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suffering from ill-health and he retired from his position at the railway company . Worse was to come as it was discovered that the tower ’ s foundations were unsteady , creating problems with construction and finance that eventually led to the closure of the tower in 1902 . Becoming known as Watkin ’ s Folly , the small section of the tower that had been completed was demolished between 1904 and 1907 .
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Above : The completed first section of Watkin ’ s Wembley Tower . Note the tents on the top which were used to serve refreshments to visitors
Left : The mangled wreckage of the tower during demolition Image : The Sphere ( 1907 )
A plan was then hatched to develop the area around the park as a residential suburb of ‘ high-class residences ’, with Wembley Council purchasing the nearby King Edward VII park to complement this scheme . However , the government halted the plan to make Wembley Park into a garden suburb when they chose the spot as the location for the British Empire Exhibition ( BEE ) which was planned to start in 1924 .
The land was bought by the government and an ambitious building programme commenced , obliterating much of the landscape laid out by Repton and modelled into a pleasure garden by Watkin . With the dominance of the British Empire diminishing , the BEE was intended to strengthen bonds across the Empire , stimulate trade and demonstrate ‘ British greatness ’.
Designed by John William Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton , a number of large pavilions and other buildings were soon under construction . For simplicity , the main building material used was reinforced concrete . Included in the scheme was a new sports ground called the Empire Stadium , on which construction began in January 1922 . Also designed by Above : An early design idea for the Empire Stadium Simpson and Ayrton , and
Image : The Graphic ( 29 October 1921 ) built by Sir Robert McAlpine , the intended capacity of the stadium was 126,500 , including 25,000 seats .