Arsenal tube station

Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 31 Jul 2007

The station frontage appears incongruously perched between Victorian terraced houses in Gillespie Road, N5. In fact it was opened in 1906 as Gillespie Road station and there is a photograph of it, a hundred years ago in 1907, shortly after it opened, in the London Transport Museum archive here http://photos.ltmcollection.org/images/max/73/9887773.jpg Arsenal Football Club started using nearby Highbury as their ground in 1913, and their former manager, Herbert Chapman, was instrumental in getting the name of the station changed to the name of the club. In 1932 it was renamed to Arsenal (Highbury Hill), but the extension was rapidly dropped. Highbury Hill is the name of the road leading down to the station from which the photograph was taken. Some Gillespie Road nameplates remain on the tiled walls inside the station today. In the 1930s too the station frontage was widened with the demolition of some houses; hence the discrepancy between the widths of the frontage in the 1907 and 2007 images. In 2006 Arsenal FC moved to the new Emirates Stadium, and local residents began a campaign to get the name of the station changed back to Gillespie Road. However the station is still within easy walking distance of the new stadium so the name appears to be here to stay. Am I alone in thinking that the original 1906 Edwardian façade appears more in tune with the surrounding buildings than the current one?

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