Olympic Park, London

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a sporting complex and public park in Stratford, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Bow, in east London. It was purpose-built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, situated adjacent to the Stratford City development. It contains the Olympic stadium, now known as the London Stadium, and the Olympic swimming pool together with the athletes' Olympic Village and several other Olympic sporting venues and the London Olympics Media Centre. The park is overlooked by the ArcelorMittal Orbit, an observation tower and Britain's largest piece of public art.

It was simply called The Olympic Park during the Games but was later renamed to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth IIGames Site Renamed the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
BBC News, 7 October 2010; Retrieved 12 May 2012 (though it is not an official Royal Park of London). The park occupies an area straddling four east London boroughs; Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest. Part of the park reopened in July 2013, while a large majority of the rest (including the Aquatics Centre, Velopark and Orbit observation tower) reopened in April 2014.

Location

The site covers parts of Stratford, Bow, Leyton, and Hackney Wick in east London, overlooking the A12 road. The site was previously a mixture of greenfield and brownfield land, including parts of Hackney Marshes.

The Royal Mail gave the park and Stratford City the postcode E20, which had previously only appeared in the television soap opera ''EastEnders'' for the fictional suburb of Walford.

On 2 August 2011, it was announced the five neighbourhoods of housing and amenities (anti-clockwise from north-east) are:
* Chobham Manor in the London Borough of Newham
* East Wick in the London Borough of Hackney (by Hackney Wick)
* Sweetwater in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
* Pudding Mill in the London Borough of Newham
* Marshgate Wharf in the London Borough of Newham

These names have relevant history in the area. All four of the East London boroughs covering the park as such have a neighbourhood except for Waltham Forest.

History

Design

The park was designed by the EDAW Consortium (including EDAW, Allies and Morrison and Buro Happold), working with Arup and WS Atkins. Detailed landscape architecture was by LDA Design in conjunction with Hargreaves Associates. LDA design contracted Wallace Whittle to carry out various aspects of the M+E Building services design. The NHBC carried out the Sustainability assessments. The park was illuminated with a lighting scheme designed by Speirs + Major.

London's Olympic and Paralympic bid proposed that there would be four indoor arenas in the park in addition to the main venues, but the revised master plan published in 2006 reduced this to three, with the volleyball events moved to the Earls Court Exhibition Centre. The fencing arena was also cancelled, with the fencing events taking place at ExCeL London. The remaining indoor arenas are the Basketball Arena and the Copper Box, in addition to the Water Polo Arena, the Aquatics Centre, and the Velopark. The final design of the park was approved by the Olympic Delivery Authority and its planning-decisions committee.

Legacy List charity

The Legacy List is the independent charity for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, set up in 2011 to support the legacy of the Games. Their mission is to make creative connections between people and the Park by developing, commissioning and supporting high quality art, education and skill building initiatives, to engage, educate and inspire current and future generations.

Construction

During its construction over 80,000 workers were engaged on the project. The construction of the Olympic Park was managed by CLM Delivery Partner, comprising CH2M Hill ,Laing O'Rourke and Mace. CLM specifically managed the "white" space between the venue construction zones, including managing the internal road network. To enable the major phase of construction to begin, the 52 electricity pylons, up to high, that dominated the landscape in and around the park were removed and the power transferred through the new Lower Lea Valley Cable Tunnels constructed by Murphy. Also there was a roman village underground when they were digging it up Following site clearance, the soil across the Park site was cleaned down to a human health layer, by soil washing.

Constituent sections of the park

* London Aquatics Centre
* Copper Box Arena
* Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre
* Lee Valley VeloPark
* London Stadium
* ArcelorMittal Orbit
* East Village, London
* London Olympics Media Centre
* International Quarter London
* Northern Parklands

In addition, at the time of the Olympic and Paralympic games:
* Eton Manor
* Riverbank Arena
* Water Polo Arena
* Basketball Arena
* Park Live

File:LondonOlympicPark-ArcelorMittalOrbitAndAquaticsCentre.JPG, The London Aquatics Centre with the ArcelorMittal Orbit on the right
File:London Velopark, 16 April 2012.jpg, Lee Valley VeloPark
File:2012 Gardens (7724372296).jpg, Olympic gardens in front of the River Lea and its tributary the City Mill River
File:View from Knight's Bridge (9429629281).jpg, Northern Parklands with the River Lea, looking south
File:Olympic Park (7724322846).jpg, Northern Parklands with the River Lea, looking south
File:London Olympic Park viewed from Eastcross Bridge.jpg, The park looking south from Eastcross Bridge

Post-Olympics

The park has been given over to a number of current and planned uses after the London 2012 Summer Olympics finished, such as:
* A part of the East London Tech City technology hub.
* One of the largest urban parks created in Western Europe for more than 150 years, designed to enrich and preserve the local environment, by restoring wetland habitats and planting native species of plants.
* 3,600 apartments, the East Village, next to the Stratford City neighbourhood of Stratford, London.
* The Manor Garden Allotments (reinstated after alternative use).
* The (ArcelorMittal) Orbit, a steel tower which is the largest public work of art in the UK and a tourist attraction.
* In 2012, it was announced that the UK's main Olympic Museum would be opened at the park in 2014 next to the (ArcelorMittal) Orbit. The plans were shelved in July 2013.
*A new Head Office for Transport for London, after the closure of 55 Broadway.

East Bank

As of January 2021, several arts and creativity institutions are constructing outposts at the park as part of a £1.1billion development, including:
*The Victoria and Albert Museum will open a new museum.
* Sadler's Wells Ballet Company will open a new 550-seat theatre.
* University College London is building a new campus within the park for 4,000 students.
* The BBC
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