The Twin Towers were part of the original

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

in London, England. They were constructed in 1923 on the site of

Watkin's Tower Watkin's Tower was a partially completed iron lattice tower in Wembley Park, London, England (then in Middlesex). Its construction was an ambitious project to create a -high visitor attraction in Wembley Park to the north of the city, led by the r ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, and came to be recognised as one of the iconic symbols of English football in general and of

in particular. They became grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

s in 1976, but they were demolished in 2003 to make way for the new

Construction

The towers were designed by

Sir Robert McAlpine Sir Robert McAlpine Limited is a family-owned building and civil engineering company based in Hemel Hempstead, England. It carries out engineering and construction in the infrastructure, heritage, commercial, arena and stadium, healthcare, educa ...

for the construction of Empire Stadium (later known as

) in time for the

British Empire Exhibition The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley Park, London England from 23 April to 1 November 1924 and from 9 May to 31 October 1925. Background In 1920 the British Government decided to site the British Empire Exhibi ...

on the site of the demolished Watkin's Tower. They were high and built of

ferro-concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low ultimate tensile strength, tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion ...

with concrete flagpoles topped with concrete crowns constructed above them. Initially they were only intended to be a temporary construction, and the plan was to demolish them after the exhibition, but the chairman of the exhibition committee Sir James Stevenson requested that they be preserved. The towers continued to remain a part of Wembley Stadium and they became a distinctive symbol of Wembley, framing the approach to the stadium from

Wembley Park tube station Wembley Park is a London Underground station in Wembley Park, north west London. The station is served by the Underground's Jubilee and Metropolitan lines and is in Travelcard Zone 4. It is located on Bridge Road (A4089) and is the nearest Unde ...

to the north. They were world-famous as the landmark symbols of Wembley Stadium. The Twin Towers were granted Grade II listed status in 1976. As they were originally built as temporary structures, and were "treated to resemble masonry", several alterations were required over the years to preserve the Twin Towers.

Demolition

In 1994, there were rumours that Wembley Stadium would be redeveloped to build a new English

national stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

responded critically to the reports, writing to

Brent London Borough Council Brent London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Brent in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. It is based at Brent Civic Centre in Engineers Way ...

stating that they expected the Twin Towers to be preserved but would not object to the rest of the stadium being demolished. In 1998,

the Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...

considered plans on how to update Wembley and replacement was considered the best option, despite an offer from Arsenal F.C. to buy the stadium and restore it. When the new designs were unveiled, it was announced that the Twin Towers would be demolished to make way for the new 90,000 capacity stadium. The reasons given to English Heritage were that they would be in the middle of the pitch of the new stadium plans and served no practical purpose. The Minister for Sport, Tony Banks described them dismissively as "concrete blocks". It was also claimed that it would be impractical to move the towers elsewhere because the ferro-concrete would crumble easily and unevenly, making it impossible for them to be dismantled and reassembled somewhere else in any solid form. English Heritage opposed the demolition and Brent London Borough Council stated that they would not approve any new stadium that did not include the Twin Towers. Brent Council later granted planning permission on the understanding that the Twin Towers would be preserved, however the final designs for the new stadium reverted to the originals without the Twin Towers in place. English Heritage also withdrew their objections, thus paving the way for the Twin Towers to be demolished. Proposals in early 2000 to move the towers to

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form th ...

, to become part of a new national

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

museum, were not realised. The Twin Towers were the last structure of Wembley to be demolished. Preliminary demolition work started in December 2002 with the concrete crowns being removed from the top of the flagpoles. The towers were demolished in 2003 by a large

Liebherr Liebherr is a German-Swiss multinational equipment manufacturer based in Bulle, Switzerland, with its main production facilities and origins in Germany. Liebherr consists of over 130 companies organized into 11 divisions: earthmoving, mining, ...

974 crawler excavator referred to as "Goliath" and nicknamed "Alan the Shearer", made in Germany specifically for the task. The original foundations of Watkin's Tower were rediscovered during the demolition. The top of one of the towers was moved to be installed as a memorial at St Raphael's Estate,

Neasden Neasden is a suburban area in northwest London, England. It is located around the centre of the London Borough of Brent and is within the NW2 ( Cricklewood) and NW10 (Willesden) postal districts. Neasden is near Wembley Stadium, the Welsh Har ...

, and the "iconic" tower flagpoles are now located at the late Sir William McAlpine's Fawley Hill estate.

References

{{reflist Demolished buildings and structures in London Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Brent Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena Twin towers Association football culture 1923 establishments in England 2003 disestablishments in England Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Brent Buildings and structures demolished in 2003 Art Deco architecture in London