London, May 5:

Arsenal’s 93-year-old Highbury stadium has been featured in two movies. Muhammad Ali fought Henry Cooper there 40 years ago, and its Art Deco East Stand is a registered historic building.

Highbury even survived a bomb in World War II. Now it’s time to say goodbye to the 38,500-seat north London landmark, which closes after Sunday’s game against Wigan. About 700 luxury apartments will be woven into the stadium’s old facades, and a garden square replaces the soccer pitch.

“It’s terrible, it’s heartbreaking,” said June Gosnell, standing at Gillespie Road and Avenell Road —- the spiritual heart of a neighbourhood which has surrounded the stadium since it opened in 1913.

A fish and chips shop stands on one corner, 100 metres from the stadium, while 100 metres in the other direction is a London Underground stop named — of course — “Arsenal.”

“It’s a lovely building, but now we have more followers than you can get in there,” Gosnell added. “I think the atmosphere will change. Here it’s more for family and friends.”

From the top of Avenell Road, the white superstructure and glass walls of the new 60,000-seat Emirates Stadium loom over a neighbourhood of row houses, where narrows steps and gardens dump on to narrow sidewalks. The Gunners will begin playing in the new stadium next season.

Michael Hart, who covers soccer for Evening Standard, calls the closing of Highbury ‘the symbol of a bygone age of English football.’ “Some will claim Highbury is a cold, old-fashioned relic of a lost empire with no place in the modern world,” Hart said. “There may be some truth in that, but it is also the finest stadium in the Premiership.”

When the West Stand opened in 1932, it was the most modern in England. The East Stand came four years later, its marbled entry hall and bust of former manager Herbert Chapman making an impression in the austere prewar years.

Gosnell’s husband, Peter, attended his first game at Highbury on May 6, 1939. He’s missed only a handful of games since and, 67 years later — almost to the day — he’ll be on hand on Sunday.

He’s been legally blind since his 20s and, at 78, he’s lost all of his sight. But he still pictures Highbury and a more gentle time.

“When it was built and for the next 50 years it set a standard,” he said. “There was nothing like it. The whole place is style. There was a story many years ago in the early 30s that Arsenal wouldn’t sign a player if he had bad table manners.”

Arsenal has won the Premier League three times, the old first-division 10 times and the FA Cup 10 times. The move from Highbury coincides with the finest moment in the club’s history, facing FC Barcelona on May 17 in the Champions League final. A victory would bring Arsenal its first European championship.

The income from reaching the final — and the new stadium — should allow the club to compete with rich clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea, AC Milan, Juventus or Bayern Munich.

The new stadium’s price tag is $660 million, and associated projects bring the total to $1.47 million. The club will earn about $51.7 million more each year for game-day income.