London designs Olympic Park to bring venues, economic development to residents
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Aerial view on July 14 of the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium being built in East London. -
Customers visit the newly opened Westfield Stratford City shopping center in east London. -
Aerial view of the ArcelorMittal Orbit.
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LONDON -- Gherkin and Shard, move over.
To the cheeky monikers London bestows on contemporary landmarks -- such as "The Erotic Gherkin" for the bullet-shaped skyscraper in the City of London or "The Shard of Glass" for a jagged 72-story glass tower now rising along the Thames -- the city is adding two more. The Meringue and The Hubble Bubble, rising above the backwaters of East London, are among the venues of Olympic Park, the city's determined £10 billion (about $15.4 billion) effort to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.
While the site for next August's Olympics and Paralympic Games is roughly the size of Hyde Park, six miles to the west, no one could confuse Stratford with the stately surroundings of Buckingham Palace. This gritty maze of canals, docks, and rail yards may be one of the oldest brownfields in the world.
Daily tours of the Olympic Park area by certified Blue Badge guides begin at the Bromley by Bow Underground station (served by the District and Hammersmith & City lines). They are £9 ($14) for adults and £5 ($7.85) for children. Blue Badge guides also conduct themed walking tours, including other Olympic sites from 1908 and 1948, as well as other venues to be used during the 2012 Games. Details at www.toursof2012sites.com.
To explore on your own, ride the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to the Pudding Mill Lane station and follow signs for the Greenway.
Long before it was strafed by Nazi bombers during the Blitz, it was a neighborhood with a well-deserved bad reputation. That past echoed in headlines in early August, when residents rioted in nearby Tottenham.
But since 2005, when the city won its bid to host its third Olympics, the city has designed the park to bring housing and economic development to its residents. We saw the results on a recent walking tour: fewer ambitious icons such as Beijing's Bird's Nest, but plenty of ideas for sustainable use. All in all, the effect is like a giant Legoland: a collection of blocky shapes that can be continually reassembled, scattered on a broad floodplain along the Thames under scudding clouds.
First Published September 25, 2011 12:00 am
