Despite being dominated by the imposing Wembley Stadium, the neighbourhood of Wembley Park includes modern retail and housing development schemes that began alongside the construction of the new stadium in the early 2000s. A large industrial land, known as the Stadium Industrial Estate, takes up the majority of the east of Wembley Stadium and is home to a number of offices and large food and hardware warehouses. The revamped, but still notorious Chalkhill Estate sits to the north, while the flats, hotels, and offices to the west of the stadium draw people from across the city. Wembley Park tube station operates on the Jubilee and Metropolitan lines, and provides a convenient hub both for those who commute to the area for work, and for those who come to visit the stadium. Local green space is in short supply, but the rather idyllic Brent Reservoir and its surrounding parkland is just a short bus journey away.

The modern history of Wembley Park begins in 1787, when local landowner, Richard Page, had the ambition of converting the fields into a landscaped estate, employing famous landscape architect Humphrey Repton to realise the plan. Page lost interest in Wembley Park and the manor went through a number of hands before a pleasure gardens was built along with the Metropolitan Railway in the late-19th century. The British Empire Exhibition was held in the park in 1921, with Wembley Stadium built as part of it. Its record attendance was famously made just a year after its completion with the 1923 FA Cup Final between Bolton and West Ham drawing 126,047 fans to the terraces.

A number of metroland suburban developments were built in the following years but the main focus was always the stadium. It hosted the 1948 Olympics, the 1966 World Cup Final, Euro ‘96, countless musical acts including Live Aid in 1985, as well as visits by the Pope in 1982 and Nelson Mandela in 1990! The stadium was closed in 2000, before its rebuilding and reopening in 2007.

Wembley Park was once the location of a short-lived scheme to outdo the French in the field of tower building. Sir Edward Watkin, Chairman of the Metropolitan Railway Company, commissioned an 8-legged metal tower that would stand 46m taller than the recently completed Eiffel Tower in Paris, even taller than the Shard. It was intended to house restaurants, theatres, dancing rooms, a Turkish baths, two observation decks, a winter garden, an observatory, and even a 90-bedroom hotel! Sadly, funds dried up in 1899 and the project went into liquidation, so the tower was demolished before it even really got off the ground.

Even the Norman Foster-designed arch that soars majestically above Wembley Stadium can’t distract from the fact that the whole area is dreary, industrial and crime-ridden. Apart from the huge numbers of fans that visit Wembley Park on match days or for concerts, the neighbourhood is often very quiet, and used mainly for traffic.

The 85-acre Wembley Park development is well underway, and with 10.3 million square feet of mixed development it is one of Europe’s largest regeneration projects. 3,000 homes have already been completed, and it is the largest single-site purpose-built Build to Rent development anywhere in the UK, with an additional 5,500 homes still to be built. The project has already brought new community hubs, entertainment venues like Boxpark, art installations and open spaces, including the new 7 acre Union Park. With over £2.5bn already invested in the area, there’s much more slated to come, with the Quintain-led development scheduled to complete in 2027, bringing with it over 8,000 new jobs.