Wembley Stadium

Wembley Stadium is a football stadium in Wembley, London, England, which opened in 2007, on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002–2003. The stadium hosts major football matches including the FA Cup Final and home matches of the England national football team.

Wembley Stadium is a UEFA category four stadium. With 90,000 seats, it is the second-largest stadium in Europe and the largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is owned by The Football Association through its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL).

Designed by HOK Sport and Foster and Partners, it includes a partially retractable roof and the 134-metre-high (440 ft) Wembley Arch. The stadium was built by Australian firm Multiplex at a cost of £798 million.

In addition to the FA Cup Final, the stadium hosts the season-opening FA Community Shield, the League Cup Final, the Football League Trophy and the Football League play-offs. It hosted the 2011 and 2013 UEFA Champions League Final, the Gold medal matches at the 2012 Olympic Games football tournament, and will host both the semi-finals and final of UEFA Euro 2020. The stadium also hosts the rugby league Challenge Cup Final, the NFL International Series and music concerts.

Wembley

Coordinates: 51°33′22″N 0°18′15″W / 51.5560°N 0.3042°W / 51.5560; -0.3042

Wembley (/ˈwɛmbli/) is an area of northwest London, England, and part of the London Borough of Brent. It is home to the famous Wembley Arena and Wembley Stadium. Wembley formed a separate civil parish from 1894 and was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1937. In 1965, the area merged with the Municipal Borough of Willesden to create the London Borough of Brent, and has since formed part of Greater London.

History

Toponomy

Wembley is derived from the Old English proper name "Wemba" and the Old English "Lea" for meadow or clearing. The name was first mentioned in the charter of 825 of Selvin. King Beornwulf.

Development

The village of Wembley grew up on the hill by the clearing with the Harrow Road south of it. Much of the surrounding area remained wooded. In 1547 there were but six houses in Wembley. Though small, it was one of the wealthiest parts of Harrow. At the dissolution of the monasteries in 1543, the manor of Wembley fell to Richard Andrews and Leonard Chamberlayne, who sold it to Richard Page, Esq., of Harrow on the Hill, the same year.

Richard Hammond

Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969) is a British presenter, writer, and journalist. He co-hosted the motoring programme Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, from 2002 to 2015 and presented series 1–4 of Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky1. He also co-hosted Total Wipeout with Amanda Byram on BBC One. Hammond presented Planet Earth Live alongside Julia Bradbury. In 2016 he was scheduled to be presenting an Untitled Amazon motoring show to be produced by their company W. Chump & Sons alongside his former Top Gear co-hosts, as an exclusive distributed via Amazon Video to Amazon Prime customers.

Early life

Hammond was born in Solihull, West Midlands, and is the grandson of workers in the Birmingham car industry. In the mid-1980s Hammond moved with his family (mother Eileen, father Alan, and younger brothers Andrew, writer of the 'Crypt' Series, and Nicholas) to the North Yorkshire cathedral city of Ripon where his father ran a probate business in the market square. He attended Blossomfield Infant School in Shirley from the age of 3-7. Originally a pupil of Solihull School, a fee-paying boys' independent school, he moved to Ripon Grammar School, and from 1986 to 1988 attended Harrogate College of Art and Technology.