There was a second development; the first phase, which added executive boxes to the Clock End, was completed in 1989, and afterward in 1993 a new North Bank Stand was constructed.

[6] The original stadium was built in 1913 after Woolwich Arsenal chairman Henry Norris moved the club from the Manor Ground in Plumstead, South East London to Highbury, leasing the recreation fields of St John's College of Divinity for 21 years for £20,000.

[7] The move was initially opposed by Islington Borough Council, residents and nearby clubs, Tottenham Hotspur and Clapton Orient.

[8][9] The lease agreement, signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury Randall Davidson, allowed no matches to be played on "holy days" and that no "intoxicating liquor" would be sold at the stadium; however, these stipulations were later dropped.

The Australian rugby league team suffered the first loss of their 1921–22 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain at Highbury to an English side 4 points to 5 before approximately 12,000 spectators.

[7] On 5 November the same year, the local Tube station was renamed from Gillespie Road to Arsenal following successful persuasion by manager Herbert Chapman.

[8][9] Chapman next decided to install a 45-minute clock on the North Bank despite the Football Association's concern that it would undermine the referee's authority.

[8][9] Following the lifting of the ban in December 1950, in 1951 Arsenal became the first team in Division One to fit floodlights, with the first floodlit match being a friendly against Hapoel Tel Aviv on 19 September of that year.

Unlike at many other grounds, Arsenal refused to install perimeter fencing, even at the height of hooliganism in the 1980s, which made it ineligible for use as an FA Cup semi-final venue.

[17] Before the Taylor report in January 1990 on the Hillsborough disaster was published, which recommended that football stadia become all-seater, both the North Bank and Clock End consisted of terracing, and the stadium often saw crowds of up to 60,000 or more; its largest attendance was 73,295 on 9 March 1935 when Arsenal played Sunderland in the First Division; the game finished 0–0.

During redevelopment, a giant mural of fans was placed behind the goal at that end, to give the illusion that the players were kicking towards a crowd rather than a construction site.

[22] Populous (then LOBB Partnership) designed all-seater two-tier North Bank Stand, the last area of Highbury to be refurbished, which was opened in August 1993 at a cost of £20 million amid strong opposition from local residents.

[23][24] While the all-seater North Bank was "never the same as the old-fashioned Archibald Leitch stand" that it replaced, it was "much more like the future of Arsenal than the past" with its added amenities and "Gone were the days of pushing a petrified child through a packed crowd and placing them on a barrier from which they could only see a small section of the pitch".

During the Second World War the stadium was used as an ARP station and was bombed; Arsenal played their matches at White Hart Lane, home of North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, until Highbury re-opened in 1946.

More recently, Arsenal's home UEFA Champions League matches in the 1998–99 and 1999–00 seasons were played at Wembley Stadium, as Highbury's already limited capacity had to be reduced to accommodate advertising hoardings.

The East Stand incorporated the club's offices and was well known for its marble halls (though the floors were actually terrazzo) which are often cited in media depictions of the stadium,[29] and the facade that faces onto Avenell Road.

[3] Arsenal's groundsmen, Steve Braddock and his successor Paul Burgess, won the FA Premier League's Groundsman of the Year award several times for their work on the stadium.

[33] In October 1998, just after Arsenal started playing Champions League games at Wembley, the club made an unsuccessful bid to buy the stadium and make it their permanent home to share with the England national football team.

[42] As of 2010[update], Arsenal Stadium was redeveloped and converted into flats in a project known as "Highbury Square", a scheme that had 711 properties built on the site.

[45] Arsenal's clock was moved from Highbury to the outer side of the new stadium, with a new larger version of the feature added inside the ground in August 2010.

Between 1984 and 1992 the stadium was not included in the FA's list of approved venues after Arsenal refused to install perimeter fencing following a pitch invasion by Everton fans during their semi-final against Southampton.