Olympic Park, London

Olympic Park (2013 Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park)
—  Locality  —
Artisits impression of the finished Park
Map of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Coordinates: 51°32′46″N 0°00′46″W / 51.54615°N 0.01269°W / 51.54615; -0.01269Coordinates: 51°32′46″N 0°00′46″W / 51.54615°N 0.01269°W / 51.54615; -0.01269
Country	England
City	London
District	Stratford, Bow, Leyton, Homerton
Time zone	UTC (UTC0)
- Summer (DST)	BST (UTC+1)
Postcode	E20

The 40-storey Athletes Village Tower which is proposed to form part of the Olympic Village within the Park

The Olympic Park in London is a new sporting complex currently under construction, adjacent to the Stratford City development in Stratford, Bow, Leyton & Homerton in East London for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

It is currently intended to rename the Olympic Park as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2013 following the site's re-opening after the Olympics and Paralympics. It will be named after Queen Elizabeth II, who will celebrate her Diamond Jubilee in June 2012.^[1] Royal Mail has given the postcode E20 to the Olympic Park and Stratford City; this was previously only used by TV soap EastEnders for the fictional suburb of Walford.^[2]

Design and construction

The Park is being designed by the EDAW Consortium (including EDAW and Buro Happold), working with Arup and WS Atkins. The park including legacy has since been taken over by LDA Design in conjunction with Hargreaves Associates.

London's Olympic and Paralympic bid proposed that there would be four arenas in the Olympic Park, but the revised masterplan published in 2006 reduced this to three, with the volleyball being moved to Earls Court Exhibition Centre.^[3] The fencing arena was also cancelled, and the fencing will now take place at ExCeL. The remaining indoor arenas are the Basketball Arena and the Handball Arena. The final design of the park has been approved by the Olympic Delivery Authority and its planning decisions committee.

To enable the major phase of construction to begin, the 52 electricity pylons, each up to 65 metres high, that dominate the landscape in and around the Olympic Park were removed, and the electricity for the park is now instead run through underground tunnels.^[4]

Several businesses were put under Compulsory Purchase Order in order to gain control of the Olympic Site.

Sports venues

• Olympic Stadium
• Aquatics Centre
• Hockey Centre
• Basketball Arena
• Handball Arena
• London Velopark

There will also be an Olympic Village to house the athletes.

Legacy

The Olympic Park will be put to a number of uses after the Olympics have finished:^[5][6]

• It will form a key part of the new East London Tech City technology hub.^[7]
• Olympic Park will be transformed into one of the largest urban parks created in Europe for more than 150 years, designed to enrich the local ecology by restoring wetland habitats and planting native species.
• A new university will be founded to make use of the sporting facilities and high-tech communications infrastructure remaining after the Olympics and will specialise in sport science, digital media and green technology.
• The sports facilities will be made open for use by local sports clubs and societies.
• The Olympic Village will be converted into 3,600 apartments in the Stratford City development.
• The Manor Garden Allotments will be reinstated.
• Further housing as well as amenities will be constructed.
• The Park will be home to the ArcelorMittal Orbit, a steel tower which when completed will be the largest public work of art in the UK.^[8]

On 2 August 2011, it was announced that the five new communities to occupy the site eventually will be named (anti-clockwise from north-east) Chobham Manor, East Wick, Sweetwater, Pudding Mill, and Marshgate Wharf. All these names have historical backgrounds.^[9]

Football

On 11 February 2011, West Ham United were selected as preferred bidders, ahead of Tottenham Hotspur, to take over the stadium as a football venue after the end of the games. However, five days later Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn announced that he would be challenging the decision to allow West Ham to relocate to the stadium, as he believed that having West Ham playing within a mile of their Brisbane Road stadium could cost Orient support and even their existence.^[10] Ironically, Hearn had expressed interest some years earlier in moving Orient to Olympic Park and reducing its capacity to 25,000 seats,^[11] while West Ham will cut the capacity to 60,000 if their relocation goes ahead.^[12]

References

1. ^ Games site renamed the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park BBC News. 07-10-10
2. ^ BBC News: London - Olympic Park to share EastEnders' Walford E20 postcode Accessed 19 March 2011
3. ^ "London unveils Olympic masterplan". BBC News. 7 June 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/olympics_2012/5055306.stm. 
4. ^ http://www.london2012.com/press/media-releases/2008/12/last-pylon-removed-from-olympic-park-as-250m-powerlines-project-delivered-on.php
5. ^ http://www.london2012.com/plans/olympic-park/legacy/index.php
6. ^ Gourlay, Chris (19 April 2009). "University to be built in London Olympic Park". The Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article6126765.ece. 
7. ^ "Cameron reveals Silicon Valley vision for east London". BBC News. 4 November 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11689437. Retrieved 4 November 2010. 
8. ^ Brown, Mark (31 March 2010). "Climb this: Anish Kapoor's massive artwork that will tower over London". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/31/anish-kapoor-artwork-tower-london. 
9. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14364485
10. ^ [1]
11. ^ McNulty, Phil (8 November 2006). "Orient reveal Olympic switch hope". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/leyton_orient/6129870.stm. 
12. ^ [2]

External links

• Official website
• Independent website
• Review of Olympic Park development
• London Landscape TV episode (5 mins) showing Olympic Park development (August 2008)