Use Arsenal station on the way in, three minutes from the turnstiles, and Finsbury Park or Highbury & Islington on the way out, ten minutes' walk but with far more train capacity. Holloway Road is exit-only before kick-off and closed for up to two hours afterwards, and Drayton Park does not open on match days at all.
The Emirates Stadium is in Holloway in north London, postcode N7 7AJ, and it is one of the best-connected grounds in the country: four Underground or rail stations are within a fifteen-minute walk. That is also the problem. A full house arrives in the same half hour through residential streets, and the club and Transport for London manage it with queuing systems, one-way pedestrian routes and station restrictions that change depending on whether the match has started or finished.
If you are going to a game, our guide to Premier League football in London covers tickets and which clubs sell to visitors. If you are going on a non-match day for the tour, none of the restrictions below apply and you can simply use Arsenal station; stadium tours in London compares the tours and prices.
The four stations, and what happens on match days
- Arsenal (Piccadilly line)
- About 3 minutes' walk. Queuing outside on Gillespie Road. No step-free access from platform to exit
- Finsbury Park (Victoria, Piccadilly, Great Northern)
- About 10 minutes' walk. Less crowded, wheelchair accessible, and the club's recommended route for wheelchair users
- Highbury & Islington (Victoria, Overground, Great Northern)
- About 10 minutes' walk. Less crowded, wheelchair accessible
- Holloway Road (Piccadilly line)
- Exit-only before matches, closed up to 2 hours after. Eastbound trains do not stop before kick-off
- Drayton Park (Great Northern)
- Closed on match days
- Away supporters
- Green quadrant, south-east side of the stadium
Before the match: Arsenal station, and why it works
Arsenal station sits on Gillespie Road with the stadium almost on top of it. From King's Cross it is six minutes on the Piccadilly line and from Piccadilly Circus about fifteen. Nothing else in London football is that convenient.
Arriving is the easy direction because people turn up over a period of an hour or more. There is a managed queuing system outside the station on Gillespie Road, and it moves. If you want to avoid even that, get off one stop earlier at Finsbury Park and walk down Blackstock Road, which takes about ten minutes and passes the pubs and takeaways where most of the crowd is drinking anyway.
What you must not plan is Holloway Road. Before a match it is exit-only, and eastbound Piccadilly line trains run through it without stopping. Arriving supporters who see it on a map as the second-nearest station are sent away.
Photo: Ank kumar · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
After the match: go to Finsbury Park
A full house leaves in about fifteen minutes, and Arsenal station is a small two-platform station. The sensible move is to walk. Finsbury Park has the Victoria line as well as the Piccadilly, plus Great Northern trains to King's Cross and Moorgate, so it has several times the capacity of Arsenal and clears far faster. Highbury & Islington is the same idea on the other side: the Victoria line plus the Overground.
The club sets out where the post-match queues form, and they are worth knowing because they are not at the station doors:
- Arsenal station: queue outside on Gillespie Road.
- Finsbury Park: queues on Seven Sisters Road and Isledon Road, and on St Thomas's Road and Rock Street.
- Highbury & Islington: queue on the south side of Holloway Road. There is no access to the station or the queue from Highbury Fields, so follow Holloway Road down.
- Hornsey Road between Benwell Road and Holloway Road is closed to pedestrians for emergency access only.
Twenty minutes in a pub beats forty minutes in a queue. The stations are at their worst for roughly half an hour after the whistle. Walking to Finsbury Park or Highbury & Islington, or waiting locally and travelling at a civilised speed, gets you back to central London at about the same time and in much better temper.
The Overground and Great Northern options nobody uses
Highbury & Islington is on the Overground as well as the Victoria line. The Windrush line starts there and runs south through Shoreditch and Whitechapel towards New Cross, Clapham Junction, Crystal Palace and West Croydon, and the Mildmay line passes through on its way between Richmond or Clapham Junction and Stratford. If you are staying in east or south-east London, that is a much better route home than fighting through the middle. Our guide to the Overground's six line names explains which colour goes where.
Great Northern trains call at both Finsbury Park and Highbury & Islington, running to King's Cross and to Moorgate. Drayton Park, the station that is genuinely closest to the stadium on that line, is closed on match days, so do not plan around it.
Buses, and where the stops actually are
Routes pass the ground on all sides, and the main stops are on Holloway Road, at Nag's Head, on Seven Sisters Road, on Blackstock Road and at Highbury Corner. Every one of them is a five to ten minute walk from a turnstile, and every London bus is wheelchair accessible with a ramp at the exit door and one wheelchair space.
A bus is often the smartest way out, because the crowd funnels into the stations and leaves the buses comparatively empty for the first few minutes. A single fare is £1.75 until 1 November 2026 and £1.85 from that date, and the Hopper fare gives you an hour of unlimited bus journeys; London buses and how the Hopper works has the detail.
Going with a wheelchair or limited mobility
Arsenal is explicit that the nearest station is the wrong one: there is no step-free access from the platforms at Arsenal station to the exit. The club names Finsbury Park as the least congested wheelchair-accessible route to the stadium, with Highbury & Islington as the other accessible option, and both are a ten-minute roll. King's Cross, the main interchange for reaching either, is also accessible.
Turn-up-and-go assistance needs no booking on the Tube, the Overground and the Elizabeth line, and staff will see you to the train and meet you at the other end. Our guide to step-free and accessible transport in London explains how that works and what to do if a lift is out of service on the day.
Driving, coaches and why not to try
The club offers no public car parking, and its own travel guidance is that parking is not permitted at the ground on non-match days at all. Coach parking exists on match days only, at Queensland Road and Hornsey Road, and only for coaches registered with the club in advance through its booking procedure. Minibuses are not allowed at the coach sites. Streets near the ground are controlled, so check the borough's signs before leaving a car anywhere in Highbury or Holloway; parking in London explains how the zones work.
For a visitor, that settles it: come by train. The stadium is inside the area covered by the ordinary contactless daily cap, so a return trip from a central hotel costs a few pounds and no more than the cap.
Evening kick-offs and getting home late
Midweek games and Thursday European nights finish around 22:00, and the last useful trains are still running, but the Piccadilly and Victoria lines are the crush. The Night Tube runs on the Victoria and Piccadilly lines on Friday and Saturday nights only, so a Wednesday evening crowd depends on the normal last trains and on night buses. If the match is a late Sunday kick-off, check the last train before you go: our notes on getting home late in London and on first and last Tube trains cover the timings.
Around the ground, the pubs on Holloway Road, Blackstock Road and Upper Street fill hours before kick-off and are largely home support. Our guide to Islington describes the area on an ordinary day, and Irish pubs and sports bars covers watching a match rather than attending one. If you would rather be somewhere calmer before the game, Angel and Finsbury Park sets out what is within walking distance.
Frequently asked questions
Which station is closest to the Emirates Stadium?
Arsenal station on the Piccadilly line, about three minutes' walk from the ground. It is the right choice arriving, but it is small, so after the match the club directs supporters towards Finsbury Park and Highbury & Islington, each about ten minutes away with much more train capacity.
Is Holloway Road station open on match days?
Only partly. Before a match it is exit-only, and eastbound Piccadilly line trains run through without stopping. After the match it closes for up to two hours. Treat it as unavailable and plan for Arsenal, Finsbury Park or Highbury & Islington instead.
Is the Emirates Stadium accessible for wheelchair users by public transport?
Yes, but not via the nearest station. Arsenal station has no step-free route from platform to exit. The club recommends Finsbury Park, which is wheelchair accessible and usually the least congested, with Highbury & Islington as an alternative. Both are about ten minutes from the stadium.
How long does it take to get to the Emirates from central London?
Six minutes from King's Cross and about fifteen from Piccadilly Circus on the Piccadilly line to Arsenal, or ten minutes from Oxford Circus and fourteen from Victoria on the Victoria line to Finsbury Park. Add the walk and the match-day queue, and allow 40 minutes door to door.
Where do away supporters sit at the Emirates?
In the green quadrant, on the south-east side of the stadium. The stadium uses a colour-coded quadrant system, and the colour on your ticket tells you which entrance to head for, which matters because walking round the outside of the ground in a crowd takes a long time.
Sources
- Arsenal FC - Getting to Emirates Stadium, including station restrictions and queuing arrangements (checked September 2026)
- Arsenal FC - Disability access (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Journey Planner API, sample weekday journeys (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Bus and tram fares (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Night Tube (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Turn up and go assistance (checked September 2026)