Emirates Stadium (Arsenal)

The Self-Guided Audio Tour

Unlike tours that herd you through in a fixed group, the Emirates experience is self-guided. You collect an audio handset — with English commentary voiced by former players Lee Dixon and Charlie George — and move at your own pace. The route covers the home and away dressing rooms, warm-up area, players' tunnel, press conference room and pitchside dugouts. Standing in the tunnel with 60,000 empty seats rising around you is genuinely atmospheric. On quieter weekday mornings you may have entire sections almost to yourself, making for better photographs and a more immersive visit. Last entry is typically one hour before closing.

The Arsenal Museum & Club History

The Arsenal Museum sits within the stadium complex and covers the club's full arc from its founding as Dial Square FC at the Royal Arsenal munitions factory in Woolwich in 1886, through the Herbert Chapman revolution of the 1930s, to the modern era under Arsene Wenger and beyond. The centrepiece is the trophy room: all 13 league titles and 14 FA Cups alongside the golden Premier League trophy awarded to the 2003–04 Invincibles — the only squad in modern history to go an entire top-flight season unbeaten. Interactive screens let you explore match footage, player profiles and tactical analysis. Temporary exhibitions rotate throughout the year, focusing on specific eras or legendary players.

From Highbury to the Emirates

Arsenal played at Highbury for 93 years before moving in 2006. Highbury held only 38,419, and the club needed a larger ground to compete financially. The Emirates, built on the site of a former waste transfer station in Ashburton Grove, more than doubled match-day revenue. The stadium's four-tier bowl design creates a steep, enclosed atmosphere, and translucent polycarbonate cladding glows on match nights. At 60,704 seats, it is the fourth-largest football ground in England after Wembley, Old Trafford and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The old Highbury, half a mile south, has been converted into apartments, but the Art Deco East Stand facade and marble entrance halls survive — well worth a combined visit.