Arsenal Tube station, you can see the walls cause Arsenal aren’t playing
Depending on when you travel the various lines of London’s mosh-pit style underground network, you’ll always experience something different, from the eccentric and weird of Camden to the rush of the square mile.
There aren’t many more raucous places then Arsenal tube station at around 6 to 9.30 on a match day evening. This journey will probably start from your local station, at a slow pace, which in my case is the District Line’s Upton Park. The station of the ever infamous West Ham United. I travel against the tide here, going in the other direction of the mass public who head towards the outskirts of town. Mile end station is where the real fight starts.
At Mile end, Look for the central line into town. Pick your carriage and position carefully, people will shove and push for position. its about 6pm and im on the central line so its foolish to expect an empty train let alone a seat. Its a sauna too, the only place in London that manages to maintain a tropical climate all year round. Getting on, you’ll probably end up in someones armpit, whilst reading the newspaper over someones shoulder and hearing what leaks out of someones headphones on what is usually a pretty silent ride. The armpit you find yourself is never ever favourable. Conversations on public transport as you’ll learn in this blog is rare. Beats by Dre and iphones are all the rage here.
Holborns the next place to change. This game we happened to be playing Chelsea in the Capital One Cup. Most expensive ticket was £20, So a full house was expected, the Emirates is 60,000 seat stadium. The easiest way to get to the emirates is public transport so i would guess this rush hour plus 45,000 more people.
This is the home straight, expect more football fans than anything else here. Head towards the Piccadilly line, this will take you straight in to the 2 closest stations surrounding the emirates itself. Arsenal station and Holloway Road Station. If your not heading to the emirates and get caught up in this, I feel sorry for you.
Now Chelsea fans are outlandishly loud and don’t know how to behave, somehow their chanting will manage to infiltrate your headphones. Even more shoving will come from them, ever seen the WWE’s Royal Rumble when there’s about 15 people in the ring, expect that in a train station. Don’t be surprised if you have to let a couple trains go. As was with Mile End station you’ll have to hustle your position on your platform, don’t be afraid to fight either, any weakness will see you missing the game. London doesn’t wait for anyone, especially with a testosterone fueled mob behind you.
The getting off the train means your on the final straight. The Blue hooligans continue to sing as the Arsenal fans start to chime in to the sound of “where were you when you were shit?” (A personal favorite of mine). You have two options when departing for the emirates and its worth checking the maps to see if either Arsenal or Holloway Road station is closer to your section of the stadium. Holloway road is best for the away fans but has a poor lift service to ground level and an even poorer staircase. Arsenal station has a series of tunnels which has me believing the actual platform this closer to the rivals White Hart lane then the Actual team its named after. No slow walking either, the pace will be just short of Usain’s runs in Stratford a year ago. These tunnels again funneling the sound towards your ears. Both are good for the club shops, The Armory, Arsenal’s main outlet is just in front of the stadium if coming from Holloway road.The Arsenal shop however is just under the main bridge to the stadium if coming from the Arsenal station. As you exit the stations my general advice is just to follow the crowd, 95% of the people leaving with you will be heading to the stadium and Enjoy the game. But if your made of millions, just catch a cab!
London: The Sarcastic City of Sport 