Stadium tours in London

There’s a lot of sport that goes on in London throughout the year and many of the major venues offer stadium tours. I should probably include the Circus Tavern in Purfleet after Monday’s epic world championship final between Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld, one of the greatest matches in darts history, but here are some of the main outdoor arenas you can visit.

The Emirates Stadium Home of the mighty Arsenal since last summer and the newest stadium in the Premiership, tours of the Emirates are available daily depending on the club’s schedule of games. Tickets are £12 and you get a behind the scenes look at this fantastic 60,000 seat stadium, including the home changing room, players’ tunnel and dug-out, the directors box, press lounge and the Arsenal Museum. Nearest tubes are Arsenal or Holloway Road, Drayton Park on the overground train from Moorgate.

Stamford Bridge The current home of Premiership champions Chelsea and a lot of Russia’s oil wealth, tours cost £14 and you’re advised to book at least three days in advance if buying online. You get a behind the scenes view as well as visiting their museum. Who knows if Comrade Abramovich will decide 42,000 is too low a capacity for Chelsea and try to move them elsewhere, they’ve expanded as far as they can at the Bridge.

White Hart Lane Can’t think why any sane person would want to visit this place although it does hold a significance for a lot of Jewish people. Home ground to Tottenham Hotspur, it really should have been visited by the wrecking ball a long time ago, but if you must see it, tours run every non-match Saturday at 11am and 1pm, tickets cost £8.

Wembley Stadium The last game at the old Wembley was in 2000 and we’ve been waiting for the new one ever since. The developers are promising it will open this summer but don’t hold your breath. They also promise it will be the best stadium in the world, we’ll have to wait and see but tours will be taking place when it finally does open for business.

Lord’s ‘The home of cricket’ and the sports most famous venue is a great place to see a game and when one’s not being played they offer three tours a day during the April to September period and two a day from October to March, tickets are £10. You get to see the pavilion with its famous Long Room, the Museum with the original Ashes urn, the MCC Indoor Cricket School and the unique looking Media Centre among other things. St John’s Wood is the nearest tube.

Twickenham England rugby’s HQ which added another tier of seats recently. A great looking stadium in west London which you can visit for a tour every day except Monday’s and matchdays. Tickets cost £10 and includes entry into the Rugby Museum.

Wimbledon The All England Club have daily tours at 1.30pm and weekend tours at 11.30am and 1.30pm during the winter months. Tickets for the Tour and Museum are £14.50 or £7.50 just for the Museum which does an excellent job of telling the story of tennis. Its also amazing how much smaller Centre Court looks in reality to when you see it on tv.