Wembley: Stadium, Suburb, and the Crossroads of Northwest London
Two stadiums define Wembley in the public mind. The Empire Stadium, built in 300 days for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition, hosted FA Cup finals, Live Aid, and the 1966 World Cup final. Its twin towers became the most recognisable symbol in English football. Demolition came in 2003. The replacement, opened in 2007 at a cost that spiralled past 800 million pounds, seats 90,000 and is topped by a 133-metre steel arch visible from across north London. Wembley Arena, next door, adds another 12,500 seats for concerts and events. On match days and concert nights, the area around Wembley Park station and Olympic Way absorbs tens of thousands of visitors who know the stadium but little else about the place.
The rest of Wembley is a working suburb in the London Borough of Brent. The population of the Wembley area is roughly 100,000. The demographic profile has shifted substantially since the mid-twentieth century, with large South Asian communities, particularly Gujarati, established since the 1960s and 1970s. Ealing Road functions as one of the main South Asian commercial streets in London, with sari shops, jewellers, sweet shops, and restaurants running for half a mile. The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir on Brentfield Road, carved from 5,000 tonnes of Italian and Indian marble and assembled without structural steel, opened in 1995 and was at the time the largest Hindu temple outside India.
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Two stadiums define Wembley in the public mind. The Empire Stadium, built in 300 days for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition, hosted FA Cup finals, Live Aid, and the 1966 World Cup final. Its twin towers became the most recognisable symbol in English football. Demolition came in 2003. The replacement, opened in 2007 at a cost that spiralled past 800 million pounds, seats 90,000 and is topped by a 133-metre steel arch visible from across north London. Wembley Arena, next door, adds another 12,500 seats for concerts and events. On match days and concert nights, the area around Wembley Park station and Olympic Way absorbs tens of thousands of visitors who know the stadium but little else about the place.
The rest of Wembley is a working suburb in the London Borough of Brent. The population of the Wembley area is roughly 100,000. The demographic profile has shifted substantially since the mid-twentieth century, with large South Asian communities, particularly Gujarati, established since the 1960s and 1970s. Ealing Road functions as one of the main South Asian commercial streets in London, with sari shops, jewellers, sweet shops, and restaurants running for half a mile. The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir on Brentfield Road, carved from 5,000 tonnes of Italian and Indian marble and assembled without structural steel, opened in 1995 and was at the time the largest Hindu temple outside India.
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