London stadium tours compared: Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs and Wembley

The short answer

If you want the best building, go to Tottenham. If you want the most access for the money, go to Arsenal. If you want history rather than architecture, go to Chelsea. If you want the one your family will talk about, go to Wembley.

And if you want the single best thing on this page regardless of football, it is the Dare Skywalk at Tottenham, which walks you over the roof of the stadium 46.8 metres above the pitch for £29.

The four, compared

Emirates, Arsenal

£34 adult · £24 child · £29 concession

Self-guided handset, seven languages plus BSL, Arsenal Museum included. Under 4s free

Stamford Bridge, Chelsea

£34 pre-booked · about £38 on the day

60 minute guided tour with a real guide, museum included

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

From £25 adult · kids free with a paying adult

90 minute self-guided. 15 per cent off if you book ahead

Wembley

£24 adult · £17 child and concession · £55 family

75 minutes, guided, 10am to 4pm on non-event days

Dare Skywalk, Tottenham

From £29 · the Edge add-on from £10

90 minutes including briefing, glass walkway 46.8m above the pitch

London Stadium, West Ham

From £22 adult · from £14 child online

The 2012 Olympic stadium, so it is two stories in one building

Emirates Stadium, Arsenal

The most access per pound of the four. £34 buys the Directors' Box, the Diamond Club, the players' entrance, both home and away dressing rooms, the tunnel, pitchside, the home dugout, the press conference room and the media lounge, plus the Arsenal Museum.

It is self-guided with a handset, available in seven languages and in British Sign Language, which means you set your own pace and you can spend fifteen minutes in the away dressing room if that is what you came for. Arsenal members get ten per cent off.

The honest downside: self-guided means no one is telling you stories. If you want a guide, Chelsea is the one.

Where

Hornsey Road N7 7AJ

Arsenal on the Piccadilly line, or Highbury and Islington

Price

£34 adult, £29 concession, £24 child 4 to 15

Format

Self-guided handset, seven languages and BSL

Photograph

The exterior murals

The wrap of players around the outside of the bowl is the shot, and it is free from the street

Stamford Bridge, Chelsea

Sixty minutes, guided by a person rather than a handset, through the dressing rooms, the press room, the tunnel and pitchside, with the Chelsea Museum included. The building is the oldest of the four and it shows, which is either the point or the problem depending on what you came for.

Book ahead. It is £34 pre-booked and about £4 more if you walk up, weekend slots go first, and the whole calendar closes whenever Chelsea are at home.

Where

Fulham Road SW6 1HS

Fulham Broadway, District line

Price

£34 pre-booked, about £38 on the day

Format

60 minutes, guided, museum included

Nearby

The King's Road

Twenty minutes east and you are at the top of the Battersea walk

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

The newest and by a distance the most impressive building. It was purpose-built for two sports at once, with a retractable grass pitch that slides away over an artificial surface underneath, and it is the only stadium in Europe built from the ground up for the NFL as well as football. The South Stand is the largest single-tier stand in the UK at 17,500 seats.

The tour is £25 and up, self-guided over about 90 minutes, and children go free with a paying adult, which makes it the cheapest family option on this list by a long way. Booking ahead saves fifteen per cent.

The Dare Skywalk is the separate thing and it is the reason to come. You are harnessed, you climb about a hundred steps and you walk out onto the roof, 46.8 metres above the pitch, on a glass walkway. From £29, ninety minutes including the briefing. The Edge, an added rooftop element, is from £10 on top.

Where

782 High Road N17 0BX

White Hart Lane on the Overground, or Seven Sisters and a bus

Tour

From £25, kids free with a paying adult

Dare Skywalk

From £29, the Edge from £10 more

Also here

F1 Drive

A karting circuit inside the stadium, which is not something the other three have

The concourse aggregate at Tottenham contains crushed material from the old White Hart Lane. You are literally walking on the previous ground.

Wembley

Not a club tour, a national one, which makes it the odd one out and the one that works best for a mixed group. £24 adult, £17 child or concession, £55 for a family of two adults and two children, under 5s free. Seventy-five minutes, guided, 10am to 4pm on days when nothing is on.

It is on the Jubilee line at Wembley Park, which means you can pair it with Boxpark Wembley at the foot of Olympic Way for food and the London Designer Outlet next door. That is a complete day without changing lines.

Where

Wembley HA9 0WS

Wembley Park, Jubilee and Metropolitan lines

Price

£24 adult, £17 child 5 to 15 and concessions, £55 family of four

Format

Guided, about 75 minutes

Around it

Boxpark Wembley and the London Designer Outlet

Both on Olympic Way, both a five minute walk from the arch

Tours do not run on event days and the calendar changes constantly. Check the date before you build a day around it.

The other three, if you have done the football

Lord's Cricket Ground

From £32.95 adult

Just under two hours. The Long Room, the Pavilion and the Ashes urn. St John's Wood on the Jubilee line

Twickenham, Allianz Stadium

£32 adult, £21.50 child, £27 concession

World Rugby Museum included. A Legends Tour with an England international is £149.50

London Stadium, West Ham

From £22 adult, from £14 child, booked online

It was the 2012 Olympic Stadium first, so the tour carries two histories. Stratford, next to Westfield and the Olympic Park

Shooting a stadium properly, or letting us do it

If you come with us, this part is handled. We are on the tour with you, we shoot stills and video the whole way round, and the files land the same evening. That is the point of bringing somebody: you look at the pitch instead of at a screen, and you still go home with the pictures.

If you are going on your own, stadium interiors are one of the hardest things to photograph well on a phone, and almost everyone comes away with a flat wide shot of an empty bowl that means nothing. Four things that fix it:

• Shoot the tunnel from inside it, looking out. The bright opening against a dark frame is the only picture in the building with real contrast in it, and the self-guided tours let you stand there as long as you like.
• In the dressing room, shoot one shirt and one peg, not the whole room. A wide shot of a dressing room is a wide shot of a room.
• Go low on the pitch edge. Camera at grass height with the stand rising behind gives you scale. Standing up at chest height gives you a football pitch.
• Outside, the Emirates murals and the Wembley arch both need distance. Back up further than feels right, and use the long lens rather than walking closer.

Every one of these tours allows personal photography. Tripods usually do not get through the door, so plan on handheld and a steady breath.

What it costs

Booking, honestly

• Book direct with the club rather than through a reseller. The resellers charge more and sell you the same ticket.
• None of these run on match days at the normal price, and most do not run at all.
• Weekend slots go first everywhere. A Tuesday morning is empty and the same tour.
• Tottenham gives fifteen per cent for booking ahead and Arsenal gives members ten per cent. Chelsea charges more at the door.
• If you are with children, Tottenham at kids-go-free and Wembley at £55 for a family of four are the two that do not hurt.