I think that this question/post is specifically for NorthBank and also for others my age (I will be 52 this May 19th) who actually went to Arsenal matches at Highbury during the 1970s-80s, and especially for our friends and fans from The Other Side Of The Pond. If I was one Gooner attending a match at Highbury and bought standing tickets back then, and of course well before Hillsborough and the Taylor Report, which terrace would cause me the least problems besides the feeling of being packed in a can of sardines along with all my other fellow supporters??? The Clock End, or The North Bank???
OK, I'll take the bait. (Too bad we don't have @Lanesra and @goonermaui any more to add their 2p, but maybe @pookspur will want to chime in) Surprise, surprise I stood on the North Bank and never the Clock End... AFAICR. I did that for 4 years in the mid-70's before repatriating. It was a very large single tier stand back then, and completely covered. The Clock End was smaller, uncovered and shared with the away supporters. It was an exhilarating experience, not least because it was actually dangerous. Radically different from watchin footy at pricey all-seaters today. Anyone could go, at last minute. North Bank admission was <1 Pound during most/all of those years. After a goal there would be a crowd surge to the front, and sometimes you'd get fairly crushed against the barriers. When it was crowded you'd never be able to leave and return to your mates/spot, so frequently people would just spend-a-penny-in-situ. Occasionally away fans would infiltrate the North Bank and fights would erupt... causing more stampedes. This happened mostly during derbies, especially West Ham if I'm not mistaken. There were also these chilling, near-lethal weapons tossed into the air to randomly land on people. I've always called them Chinese Darts but I don't know if that's their real name. They were little flat discs about 3" diameter with spikes sticking out of the circumference. I have one memory of someone being taken away with one of those stuck into their skull. These things were rare... I think I saw them used only a few times, but they struck the fear of god into you. Other than that, I always loved watching matches from there, as long as I wasn't directly behind the goal with a semi obstructed view of the other end. And to this day I prefer watching matches from the end.
I never went to Highbury, mate, much now to my regret. I was told a few times that I could obtain a ticket, but I never wanted to sit on my hands and tacitly appear an Arsenal fan - despite the fact that I've done similar at countless other grounds. It always seemed as though it would somehow violate some ... I dunno ... something. And now it's gone. As much as I love sporting architecture - particularly baseball parks and footy grounds - to have passed on Highbury (which was indisputably special) really bugs me now ... coulda, woulda, shoulda. anyway, it's an interesting question. I'm curious as to how folks will answer.
I don't suspect there are many other people on this board old enough to have gone to Highbury (or other English grounds for that matter) in the 70's & 80's. I'm sorry that you couldn't get beyond that "something" that prevented you from attending Highbury. But I will admit that I committed what some might consider a slight disloyalty by going the WHL in the early 90's. I was in London for the first time in 15 years, on a very rare business trip, and Arsenal weren't playing at home, so I went up to N17, bought a ticket off a tout, and watched some match that I have virtually zero recollection of. It probably was the Gaza/Sherwood era, but before Klinsy.
well, this would've been in the early '00s, and by then Highbury was a tough ticket every week. so my only way in would've been via some gooners I know/knew, all of whom would know I was Spurs, as would some of their mates whom I did not know so well. so if things had gone wrong (for AFC), I didn't feel 100% confident that I wouldn't have been outed - which would not have been good. of course, back then, Arsenal were very good, so had I been over for a 'lesser' fixture, that wouldn't have been likely ... still, between that and not really relishing watching the Arse smash the likes of Wolves or Pompey, I just found other things to do. when I knew that Upton Park* was coming down, I made sure to go there in its last season. I wouldn't have been any happier to be outed there than at N5; but that was an easy ticket, so I just went on my own, kept my mouth shut, and no one was the wiser. Highbury would not have been so simple. Still, I wish I'd done it. *which was a wonderful football ground, by the way. they're a bunch of yobs over there - but I really feel sorry for what they've been given.
Twasn’t the ‘70s but I had the pleasure to be at Highbury twice. Lower west in ‘04 and then the North Bank in ‘06. Think the North Bank was better but the match in ‘04 was the season ended against Leicester for the Invincibles so I’d say that match was better! The one in ‘06 was when Sol went AWOL at halftime against West Ham.
About those "Chinese Darts", I believe we yanks call them "Ninja stars", those same star-like weapons that can pretty much go undetected by then-modern (1970s-80s) security, today's security and the protocol they now go by (probably a by-product of 9/11) when they pat you down and even use scanners that detect everything on you, it's much safer to go to matches now (as it's now all-seaters), although I myself will never get to experience what it would've been like to be one the die-hard fans in one of those terraces in (pre-Hillsborough) English Football.
Went as a kid in the late seventies to mid-eighties before living abroad for a few years. There was a kids area at the front of the West Stand, but once I was into my teens we stood on the North Bank. As a youngster it was safer to stand to the side of it, if you were in the middle it was more of a crush and more likely you could end up in the middle of a punch-up if it was a London derby and the away fans decided to try and "take" the home end. Moved back to London in '92 and stood on the Clock End while the North Bank was being redeveloped with the mural in front of it. Now that was weird! Ended up getting a season ticket in the Clock End when it went all-seater until we moved. Back in the day the North Bank was definitely the place to be, "lively" to say the least and it was where the core of the home support congregated.