Visit to Highbury Square, London - Thursday 6th March 2008

I got a fantastic opportunity to visit Highbury today, some 22 months to the day after the last game there. Since the football stopped, the ground has been being redeveloped into flats, and today's occasion was the "topping out" ceremony - the good luck ritual that happens when a building reaches its highest point.

It all started with a drinks reception in Club Level of Emirates Stadium, for a crowd of Arsenal employees, McAlpine employees, (lots of) press, and a handful of fans, of which I was lucky enough to be one. Welcomed in with a glass of champagne and some canapes, we were all given a very nice engraved Aquascutum pen to mark the occasion. We then tucked into a fantastic buffet lunch, made even more fantastic by the fact that Arsenal were paying - you know it is a very rare occasion where you get something free from Arsenal!

After lunch, we had coaches take us from Emirates Stadium to Highbury, a journey of about 700 yards as the crow flies, but one of over 3 times that, when you took as indirect a route as we did. A colossal waste of money and petrol, but it was at least nice and warm, and we took the scenic route down Holloway Road. All of the VIPs seemed to think nothing of such a short ride, but there you go.

We got dropped off on Avenell Road, near where the Clock End turnstiles used to be - and where the entrance to the site now sits. We walked in and along the side of the East Stand - the first thing that really struck you was how big the "pitch" area was. Of course, the lower tiers of the stands had been taken away, and it really does leave a huge area in the middle of the site - much bigger than our tiny pitch used to be. The other obvious thing was how huge Emirates Stadium looked in the distance.

We all got into a very ramshackle looking lift, and were taken 5 floors up, to the top of the East Stand, where the topping out ceremony was to take place. It was a strange yet emotional experience, looking out over Highbury - it looked so familiar, but completely different at the same time - weird. The topping out ceremony itself saw a few speeches made, then Arsene Wenger filling in a hole about 1 square metre big, with concrete that he shovelled in from a wheelbarrow. An utterly surreal thing to see Arsene Wenger doing.

Wenger made a short speech, saying how he had become a specialist in topping out ceremonies recently - and the few fans I was stood with were remarking that, if it weren't for Arsene Wenger, we wouldn't have move stadium, wouldn't be building a new development at Highbury, and wouldn't have beaten AC Milan earlier that week. So, only fitting that he was there to apply the finishing touches. After Arsene spoke, it was back down in the rickety lift, for some more drinks and canapes, then off home. An interesting, but slightly sad chance to see how the old ground has changed.