This is a external view of Wembley Stadium and the famous twin towers taken from the busy car park in 1947.

The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium, standing on the site now occupied by the New Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007.

It was famous for hosting the annual FA Cup finals, five European Cup finals, the 1948 Summer Olympics, the 1966 World Cup Final, the final of Euro 96, and the 1985 Live Aid concert.

The stadium’s first turf was cut by King George V, and it was first opened to the public on 28 April 1923. It was built by Sir Robert McAlpine for the British Empire Exhibition of 1924.

The stadium cost £750,000, and was constructed on the site of an earlier folly called Watkin’s Tower. The architects were Sir John Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton and the Head Engineer Sir Owen Williams. It was originally intended to demolish the stadium at the end of the Exhibition, but it was saved at the suggestion of Sir James Stevenson, a Scot who was chairman of the organising committee for the Empire Exhibition. The ground had been used for football as early as the 1880s.

The twin towers were an icon for England and Wembley and their demolition in 2003 upset many members of the public.


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