Arsenal

Old Arsenal stadium

When I was looking to buy a flat recently, the new development on the site of the old Arsenal stadium kept coming up on Rightmove. I wasn’t interested a) as I liked the old stadium just as it was b) I wanted a garden and c) I couldn’t afford a flat there anyway.

I went past the new(ish) development the other day and the gate was open, so I went in. And I was amazed at how green it was. A hell of a lot of the area – well, the size of a football pitch, really – has been given over to planting, which is by the renowned landscape architect Christopher Bradley-Hole. It’s a grid of hedges, grasses, block planting, glass screens and trees. And some of the flats do actually have gardens (albeit very small ones).

I was impressed. The garden seems like a fitting incarnation for a former football club – it’s the main feature of the development, and every balcony overlooks it. It seemed incredibly peaceful, too, and it struck me as a very nice place to live.

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