IT is one of the last remaining relics from the old Wembley.
While Abide With Me echoes under the arch ahead of the FA Cup final between Manchester City and Manchester United on Saturday, just a mile away, the final concrete fragment of the famous Twin Towers sits peacefully in a London park.
Standing 1.5 metres tall, weighing four tonnes and bearing an uncanny resemblance to the actual FA Cup, this is the base of the
flagpole which adorned the top of the East Tower while the likes of Stanley Matthews, Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Kevin Keegan and
Paul Gascoigne graced the hallowed turf.
When the iconic stadium was demolished in 2003, this chunk of footballing history was presented to the local council and rehoused
in Brent River Park, where it has lived ever since.
Having gazed down on the ‘White Horse’ of 1923 now, a century on, it is the red bus and a housing estate that provides its backdrop.
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Despite the clamour to keep the much-loved Twin Towers, it was considered implausible.
And their remains, along with the rubble from the rest of the old stadium, lie buried under four large mounds at Northala
Fields in West London.
But the flagpole base survived and rests just a stone’s throw from Stonebridge Park tube station, a short walk from the new
Wembley, with its dominant arch just visible through the trees.
Not much else exists of the original home of football.
The actual flagpoles, complete with crowns on top, were housed on Sir William McAlpine’s Fawley Hill estate, while the iconic stadium gates, which the team buses drove through, ended up being bought by a museum in Santiago, Chile.
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FA Cup final - Man City vs Man Utd: Everything you need to know, including kick-off time and TV details
