Arsenal Stadium
London (Highbury), Greater London, England
Arsenal Stadium, London (Highbury), England — opened 6 September 1913, 1 rugby league games hosted, home of Arsenal F.C. (football), 1913-2006; no rugby league club was ever tenant — a single one-off representative fixture.
Sourcing caveat: The fixture's date and identity are double-sourced (Rugby League Project and Wikipedia's tour article both place an England v Australia match at Highbury on 10 October 1921), but the exact score and attendance rest on Rugby League Project alone as the only source found giving those specific figures.
Ground facts
| Opened | 6 September 1913 (Opened for Arsenal F.C.'s first match there; known locally as "Highbury" from the outset, though the formal name "Arsenal Stadium" only became common after 1932, when manager Herbert Chapman had the local London Underground station renamed from Gillespie Road to Arsenal. At the time of the ground's single rugby league match (1921), it would have been known simply as Highbury.) |
| Home club | Arsenal F.C. (football), 1913-2006; no rugby league club was ever tenant — a single one-off representative fixture |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 1 |
| Top recorded crowd | 12,000 |
| Capacity | designed initially for approximately 90,000; peak recorded attendance was 73,295 (1935) |
| Test matches hosted | 1 |
| Floodlights installed | not installed until 1951 (Arsenal were the first Division One club to install floodlights, after the FA's wartime-era ban on them was lifted in December 1950) — so no floodlights were present for the 1921 rugby league match |
| First rugby league match | 10 October 1921 — England 5-4 Australia, part of the 1921-22 Kangaroo Tour of Great Britain (attendance 12,000, our recorded top and only crowd) |
| Years used | 1921 |
| Location | London (Highbury), Greater London |
Name history
- Highbury — the informal name from 1913, in use at the time of the 1921 rugby league match
- Arsenal Stadium — the formal name that became standard from 1932
Rugby league history
A touring Australian Kangaroos side playing a one-off representative fixture at a major football ground was a fairly common pattern in this era, when dedicated rugby league grounds in London were scarce and generally much smaller than the major football stadiums. Beyond this single 1921 occasion, Highbury/Arsenal Stadium's identity for the following eight decades was entirely as the home of Arsenal Football Club, until the club's move to the Emirates Stadium in 2006.
The historic home of Arsenal F.C. (football), 1913-2006.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 10 October 1921 — England 5-4 Australia (12,000)
Pre-dates the site's structured match-by-match records for these competitions, so listed here as sourced facts rather than linked match pages.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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