Arsenal tube station, in Highbury, north London, is a London Underground station located near Arsenal Stadium, the home of Arsenal football club. It is on the Piccadilly Line, in Travelcard Zone 2, between Holloway Road and Finsbury Park tube stations.

Opened as Gillespie Road on 15 December 1906 the later arrival of the football stadium led to a successful campaign for a change of name, and on 31 October 1932 it was renamed Arsenal (Highbury Hill). Over time, the suffix was gradually dropped, however the original tiled walls of the platforms still bear the Gillespie Road name spelt out in large letters.

The station is located in a narrow Victorian residential street and when built the station building was squeezed incongruously between residential properties on each side, occupying the width of just two Victorian terraced houses. Even after the surface building was rebuilt in the early 1930s and widened (with a further house being demolished), Arsenal station has one of the narrowest frontages of any underground station.

The station is one of the least-used on the whole Underground network. The station remains largely deserted outside of the morning and evening rush hours except on matchdays; even then, resultant congestion means many supporters use the nearby Finsbury Park station, which also has the club store just outside. This station in addition to having a link to the Victoria Line is also a bus and national rail interchange.

Arsenal Football Club moved to a new stadium, the Emirates Stadium in July 2006. The stadium is located on the site of Ashburton Grove, a former industrial estate approximately 500 yards away from Highbury, and closer to Drayton Park and Holloway Road stations. Some local residents have campaigned for Arsenal tube station's name to revert to Gillespie Road, arguing that the current name will no longer be as accurate as before. However the station is still within walking distance of the new stadium and is expected to be used by supporters, particularly those in the northern and eastern stands.

Image gallery

Image:Arsenal_Tube_Station_at_night.jpg|Arsenal Tube Station at night Image:GillespieRoad_Signr.jpg|A mockup of how a renamed "Gillespie Road" station sign might look.

External links

• London's Tranport Museum Photographic Archive
  • .

• The petition in support of reverting the station name to Gillespie Road

Arsenal (London Underground) | Arsenal undergrunnsstasjon | Islington | Arsenal F.C.