venue. During its 22-year life, it was home to five world title fights, a record for any British venue by the time the Arena ceased operating as a venue in 1958. However famous the Arena became for boxing, commercial necessity led to a diversification into a wider range of events including: The basketball and wrestling events for the 1948 Summer Olympics. All England Open Badminton Championships from 1947 to 1949. Home of the Horse of the Year Show for its first ten years, from 1949 to 1958. In its final year at Harringay, the show featured in the first broadcast of the BBC's new Saturday afternoon sports programme Grandstand. Roller Speedway from 1939 until 1952, with a break during the War. In 1953, with the demise of roller speedway, the Arena hosted a Roller Derby match. Wrestling. Five-a-side football. Basketball. European Netball Championships from 1955. Entertainment venue The Arena's diversification went beyond sports and included a variety of entertainment events including: Classical music and ballet In the 1940s the arena hosted ground breaking classical music events popularising classical music for the first time including the London Music Festival in 1947 and 1948. The '48 festival included the hugely popular London debut of Pierino Gamba. 10,000 people watched this ten-year-old boy conduct the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra playing Beethoven and Dvořák. The festival also featured the world-famous Manuel Rosenthal, who brought his Orchestre National de France to join Sir Thomas Beecham and the Royal Philharmonic in a concert that filled the Harringay Arena with 13,500 listeners A report in The Guardian on a classical music event in June of the following year said: Classical music events also figured large in the 1949 calendar. In April, Paul Robeson appeared at Harringay as part of his European concert tour. Sell-out audiences, including one of 10,000 at the arena, led him to describe the tour as "the most successful concert tour of my career" In June, there was a short season of classical music events including a two-week stay by the Philadelphia Orchestra. The event was part of their hyped European tour. They were the first American orchestra to visit the UK since 1929. Financed by British theatrical impresario Harold Fielding, the tour was a critical success, but high ticket prices kept the post-war audiences away. From 27 August to 1 September, along with Empress Hall, Earl's Court, Harringay Arena was the venue for a