Wembley is an area of northwest London, and part of the London Borough of Brent. It is home to the famous Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena. Anciently part of the parish of Harrow on the Hill in the county of Middlesex, Wembley formed a separate civil parish from 1894 and was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1937. Wembley, in common with much of northwest London, has had an extensive manufacturing industry, but much of it closed in the 1980s. Factories in the area included Glacier Metals (bearings), Wolf Power Tools, Sunbeam Electrical Appliances, Griffin & George (laboratory equipment) and GEC (whose research plant was one of the first of its type in the UK). The retail centre of Wembley (the High Road and Ealing Road) has suffered from chronic traffic congestion, and from the opening of neighbouring purpose-built shopping centres, first Brent Cross in the early 1970s, and later the Harrow and Ealing Broadway Shopping Centres. During the 1960s rebuilding of Wembley Central station, a block of flats, an open-plan shopping plaza and a car park were constructed, on a concrete raft over the railway.
The shopping plaza suffered a slow decline and was therefore poorly maintained but is being redeveloped as Central Square. The first phase of including 85 homes and reconstruction of the plaza, has been completed. Wembley City, which includes a new Civic Centre for the borough, is being constructed around the junction of Engineers Way and Empire Way, near the stadium. The main shopping area is centred on Wembley High Road, Central Square, which is also undergoing redevelopment, and Ealing Road. The industrial and commercial estate close to Wembley Stadium includes warehouse-style outlets and retail sheds, and at ‘Brent Park’ further south on the A406 North Circular Road, there is a large Ikea Store, Tesco, other stores and industrial units. A large market is held on most Sundays in the car park in front of Wembley Stadium, continuing a long tradition.
Wembley Arena is an indoor arena. The building is located opposite of the Wembley Stadium. It was built for the 1934 Empire Games, by Arthur Elvin and originally housed a swimming pool, as reflected by its former name, “Empire Pool”. The pool itself was last used for the 1948 Summer Olympics. The building is used for music, comedy and family entertainment and for sport. Wembley Arena was renovated, along with Wembley Stadium, as part of the regeneration of the Wembley area. The arena refurbishment cost £35m and the new arena opened to the public on 2 April 2006, with a concert by Depeche Mode. With 12,500 seats it is London’s second largest indoor arena after The O2 arena and third largest indoor concert venue after the O2 and Earls Court, an exhibition hall which regularly stages concerts.
Wembley Stadium opened in 2007 and was built on the site of the previous 1923 Wembley Stadium. The earlier Wembley stadium, originally called the Empire Stadium, was often referred to as “The Twin Towers” and was one of the world’s most famous football stadiums until its demolition in 2003. The 90,000-capacity venue is the second largest stadium in Europe, and serves as England’s national stadium. It is the home venue of the England national football team, and hosts the latter stages of the top level domestic club cup competition, the FA Cup. It held UEFA five-star stadium status which was superseded by a new system of classification. It is owned by English football’s governing body, The Football Association (The FA), through their subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL). Besides football, Wembley can be configured to hold many other events, particularly major concerts.
[responsivevoice_button voice="Deutsch Female" buttontext="Diesen Beitrag vorlesen"](Latest update: 9 March 2020) From May 23 to 26, 2019, the European elections took place. By far the biggest surprise is that, despite Brexit, the United Kingdom took part in the elections because the country voted to leave the EU by a very small majority, but ultimately was not able to find the exit in time. The motto "Brexit means Brexit" is obviously not as easy to implement as the Brexiteers falsely propagated before the referendum, because the political camps define the exit very differently, making the in...
