Qualla: Wembley Arena https://qualla.com/wembley-arena en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/wembley-arena-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Wembley Arena https://qualla.com/wembley-arena Wembley Arena: Introduction https://qualla.com/wembley-arena/ Photo credit Matt Deegan, CC BY 2.0. It was a swimming pool first. When Sir Owen Williams designed the building in 1933, his brief was to host the swimming events for the 1934 British Empire Games - the games that would later become the Commonwealth Games. The pool was 200 feet long and 60 feet wide, with a removable deck for ice skating in winter. Williams was an engineer rather than an architect, and he solved the problem of spanning that pool without internal pillars by using cantilevers that meet in the middle - a structural trick that left the spectator areas unobstructed and the building looking startlingly modern for 1934. The same building, with the same roof, hosted ABBA's farewell tour in 1979, the 1948 Olympic swimming events, NHL hockey games, and most of Cliff Richard's career.

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Image: Matt Deegan | CC BY 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/wembley-arena-wp/gcpv-wembley-arena-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Wembley Arena: The Empire Pool https://qualla.com/wembley-arena/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Construction began in November 1933 under the same chief building inspector who had overseen the adjacent Empire Stadium - R. J. Fowler - working for Arthur Elvin, the man who saved Wembley Stadium from demolition in the 1920s. Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, opened the buildin...

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/wembley-arena-wp/gcpv-wembley-arena-the-empire-pool.mp3 0:06 2 full Wembley Arena: Music's New Mountain https://qualla.com/wembley-arena/ Photo credit Mewhen123, CC BY 4.0. When the NME Poll Winners Concerts moved to the Empire Pool in 1960, the building entered a new life. Audiences of 10,000 packed in to see the Beatles, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, the Monkees, Dusty Springfield, the Hollies, and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich. Famous per...

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Image: Mewhen123 | CC BY 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/wembley-arena-wp/gcpv-wembley-arena-musics-new-mountain.mp3 0:06 3 full Wembley Arena: ABBA, Queen, and the Returners https://qualla.com/wembley-arena/ Photo credit Stephen Sweeney, CC BY-SA 2.0. ABBA played six sold-out concerts here from 5 to 10 November 1979, the Wembley residency that became part of their farewell to live touring. Swedish television filmed it for what eventually became ABBA in Concert in 2004 and Live at Wembley Arena in 2014. The band's closing track...

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Image: Stephen Sweeney | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/wembley-arena-wp/gcpv-wembley-arena-abba-queen-and-the-returners.mp3 0:06 4 full Wembley Arena: The 21st Century Renovation https://qualla.com/wembley-arena/ Photo credit Ssearena, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wembley Arena closed for 14 months in February 2005 for a £35 million refurbishment, part of the broader Wembley regeneration. Events moved to a temporary 10,000-seat venue called the Wembley Arena Pavilion next door, which was later disassembled and rebuilt in Attard, Malta, whe...

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Image: Ssearena | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/wembley-arena-wp/gcpv-wembley-arena-the-21st-century-renovation.mp3 0:06 5 full Wembley Arena: Everything Else https://qualla.com/wembley-arena/ Photo credit Bruce Liu, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wembley Arena has hosted things that have nothing to do with music. The 1948 Olympic boxing, diving, swimming and water polo events. Badminton and rhythmic gymnastics at the 2012 Olympics. The Wembley Professional Tennis Championships, a major pre-Open Era tournament, ran here fr...

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Image: Bruce Liu | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/wembley-arena-wp/gcpv-wembley-arena-everything-else.mp3 0:06 6 full