On a park tour at the end of 2009, I took the following shot of the frame of the velodrome, which looks a bit like a roller coaster.
Olympic 2012 Velodrome
It will be part of the Olympic Velopark containing track cycling for Para-Olympians and Olympians plus BMX cycling facilities. Situated at the north end of the site where the former Eastway circuit used to be, this building will have an unusual shape and a lot to live up to. Former Eastway track users have left a lot of skin on the site since 1975 when it was first built:
“Eastway is used, on a regular basis for Road Racing, Time Trials, Cyclo Cross, Mountain Bike Racing, B M X Racing, Duathlon events, Road Running, Cross Country Running, Roller Blade & Roller Skating and the occasional Sponsored ride. Sometimes if the winter weather is bad and we have enough snow, Cross Country Skiing is possible at the circuit.”
Having said that, a ‘temporary alternative’ for former Eastway circuit users has been provided at Hog Hill just off the A12 north east London (one of two alternatives, the other being Rammy Marsh in Enfield). There was a “bit of a wait” between the closure of the original circuit in 2006 and the opening of the “Redbridge Circuit“ in August of 2008. This is a boon for Redbridge Borough with the £4.5 million new facility and cyclists are taking to it and sharing the experience (see preview thanks JayCut!) although a bit unhappy to be charged for the pleasure.
“The temporary seating for the BMX Circuit will be removed and the track reconfigured. A new mountain bike course and road cycle circuit will be added to create a VeloPark for the local community, sports clubs and elite athletes.
Outreach and sports development programmes will help ensure the new cycling ‘hub’ is suitable for all levels of ability. The facility will be owned, funded and run by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority.”
Two new media facilities, costing £355 from the ODA budget, are emerging. International broadcasts of the Olympic games in 2012 will come from the 60,000 m2 new International Broadcast Centre (IBC) onsite in the 2012 park. The shots below of the IBC were taken during a bus tour of the park and the venue is seen through a metal fence and the bus window.
International Press Centre
International Press Centre
The venue has been designed for games time and legacy facilities. It will contain studio space and offices over 2 floors and these can be converted into smaller units after the Olympic events, in the hope that various media companies might set up some operations in East London longer term.
Last weekend, despite the torrential rain, visitors from Paris enjoyed the stunning view of the emerging Olympic Park complete with a rainbow just over the main 2012 stadium!
I noticed this yellowish/greenish building appear some months ago and mistook it for a temporary venue for construction workers, like those near the Olympic Stadium. In fact it is the so-called View Tube, which:
“….is a social enterprise and community venue located on The Greenway adjacent to the Olympic Park. It was built using recycled shipping containers whose construction and installation was delivered by Urban Space Management.”
It is a great place to get a look out over the development site, take pix and visit the cafe. The infomation gives a good overview of the plans for the area, with maps and view-point descriptions, of where you can look out over the Aquatics Centre and Staduim.
You can get there from the greenway:090922_view-tube-directions
Click on these small images to see larger pictures of the aquatics stadium designed by Zaha Hadid for the 2012 Olympics.
Zaha Hadid’s building for 2012 Olympics
2012 Aquatic Stadium London Frame
These photos were taken on 15th November 2009, just four days after the completion of the framework for the 160m sweeping roof. They really show the design coming together into the shape of a “stingray”.
The feel of her typically fluid architechtural syle is starting to come through. The British Design Museum characterises her work like this – “Hadid creates the solid apparatus to make us perceive space as if it morphs and changes as we pass through.”
On July 27th 2012 the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony will be held in London, as the Olympic torch relay arrives from Olympia in London’s east end. We won’t know until 2011 where the torch will go on its way to the site, but it will probably come down the A11 through Tower Hamlets to the Olympic park in Stratford.
So, with a thousand days to go the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) took the opportunity to celebrate. If you were in central London last night you might have seen the light show at the BT Tower, which was also on TV during the lottery programme. If you missed that and you are in London, you can still see celebratory art at the National Portrait Gallery :
“To celebrate 1000 days to the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Sebastian Coe launches the National Portrait Gallery/BT Road to 2012 Project, a three-year collaboration between the National Portrait Gallery and BT, the official communications services partner for London 2012. It will create 100 world-class photographic portraits celebrating the people around the UK, both high-profile and those behind the scenes, who collectively are making the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games happen.” – National Portrait Gallery
Or around the UK, the Inspire Programme is encouraging activities locally, and e.g. in England the Arts Council is “challenging artists to use the nation as a blank canvas” in Artists Taking the Lead.
“The successful commissions will be developed across 2010 and 2011, and all 12 will take part in a final unifying celebration before the opening of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.” – Artists Taking the Lead
This picture taken 9th October 2009 shows the view looking west to east across the south side of the park. You can see the aquatics centre at the back and this will include the main entrance to the games. As the ODA says “The 250m-long and 40m-wide bridge will be the main pedestrian access into the Olympic Park during the Games. It will also form the roof of the Aquatics Centre training pool.” I will try to get some photos of this as it is being put in place today I can’t imagine yet how that will actually work, but it sounds interesting.
British cyclist Paul Manning, Gold medallist in the Team Pursuit at the Beijing 2008 Games, visited the site of the new velodrome in East London this week. He seems enthusiastic and the legacy facilities for cycling make me pretty excited too. The veldrome stadium is a 600o seater (see it coming up at this webcam Velodrome WebCam from ODA) and there will be a BMX track next to it.
This is essentially a public venture with the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) at the head and providing funding together with Sport England, Transport for London (TfL), and the London Marathon Charitable Trust (LMCT). The ODA says that after games time, “a road cycle circuit and mountain bike course will be added to the Velodrome and BMX circuit to create a legacy VeloPark that will combine cycling facilities across all disciplines in one cycling ‘hub’”.
This is a real boost for a sport which we are OK at, but the expectation is that it will also be a classic venue anyway! The London Cycling Campaign reckons this should have been built with or without the Olympics and London Cycle Sport cites the success of the Manchester Velodrome.
How long does it take to get to Stratford from St Pancras in central London? Right now the answer is 26 minutes (or 38 minutes on the weekend due to ‘planned engineering works’ see TLF for details), but in 2012 the Olympic Shuttle will take only 7 minutes. In fact in the trial of the new ‘Javelin’ service this week, the time achieved was only 6 minutes and 45 seconds.
New Train for Olympic 2012 passengers from Kings Cross St Pancras - Stratford
This will be an important piece in the East London transport network, when is comes to games time. The ODA is aspiring to encourage use of public transport – in fact it would be impossible for all spectators to come by car – witness the gridlock at the Blackwall tunnel at rush hour. Capacity at Stratford station will be trebled, new Dockland Light Rail (DLR) tunnels are being added, there will be a new ticket hall at Kings Cross, a new DLR platform at Stratford, a direct link from City Airport to Stratford, to name but a few improvements. Overall this part of East London will be far better connected in three years.
Olympic 2012 Stadium in 2009 - constuction workers form 3 for 3 years to go!
The Olympic Act of 2006 came back into the news last week, with a Human Rights story about police powers “to enter private homes and seize political posters during the London 2012 Olympics” from the Daily Mail amongst others. According to the Guardian, these measures were passed with the intention of preventing “‘overcommercialisation’ of the games” but might be used differently.
The original purpose of the Act (which can be read on the Department for Culture Media and Sport website at http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/pdf/ukpga_20060012_en.pdf ) was to give police powers to enter private homes e.g. to deal with ‘ambush marketing’ materials advertising near to Olympic Venues with the Olympic logo. Press coverage suggests that the Bill is so broad that the powers could be used where terrorism is suspected, and that cival rights groups are worried that the right to protest is also under threat.
I am not sure why this story is back, but it reminded me of news from 2007 about a leaked memo from No.10, when the Telegraph reported that the government was considering using DNA checks, scanning post, CCTV, monitoring oyster cards etc. to fight Olympic 2012 crime. Doubtless we all value our personal freedom and privacy, but if these powers are really necessary, then what is the real threat?
