Classical Concrete: The 1923 Wembley Stadium

The twin towers of the 1923 Wembley Stadium during construction. Image from The Engineer.

The old Wembley Stadium, opened in 1923 as the Empire Stadium, became an iconic part of 20th Century British life thanks to the series of events it hosted. From the 1923 White Horse Cup final, through to the 1966 World Cup and onto events like the 1984 Live Aid concert, (as well as John Betjeman taking to the hallowed turf during his ‘Metro-Land’ documentary), the building became part of the backdrop of British life. The stadium had been built for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition, an event that did much to bring people out to what was still part of Middlesex and help kick start the Metro-Land speculative building boom. Like the rest of the exhibition buildings, the intention was to demolish the stadium at the end of the event. In the end a property speculator named James White bought the exhibition site, looking to sell the various buildings for reuse, with the stadium being bought by Arthur Elvin, who had undertaken the selling of the other buildings for White. Elvin formed the Wembley Stadium and Greyhound Racecourse Company and turned the stadium into a venue for hire. 

An illustration of the Palace of Industry, designed by Maxwell Ayrton and Owen Williams.

The stadium was built ahead of the Empire Exhibition, which opened in April 1924, being completed four days before the famous FA Cup final of 1923, at which a crowd of over 250,000 ended up spilling onto the pitch and being shepherded off by PC George Scorey and his horse Billie. The design and construction of the stadium mirrored that of the other Empire Exhibition buildings, a Beaux Arts facade hiding radical concrete construction. The stadium's exterior was defined by its iconic, domed Twin Towers, which evoked Roman triumphal arches or Mughal pavilions. Ayrton employed a strict classical symmetry across a sweeping, uniform facade that hid the utilitarian sports arena behind. He also used traditional motifs by ensuring the concrete surfaces were meticulously scored and treated to mimic the texture of expensive, traditional dressed stone.To the spectator approaching from Wembley Way, the stadium felt like an embodiment of Empire, solid, durable and strong. ​

A cross section of the stand and twin towers, and a plan of the stadium. Image from The Engineer.

Engineering for this feat of concrete construction was provided by Owen Williams. Faced with a tight 300-day construction deadline and a strict budget of £750,000, Williams knew that traditional brick and stone could not be used. He turned Wembley into one of the largest poured-in-place reinforced concrete projects the world had ever seen, a "Concrete City”. Utilizing concrete's immense tensile strength to construct massive, unadorned structural rakers to hold up the grandstands, Williams also developed a pioneering cantilevered roof that provided unobstructed views for thousands of spectators, taking influence in his designs from stadiums in the United States such as Stamford Stadium in Seattle and Ohio Stadium.

A panorama of the empire exhibition site, with the stadium at the rear. Image from Wembly Matters.

The structure of the walls for the stadium were formed of concrete parabolic arches, inter set with monolithic staircase towers in a repeating pattern. For the shells of the twin towers, Williams used 3-inch thick concrete reinforced by curved ribs, sitting on top of the towers which themselves were built in 4-inch concrete. Williams had previously explored ship building using concrete, and applied his findings to these grand structures. Ayrton had also designed the entrance facade with large classical columns, which Williams incorporated in the building as hollow, non-structural elements. 

The view of the pitch and track from the restaurant. Image from RIBApix.

The finished stadium had a capacity of 120,000, arranged in a bowl shape around the sports area. This shape, not used in smaller football grounds with the stands arranged around the rectangular pitch, allowed a running track and other facilities around the pitch. The elegant finish given the concrete on the exterior was not repeated inside, with the material left unvarnished, less from the “truth to material” ethos of the post war brutalists, and more from expediency. ​

Ayrton and Williams were both knighted for their efforts on the stadium and the other exhibition buildings. Both men continued practicing until the 1960s, both keeping to their preferred styles, Ayrton in the Classical mode, whereas Williams stripped away ornament to bare function, like his Wembley Arena of 10 years later. The buildings of the Empire Exhibition were gradually cleared away, with the stadium demolished in 2003 to make way for the current stadium’s sweeping steel arch. The loss of the Twin Towers was deeply mourned, more so than the windy, open terraces that Williams produced, but both had found a home in the stadium built to last a year, but that became a part of British life.  ​