Seen what's going on at the Emirates? The Queensland Road developement continues

Residents of N7 have been literally shaking in their shoes for the past few weeks as the demolition work in preparation for Arsenal's Queensland Road development gets seriously under way. So what's going on in the Emirates' environs, and what does it mean for the local area?

The Queensland Road development is part of a "masterplan" by Arsenal FC to regenerate the area immediately surrounding their stadium. Local residents have already had some insight into the plans to spruce up the area, as houses in the adjacent roads have been given a new lick of paint, and several buildings are now being bulldozed to make way for the next phase of the plan.

Ultimately, the development will provide more than 700 new flats, children's play areas, shops and even a new sports centre, while plans for a new multi-screen cinema complex were scrapped, after it became clear that the high-rise building this would create would prove unpopular. The development will replace a block of empty warehouses, making it a potentially more sensible use of the space, but the way in which building work has been handled has left some local residents decidedly unimpressed.

There has already been some controversy in the local area, as residents of Bryantwood Road, which runs parallel to Queensland Road itself, were told that part of their gardens would need to be used for a wall separating their properties from the building site.

Homeowners won a temporary defferal on the plans, but were finally told by the club that they would lose part of their gardens with no possiblilty of compensation back in April. Will the new facilities that are now on their way to completion be worth it?

A full PDF of what the new development will ultimately bring to the area produced by Arsenal FC can be downloaded here.