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Wembley Park history

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The Page family

Wembley was a sub-manor of Harrow and belonged to the Priory of Kilburn. The Page family, successful local farmers, had already been leasing the land. The Pages became one of the largest and richest families in Middlesex.

Richard Page and Humphry Repton

Richard Page (died 1771) was the landowner and lord of the manor in Sudbury, west of Wembley. His son, also called Richard, had the ambition of converting ‘Wellers’ into a country seat. In 1792 Richard Page decided to employ the famous landscape architect Humphry Repton to convert the farmland into wooded parkland. Repton was clearly impressed by Page’s property.

John Gray

Wembley Park is thought to be the oldest property in Wembley. The Page family owned the Barn Hill part of the park, some 91 acres (77 hectares) The house appears to have been sold to John Gray, a London brandy merchant, in 1802.

Watkin and Wembley Park

Sir Edward Watkin wanted Britain to have a bigger and better tower to rival the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The International Tower Construction Company was formed to finance construction of the tower, with Watkin as chairman. The foundations were laid in 1892 and Watkin’s Tower opened in 1896. The park became a sizeable pleasure garden that boasted cricket & football grounds, a large running track, tea pagodas, bandstands and a lake.

The British Empire Exhibition

In 1921 the British Government decided to site the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park, on the site of Edward Watkin’s pleasure gardens. The Urban District Council was opposed to the Exhibition, but its objections were overruled. Wembley Stadium (then the Empire Stadium) was built for the Exhibition and famously, the 1923 FA Cup Final was played there.

Inter-war suburban development and ‘Metroland’

A few large houses had been built on parts of Wembley Park as early as the 1890s. In 1906, when Watkin’s Tower closed, the Tower Company had become the Wembley Park Estate Company (later Wembley Ltd.), with the aim of developing Wembley as a residential suburb. Unlike other railways, the Metropolitan Railway bought land alongside its line and then developed housing on it.

Film and television studios

In 1926 British Talking Pictures opened The Wembley Park Studios in what had been the British Empire Exhibition’s fine dining restaurant. When rebuilt in the late 1920s, Wembley Studios would become Britain’s first purpose-built sound stages, though it was seriously damaged in a fire in 1929. The Beatles performed there several times, notably on 28 April 1964.

The Empire Pool

The Empire Pool was designed by the engineer Owen Williams and opened in 1934. It was last used for swimming when it hosted the aquatic events at the 1948 Olympics. Numerous sporting and entertainment events have been held there over the years, ranging from basketball to pantomimes.

Wembley Town Hall

Between 1937 and 1940 Wembley Borough Council built their new town hall in Kingsbury within the boundaries of Repton’s original Wembley Park. It was designed by Clifford Strange and is described by Pevsner as “the best of the modern town halls around London, neither fanciful nor drab” In 1964 the new London Borough of Brent took over the town hall. It remained the headquarters of Brent until the new Brent Civic Centre, also in Wembley Park, opened in 2013.

The Second World War

During the Second World War the Government banned large public events, but later realised that this had a demoralising effect. Sporting events, including football matches, returned to Wembley, although for a while after Dunkirk the Stadium became an Emergency Dispersal Centre, and later housed refugees from occupied countries. By the end of the war more than one million service personnel had visited Wembley, as well as civilians.

The 1948 Olympics

In March 1946, still recovering from the war, Britain put itself forward to host the Olympic Games for the second time in its history, seeing an opportunity to stage-manage an unparalleled global event and to demonstrate to the world that the worst effects of the war were in the past. There was limited preparation time. It was debated whether a sports festival was really necessary at such a time, but it was generally agreed that it could only bring an element of light relief and a wider image of progress, to which other nations could easily relate. Arthur Elvin supplied the Wembley site free of charge. Apart from the Stadium and Empire Pool, some of the old British Empire Exhibition buildings were used, notably the Palace of Engineering, so that no new venues were needed. Olympic Way was built at a cost of £120,000, using German POW labour. Wembley’s sports facilities had survived the war in good condition and were considered adequate for Olympic competition. Wembley Stadium hosted the opening ceremonies, the track-and-field competition, and other events. A cinder track, made with residue from the domestic fires of Leicester, was laid inside the stadium. Food rationing was still in force, but other competing nations, such as The Netherlands, contributed provisions. Athletes were provided with increased rations of 5,500 calories a day, on a par with the ration of a docker or a miner. The Games were on the least lavish scale ever seen, costing just £730,000 to put together. They became known as the Austerity Games. Many British athletes commuted to the Games on public transport. Even the “gold” medals were made from oxidised silver. However, each national team was assigned a vehicle with a uniformed female driver. The games opened at 4.00 p.m. (the time shown on Big Ben on the promotional literature) on 29 July 1948. There were 80,000 spectators on the first day. Though the 1936 Berlin Olympics had been televised, the Wembley games were the first Olympics to be broadcast by BBC television. Few people owned a television set, but nonetheless, the new medium helped to promote the Games in a way never seen before by the British public. The Empire Pool had never been a great success as a swimming venue, but it was ideal for the Olympics. For the first time at the Olympics, swimming events were held under cover. As the Empire Pool was longer than the standard Olympic length of 50 metres, a platform was constructed across the pool which both shortened it and could house officials. The Empire Pool also hosted the boxing and the diving, as it had at the Empire Games in 1934. In the stadium, some poor weather, and the inferior quality of the running track, slowed the track-and-field competition times. The fewest Olympic records were set in the history of the Games thus far, although the restricted women’s competition was expanded to 10 possible events with the addition of the 200-metre run, the long jump, and the shot put. British Guiana (now Guyana), Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Korea, Lebanon, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela were all nations sending teams for the first time. The 1948 Games were the first international competition that the Philippines, India and Pakistan officially entered as independent nations. As a team, India won their first medal as an independent nation in the field hockey competition. They were awarded the gold (also their first ever Olympic victory) when they beat Britain 4-0 in the final. Germany and Japan were not invited to the Games due to their roles as the aggressors in World War II. The Soviet Union was invited, but they declined. The Games were, however, attended by other Communist bloc countries, including Hungary, Yugoslavia and Poland. A total of 4,104 athletes took part, from a record number of 59 nations (90% of all competitors were male). This compares with 10,000 athletes from 204 nations at the 2012 London games. A number of events made their Olympic debut at Wembley in 1948, including the women’s 200 metres, long jump and shot put. The most successful individual athlete at these Games was Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands, known as “The Flying Housewife”. A 30-year-old mother of three, whom many believed was too old to compete, she was pregnant at the time she won four gold medals: in the 100 metres, 200 metres, 80 metres high hurdles, and 4 x 100 metre relay. She was also a world record holder in the long jump and high jump and might have won further medals in these sports, but female athletes were limited to three individual events. Well over a million people attended across all the Olympic events at Wembley Park. Britain finished with a total of 20 medals, three of them gold, coming 12th in the medal table. The USA walked away with the top spot, as their medal tally reached 84, including 34 golds.

The Stadium and Empire Pool after the Second World War

The Wembley Lions supporters Club had 61,000 members in 1948, and one meeting attracted a crowd of 85,000, with a further 20,000 listening to the results on the radio outside. Speedway ended at Wembley in 1957, unless one counts a brief revival in 1970–71. The late 1940s was the sport’s heyday, and American football was first played in 1952, but would not become a Wembley staple until the 1980s.

The 1966 World Cup

The 1966 World Cup kicked off at Wembley on Monday, 11 July 1966, with a 0-0 draw. The other two teams who played at Wembley in the group stage were Mexico and France. England went on to beat Argentina 1-0 in the quarter finals and Portugal 2-1 in the semi-finals. The final was played in front of a crowd of 92,225 people in Wembley on 30 July 1966.

The growth of popular music at Wembley

The NME moved the Pollwinners Concert to the Empire Pool in February 1960. The Pop Hit Parade Concerts, the ATV Glad Rag Ball, the Ready Steady Go Mod Ball and more Record Star shows all followed. The Beatles made their last official live appearance in Britain at the Pool on 1 May 1966.

Wembley Complex

In the 1970s Wembley Park became known as Wembley Complex, a group of venues serving different needs. The redevelopment scheme cost £15 million and was designed by R. Seifert & Partners, with Douglas Kershaw and Co. acting as consultant surveyors. The main walkway, which led to Olympic Way, and is still in existence, was 60 feet wide, while another lead to other leading to Empire Way via Elvin House, was 30 feet wide. Wembley Hill station was called Wembley Complex from May 1978 to May 1987, when it became Wembley Stadium.

Papal visit. 1982

The first open-air mass held during Pope John Paul II’s visit to Britain in 1982 was held at Wembley Stadium. About 80,000 people were present. Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Basil Hume said that the Stadium had become a church.

Live Aid, 1985

Bob Geldof and Ultravox teamed up to organise massive 16-hour charity rock concert. It was held simultaneously with John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, USA. Over 70,000 people saw it live, and a further 1.9 billion watched on television.

Nelson Mandela

Mandela: An International Tribute for a Free South Africa concert held at Wembley Stadium in 1988. The concert was held on 11 June 1988 celebrating the 70th birthday of Nelson Mandela, then a political prisoner. Two months after his release, Mandela was present at another Wembley Stadium concert in 1990.

Euro ’96

In 1996 England hosted the European Championships for the first time. The opening match, England v Switzerland, took place at Wembley. England topped their group, and won a quarter final against Spain. The following Wednesday, 26 June 1996, in Wembley’s second international penalty shoot-out, Germany beat England 6 – 5.

Construction of new stadium

By the 1990s the 1923 stadium was becoming increasingly outdated. It closed in October 2000 and was demolished in 2003. A new Wembley stadium was designed by a consortium including engineering consultant Mott MacDonald and built by the Australian firm Multiplex. It cost £798 million and opened in March 2007.

Narendra Modi visit, 2015

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally at the new Wembley Stadium in November 2015. 60,000 people, mostly British Indians, attended the rally.

  

Wembley Park map & travel guide with history & landmarks to explore

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Tourist Guide to Wembley Park Map

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