Five things you might not know about Wembley Stadium

If you walked all the way round the outside of the stadium you’ll have travelled 1km. Wembley is a big old building that's visible from the M1, Richmond Park and most high points across London.

Forget dribbling a ball across the pitch, you can now zipwire across it. The same company that organises the treks over the roof of The O2 manages seasonal sessions where you can diagonally fly across the Wembley Stadium, high above the hallowed turf.

Madonna feels right at home here. She was the first star to be inducted into Wembley’s ‘Square of Fame’ (like Hollywood's 'Walk of Fame' but in Brent) and she’s brought many of her blockbuster tours to the stadium. For her 2008 ‘Sticky and Sweet’ show, she and her dancers were joined on stage by a Rolls Royce and jewellery worth a million pounds. No wonder tickets were £160 a pop.

On a match day the Wembley pitch grass is cut three times to ensure it’s as neat as it can be. But when there are concerts the grass is killed off and the ground is covered before all those lumbering music fans turn up.

An attempt to build a structure to rival the Eiffel Tower failed miserably here, but the Pleasure Gardens at Wembley Park thrived from 1894 until World War I. In 1922, the first national stadium was built, as part of what would become the British Empire Exhibition.