Arsenal Stadium (commonly known as Highbury) is the home of the Arsenal Football Club of the English Premier League. The team nickname is The Gunners.

Highbury is a classic, originally built in 1913. Like most English Football Stadiums, it has been renovated and redeveloped over the years, but the two Main Stands remain very much as they were when they were first built. The two ends have been completely rebuilt within the past decade.

The first thing you notice when you emerge from the Underground (Arsenal Station) is that you are not in a big city, but a neighborhood. Attached housing lines the streets all around the stadium. There is no parking, and when I say that I don't mean there is insufficient parking. I mean there is no parking. The stadium is completely enveloped by the neighborhood in which it resides. The East Stand is directly across the street from a row of houses. The West Stand casts shadows over the back gardens of another row of houses.

The atmosphere on game day is wonderful. The locals turn their front yards into food stalls and souvenir stands. The fans, most clad in Arsenal red, stroll the streets (closed to traffic) like it's a street fair, and it really is.

Inside, the stadium practically shimmers in the afternoon sun. The two main stands each have a lower level, directly on top of which sits the upper deck. The positive result of this is that the upper deck is in very close proximity to the pitch. The downside is the one negative I found at Highbury. The lower level is very claustrophobic with the big deck sitting right on top of you. My seat was in the back of the lower level and the front of the upper came down so low that I couldn't see any of the stadium at all from my seat. In fairness, I could see every bit of the field just fine. It's just that it would have been nice to see more than a long slice of green field from my seat. A minor complaint, really.

The atmosphere inside the stadium was wonderful. It's a tightly packed place, but the crowd was excellent. Rising when a scoring chance came, then settling back down as one. No one moved about during the game and everything just had a great positive feel to it. The singing went on throughout the game. It was great fun.

One of my favorite spots was a deck that extended off the back of the West Stand. This is where smokers went to grab a quick cigarette. I stepped out and looked down and there were people in their back yards barbequing, completely oblivous to the 38,000 people in a football stadium in their back yard. Wonderful stuff.

Highbury is a classic. It is truly a shame that economics are forcing Arsenal to build a new, modern, revenue-generating stadium at nearby Ashburton Grove. I'm glad I saw Highbury before it was too late.

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