WEMBLEY STADIUM TOUR ON THURSDAY 16th JANUARY 2025
Our first outing of the new year was a tour of Wembley Stadium. We travelled down to London with Hull Trains. It was a very early start, the first boarding point being at Beverley at 7.53 am then picking up at Cottingham, Hull and our last pickup of Senior Tigers being at Brough. As a large group, we took up the best part of our carriage. We had a half-hour delay and arrived at Kings Cross at approximately 11.40 am. As we were booked on the 1.45 pm stadium tour, those going on the tour went straight to the tube station and took the tube directly to Wembley Park.
Once there we had time for a memorable walk down Wembley Way bringing back memories of the times when Hull City played at Wembley. There were plenty of places to have something to eat and drink before the tour. The area around the stadium has vastly changed since the last time most of us had been to Wembley. Where once car parks surrounded the stadium now there are high-rise blocks of apartments and offices and there are now even more stairs to climb up to the stadium.
Before our tour started we had a chance for a group photo taken in front of the Sir Bobby Moore statue. Our tour guide Paul who is a Tottenham Hotspur supporter was excellent and had done his homework on Hull City as he knew all about our team’s exploits playing at Wembley and mentioned the memorable goal by Deano.
We were able to sit in the comfy padded seats of the Royal Box and wave as HRH The Prince of Wales does to the crowds when he attends games as President of the FA. We also sat in the Club England seats which take up the entire middle tier of the stadium. The seats are larger and more comfortable than the standard seats. We were also shown the dressing rooms and the media suite and were able to see some of the many restaurants and even a champagne bar. Our tour guide took us down to the pitch side via the players’ tunnel. The only disappointment there was that the pitch had been taken up and they were preparing the ground for it to be relayed. During our tour, we had a chance to view the many photos on display from over the decades and had the opportunity to have a photo taken with a replica of the FA Cup.
The tour which should have been for ninety minutes lasted two and a half hours and as Pat said when thanking Paul for his excellent tour, we certainly got our money’s worth. Before we left the stadium we had time to take a look around the stadium shop where some of our group bought England merchandise.
Upon leaving Wembley Stadium we made our back to Kings Cross Station where we had plenty of time to have something to eat before our train back to Hull departed. There was a lot of fun and laughter on our train journey home. It had been a great day out.
Shirley Cormack
Bobby Moore Statue England Changing Room
Players’ Tunnel Pitch-side
