The Olympics are Coming - 500 Days to Go!

As there are now only 500 days to go until the opening ceremony of the “Games of the XXX Olympiad” in London, I thought I would take a tour of London’s new Olympic Park in Stratford to see how the preparation for the games is coming along.

London will be hosting the Olympics for the third time having also held them in 1908 and 1948. On this occasion the capital beat off competition from Paris, New York, Moscow and Madrid to become the first city in the world to have hosted them three times.

The statistics are mind-blowing. 9.2 million people will buy tickets to watch 29 different sports and be served 14 million meals. The games will be broadcast to over 200 countries, watched by 4 billion people around the world and reported on by 20,000 journalists. The total cost will exceed £9 billion ($14 million USD).

Many of these sports will take place at the newly constructed Olympic Park in Stratford, in the East End of London. These include athletics, handball, cycling, swimming and basketball. The Olympic Park covers 2.5 square km and involves the construction of not only new sporting venues but also the cleaning of 1.4 million tonnes of contaminated soil, the building of 30 new bridges and the planting of half a million new plants. Transport links are also being improved. A new high speed rail link – The Javelin – will travel to Stratford in 8 minutes from St Pancras Station in the centre of London.

The staging of the games is being overseen by The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, chaired by Sebastian Coe. The construction of the new venues is being managed by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). The Government Olympic Executive (GOE), a unit within the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a government body is co-ordinating the games and its legacy.  Danny Boyle, the Oscar-winning director of Slumdog Millionaire is devising the opening and closing ceremonies.

My tour commenced at West Ham tube station, one of three “Gateway stations” to the Olympic Park (the others being Stratford Regional and Stratford International). I approached the park along the new restored “Greenway”, an avenue that leads right up to the new stadium. The Greenway passes the impressive 19^th century Abbey Mills Pumping Station, which seems like a cathedral dedicated to sewage. The Greenwich meridian crosses the Greenway about 1km to the east of the stadium.

On arrival at the Olympic Park I made my way up the “View Tube”, from which one gets a good view of the park. From left to right, the following structures were visible from the View Tube.

The Olympic Stadium – This will host the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the athletics events.  During the Olympics it will have 80,000 seats, of which 25,000 will be permanent and 55,000 will be demountable.  The legacy will be a new home for athletics and football (West ham United).

The Velo Park – This is a velodrome that will be used to host indoor cycling events. It is the only structure in the Olympic Park to be completed so far and holds 6,000 permament seats. The legacy will be a cycling facility for local and elite use.

The Basketball Arena – This is a temporary facility housing 5,000 spectators. It may be used again at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.

The Olympic Village – This will house thousands of athletes and officials during the games. The legacy will be homes for local people including teachers and nurses.

The Orbit – This will be a 115 metre tower designed by Anish Kapoor and hosting a restaurant. It will tower over the Olympic Park.

The Aquatics Centre – This will host indoor swimming, synchronised swimming, diving and water polo events. During the Olympics there were will be 17,500 seats for main events and 5,000 for water polo. The legacy will be a 2,500 facility for local and elite use.

The River Lea – This surrounds the Olympic Park on three sides. The drainage of the area was a key engineering challenge during the construction of the Park. The regeneration of the Lea Valley, home to thousands of people, will be a key legacy of the Olympic Games.

The Warm Up Area – This is still being constructed and is currently under mounds of earth and machinery.

Please see my photographs below.

1.      The main Olympic Stadium (above), which will hold 80,000 spectators.

2.      The Velo Park and Basketball Arena (above).

3.      The Olympic Village (above).

4.      The Orbit (above), a viewing tower still under construction.

  

5.      The Aquatics Centre (above), which will host swimming, diving and water polo events.

6.       The Warm Up Area (above) – still under construction.

7.      Many parts of the Olympic Park are still under construction including these hotels and coach parks (above).

8.      The

Green Way (above)

 – leading to the Olympic Park from West Ham tube station.

9.      Abbey Mills Pumping Station (above) – a “cathedral of sewage”.

10.  The Olympics will help to regenerate an old industrial area. This was formerly the Bryant and May factory (above) that was the scene of the famous “match girls strike” in the 19^th century.