Gillespie Road Tube Station, 1907

Gillespie Road Station was opened on December 15, 1906 as part of what was then, at nine miles long, the longest underground railway in London. In 1913, the Woolwich Arsenal club moved north of the river to their new Highbury Park stadium. Before long, the signage on the Gillespie Road station platforms was adapted to read "Alight here for Woolwich Arsenal Ground"

Nonetheless, the history suggests that until changes were made in 1932, Gillespie Road quickly came to be considered as a rather superfluous station. In his Piccadilly Line book*, Mike Horne relates that from late 1909, in an attempt to speed up peak hours services, "skip-stop trains" were introduced which alternately omitted Gillespie Road and three other Stations. Almost 20 years later, when the Piccadilly Line extension was being planned, rolling stock requirements were calculated on the assumption that Gillespie Road and six other stations would be closed as part of the drive to improve speeds. Amongst this number were York Road and Down Street and Brompton Road which were all closed. The others survived. Gillespie Road not inly survived, it was was improved.

After taking on the management of the football club in 1925 and achieving very successful seasons in 1930 and 1931, Club Manager Herbert Chapman pressed for the tube to be renamed 'Arsenal'. Whilst TfL archives contain no record of how he succeeded in his campaign, the timing was fortuitous since it came as the Piccadilly Line was being extended. It is interesting to note that station names on the new extension were somewhat in flux; Duckett's Green became Turnpike Lane and Lordship Lane, Wood Green. Not only did Chapman succeed in getting the station renamed, the huge increase of passengers using Gillespie Road station on match days led to the decision to improve the station infrastructure with the expansion of the street level facilities.

A newly enlarged station was renamed as 'Arsenal (Highbury Hill)' on October 31st 1932. Commenting on the renaming three days before the station opened, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph reported. "It is said to be the first time that a station, underground or other, has been named after a football club. It is also the first time that a railway company has transferred the name of a principal Government establishment (the Woolwich Arsenal) to a station seven or eight miles away in another county". The station remains the only tube station to have been named after a football club.

With the departure of Arsenal to its new Emirates stadium, there is currently a campaign to revert the station to its original name.

Advertisement from December 1906

Press photo portraying the change of name, published 5 November 1932

*Horne, Mike, The Piccadilly Tube: A history of the first 100 years. Capital Transport Publishing, 2007. Sadly Mr Horne's very thorough text doesn't cover the renaming or enlargement of Gillespie Road Station.