Highbury: The Definitive History of Arsenal at Highbury Stadium

by Jon Spurling

From Herbert Chapman to Arsène Wenger, this is the definitive history of Arsenal's time at the famous Highbury stadium.

After several years of sitting in Highbury's local pubs and cafés with a Dictaphone, Jon Spurling has pooled hours of interviews with fans, programme sellers, local publicans and even those who dug the foundations of the Laundry End (and later cleared rubbish from its terraces) to meticulously construct the biography of the ground and chart the ups and downs of one of England's greatest league clubs.

Spurling has also spoken to numerous the late greats of yesteryear (Ted Drake, George Male and Reg Lewis), as well as legends of a more recent vintage - from Bob Wilson, Charlie George and Malcolm MacDonald to Anders Limpar and various legends of the Wenger era, including Patrick Vieira. Written in the year that Arsenal moved to the Emirates, Jon Spurling has produced the definitive account of the club's 93 years at Highbury.

Genres: Sports, Football, Nonfiction

362 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2006

Reviews

[John Newcomb · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a wonderfully evocative set of memories of my life and before.

[Elan Crocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fan-*******-tastic.

Now how do we get the younger generation to read this? Football is galloping at such a pace that we need the time to read up our history.

All of a sudden, the players of the 1930’s don’t feel too far away to me anymore. They’re all just men, aged 17-38, playing for a club on a patch of grass in Highbury. Everything is the same but is different.

My only problem is that I now feel convinced moving from Highbury was a mistake... but we have a duty to make Ashburton Grove home by giving it our soul.

If you’ve not, go check out Highbury.

Or watch ‘The Arsenal Stadium Mystery’ (1939) on YouTube, great stuff.

[Tom Bain · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sheer breadth of this as an oral history is really impressive and it succeeds in building a collection of memories that feels distinctly local to Highbury. Spurling and the fans he speaks to feel knowledgeable, passionate and grounded. Unfortunately the structure and approach gets a little repetitive over time, and the decision to cover home games exclusively means that big moments or arcs of Arsenal history feel incomplete or missing.

[Michael Faulkner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good history of my beloved Highbury, the finest football stadium ever in existence.
I now feel very fortunate that I was able to attend matches at this magnificient stadium many times over a course of 44 years (1971-2005).
Spurling writes with the familiary of his subject very much in play, & this is an enjoyable read of the Gunner's 93 year history in the Arsenal Stadium.

[Eddie Hillion · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started supporting Arsenal in the 60's. For me, this is an excellent record of many happy times spent at Highbury. The book also records changing attitudes to many subjects in life through those years of that fabulous old stadium. 5⭐'s

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in 2009

Excellent Arsenal history which stands out from others due to: even handed treatment of all decades; interviews with not just fans and players/managers but interesting characters (lottery ticket sellers, builders, a ticket tout, the first mascot, fanzine editors) and relatives of others (such as the sons of early fans and those who opposed the move of the Woolwich “interlopers”; concentration only on events occurring at Highbury and so not Cup Finals, Anfield 1989 etc.

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed this book. A wonderfully evocative overview of Arsenal's time at Highbury, from the move from south London to the lateral jump to the new Emirates stadium. Full of fantastic memories.