Art Deco East Stand and the West Stand facade were kept and rebuilt into around 711 flats, with the old pitch turned into a communal garden.
When Did Arsenal Leave Highbury?
Arsenal’s last competitive match at Highbury was on 7 May 2006, a 4–2 win over Wigan Athletic that sealed Champions League qualification on the final day of the Premier League season. The club moved into the newly built Emirates Stadium, less than half a mile away, for the start of the 2006–07 season.
The move had been planned for years — Highbury’s tight footprint, hemmed in by Victorian terraced streets, capped capacity at 38,419, far below what a club competing at the top of English and European football needed. Rather than sell the vacated site to an unrelated developer, Arsenal itself led the redevelopment, which is a big part of why so much of the original stadium survived.
What Happened to Highbury After Arsenal Left
Demolition began soon after the final match, starting with the North Bank and Clock End, the two stands with no heritage protection. Both came down within the redevelopment’s first phase.
The East and West Stands were treated differently. Their 1930s Art Deco facades — the marble entrance halls, the curved frontage, the Arsenal crest and clock — were retained as the shell for new apartment blocks built inside and behind them. Rather than gutting the stadium and starting again, architects Allies and Morrison inserted new floors and duplex flats into the old stand structure, using the stadium’s original four-metre structural grid to plan the new interiors — a deliberate echo of the Georgian London squares the development was designed to resemble.
Construction ran from 2006 into 2009, and the finished scheme — officially opened on 24 September 2009 with Arsène Wenger cutting the ribbon — comprised around 711 homes across a mix of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom flats and penthouses. The old pitch became a large shared garden at the centre of the development, and the players’ tunnel was preserved as a walkway leading out to it.
Is Highbury Stadium Still There Today?
Partly, yes. The Grade II listed East Stand and the locally listed West Stand still stand on Avenell Road, their Art Deco facades intact and functioning as the outer walls of Highbury Square’s apartment blocks — the same view matchgoing fans would have walked past for decades. The North Bank and Clock End are gone entirely, replaced by new-build blocks designed to match the development’s style rather than reuse any original fabric.
So Highbury the football ground no longer exists, but Highbury the building very much does — it’s just residential now rather than a place you can buy a matchday ticket for.
A Stadium Steeped in History
Highbury opened on 6 September 1913 on land leased from St John’s College of Divinity, with a 2–1 win over Leicester Fosse as its first competitive match. The ground was substantially rebuilt in the 1930s under architects Claude Ferrier and William Binnie, whose Art Deco East and West Stands turned it into one of the most architecturally distinctive venues in English football; the East Stand, opened in 1936, was the most expensive stand built in Britain at the time.
The all-time attendance record — 73,295 — was set on 9 March 1935, when Arsenal drew 0–0 with Sunderland; the crowd was so large that gates were locked an hour before kick-off. That figure was never beaten. Following the Taylor Report’s recommendations in the early 1990s, Highbury was converted to an all-seater stadium, reducing capacity to a final figure of 38,419. Despite the smaller crowds, Highbury kept its reputation as one of the toughest away days in the country — a genuine fortress for Arsenal right up until the final whistle in 2006.
Where the Name “Highbury” Actually Comes From: Highbury House
“Highbury House” doesn’t refer to any part of the stadium or to a specific block at Highbury Square — it’s the name of a much older building that gave the whole neighbourhood its name, long before Arsenal ever arrived. The name Highbury itself means roughly “high fort,” dating back to a 14th-century manor house on the hill just north of what’s now Highbury Fields.
In 1781, a merchant named John Dawes built a grand Georgian mansion called Highbury House on that same high ground, and it became a local landmark — for a time it even had an astronomical observatory attached, from which its owner could reportedly track shipping on the Thames as far as Gravesend. Highbury House itself was demolished in 1938, and a block of flats called Eton House was built on the site the following year. So by the time Arsenal moved to the district in 1913 and eventually named their new ground Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, the place name was already more than a century old — inherited from a mansion that had nothing to do with football.
What’s Preserved — and What’s Gone
Not every part of Highbury survived. The North Bank and Clock End, both rebuilt in the 20th century without the same architectural pedigree as the East and West Stands, were completely demolished and replaced with new-build apartment blocks that match the development’s style but aren’t original stadium fabric.
The East Stand fared best: it’s nationally Grade II listed by Historic England (list entry 1119692), meaning its 1936 facade, marble entrance hall and staircases are protected by law. The West Stand is only locally listed rather than nationally protected, but its facade was preserved anyway to keep the development’s symmetry and character intact. Inside the scheme, look for a bust of former manager Herbert Chapman and other small memorials to the stadium’s football history, tucked into the communal areas.
Visiting Highbury Today
Highbury Square is private housing, not a museum or a tourist attraction — there are no stadium tours and the interior isn’t open to the public. What you can do is walk along Avenell Road (nearest station: Arsenal, on the Piccadilly line) and see the East Stand’s Art Deco frontage exactly as matchgoing fans would have seen it decades ago, plus a small plaque marking the site’s football history.
Fans wanting an actual stadium tour experience should head to Arsenal’s current home instead — details on tours, tickets and opening times are on Arsenal’s official website.
Highbury Stadium FAQs
When did Arsenal leave Highbury?
Arsenal played their final match at Highbury on 7 May 2006 — a 4–2 win over Wigan Athletic — before moving to the new Emirates Stadium for the 2006–07 season.
What happened to Highbury Stadium after Arsenal moved out?
It was redeveloped, not demolished. Between 2006 and 2009, Highbury was converted into Highbury Square, a residential complex of around 711 flats. The North Bank and Clock End were torn down, the Grade II listed East Stand and the West Stand facades were rebuilt into apartments, and the old pitch became a communal garden.
Is Highbury Stadium still standing?
Parts of it are. The East and West Stand facades still stand and now form the exterior of residential apartment blocks called Highbury Square. The North Bank and Clock End stands are gone, replaced by new-build housing as part of the same development.
What is Highbury House in London?
Highbury House was a Georgian mansion built in 1781 on the hill that gave the surrounding area its name. It predates Arsenal’s stadium by well over a century, was demolished in 1938, and isn’t connected to any surviving part of the football ground — the stadium simply borrowed the district’s existing name when Arsenal moved there in 1913.
How many homes are at Highbury Square?
The finished development comprises around 711 apartments, ranging from studios to three-bedroom flats and penthouses, built within and around the old stadium’s retained stands.
Can you visit Highbury Stadium today?
You can walk past it — Highbury Square sits on Avenell Road near Arsenal tube station and the East Stand’s listed facade is visible from the street — but it’s private housing with no public tours or stadium access.
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