The ‘triumphal’ arch is impressive from a distance, but there’s no element of surprise or delight to the stadium. No emotional connection.

Contrast that with Munich’s Allianz Arena.

The outer shell changes colour depending on which of the local teams is playing. Red for Bayern Munich, Blue for 1860 Munich (with white for derbies and Internationals). Amazing and guaranteed to ignite passions. Imagine being a home supporter and seeing your team’s colours enveloping your stadium. The simplest, yet most visceral connection for any football fan. Suddenly, all of the triumph seems to have disappeared from that arch.

Update

Talking to a friend who’d visited Wembley a few weeks ago it seems that the architects got some things right. He marvelled at the number of toilets (it’s always details); 2,618 of them according to the official Wembley site. A lesson learned from the limited facilities at the old stadium which lead to some, er, interesting workarounds from spectators. At half-time there were usually three queues of people waiting to relieve themselves: one for the cubicles, one for the urinals and one for the sinks. Still, I suppose it makes for easy access to the taps afterwards.

Photography from sismastery, rp72, gonzales2010 and probek on flickr.

You’ll end up a lonely figure, unsure of what you believe in, forced to peddle your practice from an old garage whilst the global media watches on (AKA leader of the Conservative Party).

I travelled home trying to remember the last time I'd backed it up and wondering how much stuff I'd lost. In desperation, I thought I'd plug it in and give it one more try (a last gasp 'have you turned it off and on again?' fix). Lo and behold it started straight away without any problems (and this is the second time that's happened!). I feel like I'm living in a Woody Allen film.

See you on the other side …

It’s an amazing and thorough piece of work (the researchers claim observations in 800 pubs, consultations with over 500 publicans and bar staff, and interviews with over 1000 pubgoers), but they missed the most crucial bit of advice for anyone (tourist or otherwise) looking for a decent pub:

if the roof’s flat, don’t go in.

(All I’m saying is I’ve followed this credo, handed down by my forefathers, and I’m still here to tell the tale.)