Woolwich Arsenal relegated after only winning three games all season. Exactly how Highbury came into reckoning when a move was decided upon is not known. In the end though, Woolwich Arsenal paid a massive £20,000 for a mere 21-year lease and agreed not to stage any matches on Good Friday and Christmas Day (due to the property being leased from St Johns College of Divinity)(these restrictions were lifted in 1925 when the club paid another £64,000 to buy the whole site outright). The following year, the serious work started on the ground. The pitch was levelled (the north end had to be raised eleven feet, the south lowered five), a new grandstand was partially built and turnstiles and terracing installed. It cost another £80,000. Cash at the time though was so short that the builder agreed to take a percentage of the gate money until he was paid for his work.....

The West Stand cost £45,000 and was officially opened by the Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor) on the 10th December 1932. It was actually first used on the 12th November for a game against Chelsea (Arsenal won 1-0) and was, by a large margin, the grandest and most expensive structure on any league ground at the time. It incorporated three flats, an electronic lift, and had 4,100 seats and the lower lever, which was originally all standing, could in theory hold another 20,000. While the West Stand was being built, a story that has become a bit of folk-lore at Highbury occurred. Local inhabitants were encouraged to bring along their rubbish to help in the process of raising up the banking on all four sides of the ground. One coal merchant backed up too close to the hole in the North Bank and saw his hourse and cart disappear into the cavity. The animal was so badly injured that it had to be destroyed and it is buried where it fell, in the middle of the North Bank terracing.

Arsenal opened their new East Stand for the game against Grimsby on 24th October 1936 (scintilating 0-0 draw). The main stand, though planned to be identical to the West Stand, finally cost far more (£130,000). One reason for this was because it had an expensive public frontage - the West Stand is built almost entirely behind a row of houses and is effectively invisible from that side.