Olympic Park 2012

yes even in April. Here is the Olympic arena in April 08 half started and covered in snow.

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This picture is pretty representative of how I see London – plenty old and new mixed together and always changing. It was taken earlier this year in the centre of the city district – you see St Katherine Cree’s church 17th century and the Swiss Re Tower from this decade. Interesting to think which would last longer without maintenance.

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Games Monitor has the byline “Debunking the Olympic Myth” and describes itself as a network of people raising awareness about issues within the London Olympic development processes. Interesting threads and pictures.

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In the right hand side of this picture you can see the low white arching roof of Stratford station. This is where the Channel Tunnel train to the European mainland will eventually have its East London terminus. Currently Stratford has DLR (Dockland light rail), Tube/Underground and mainland trains, and the high speed train to Europe goes to St Pancras in North London. There are a few white sails to the right of Stratford station, but these are just decorative. In the foreground is being prepared for installation. We’ll post more information as the structures go up.

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The design of the stadium is a bowl intended to hold around eighty thoussand seats over 2 tiers. In early 2008 we could already see the work had begun.

By the end of summer cranes the foundations were finished and erected for the building of the structure to begin.

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Here is the orginal illustrative design of the way the venue will look, and the blue shapes in the google map show where the main sports arenas will be (as far as we can make out from the current official plans, and our own walks in the area). To get an idea of where the site is located within London – you can see the white circle in the bottom right hand corner is the ‘O2′ venue and the bottom right hand corner is London ‘city’ (i.e. the financial district).

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This is a photo looking eastwards across the site of the Olympic Park. It was taken a year ago today.

What you can see is a concrete factory in the foreground, high rise buildings in Stratford at the far side of the this photo. In between there are many un-used industrial buildings and wasteland / brownfield. This area will be the heart of the Olypmic park where the Olympic Village, arena, pool and other new sports facilities will be.

Here is a more recent picture of the site – you can see how the development has started to change the landscape, huts have been removed and ground work has been done for the buildings that will be built on the site.

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This is how we see London anyway, the view from the East End, looking over the centre to the setting sun.

This view of the city was taken around the time we learned of London’s Olympic bid success. Since then we have been watching our local area change and develop – and taking pictures as it went. We will be posting these and the ones to come, and we hope you find them interesting.

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