The Legacy Park

The Olympic Park is the centrepiece of London’s plan for a much brighter future in the East End

The promise of transforming a forgotten corner of London was the winning element of the city’s bid to host the Olympic Games. Disconnected East End communities would be linked with one another and with the rest of London. Meanwhile, a safe and well connected area of new affordable housing would be created, with a massive new area of parkland on its doorstep. London would turn the Olympic ideal of social transformation into a reality.

Aerial view of the Olympic Park looking south,
taken on 22 March 2010 (Picture: Anthony Charlton/ODA)

To achieve this, one of the largest planning applications ever – the London 2012 Olympic Legacy Masterplan – has been lodged. This design for post-Games use of the Olympic Park and its surroundings is being led by Andrew Jones, managing director of AECOM Design + Planning. When developing the masterplan, he evaluated the Olympic Parks of the last two decades.

“Barcelona was a strong plan and strong regeneration offer that followed it. Atlanta was criticised for not having a legacy and also for being overly commercial. Sydney was a great Games but the legacy took a long time to start moving. Athens had a fragmented site and unclear legacy plans following the Games,” said Jones, speaking at Legacy Lives in London.

“The huge ambition and scale of the projects in Beijing is something that London wouldn’t want to replicate in terms of the shape and measure of the city”. Instead, the 2012 plan is “something that sits back within the fabric of London.”

The forgotten valley
Once a vital nerve centre of the industrial revolution, the lower Lea valley was heavily bombed during the Second World War. It was subsequently left out of the Abercrombie Plan, which redeveloped London as an interconnected series of villages. “The lower Lea valley was not one of these thriving villages, not one of the Hampsteads or the Wimbledons or Camdens. The whole of the East End of London is separated from the City and the West End and the real economic drivers of London,” said Jones.

The marks of war and heavy industry were clear when work began on the Olympic Park in 2006. “The land itself was highly contaminated through industrial workings, through landfill, through wartime blitz spoil, as well as polluted waterways.”

Mark Reynolds is deputy chief executive at MACE, the delivery partner responsible for building the Olympic Park. He said: “When we took over the site in early 2006, the river Lea was a pretty horrid river; it’s been significantly cleaned up. We found things like cars, shopping trolleys and guns in the river – we haven’t found any dead people, thank goodness.”

As well as polluted waterways, the site was criss-crossed with roads, railways, sewers and pylons. Bout, somehow, nature has kept a toehold in this urban wilderness. Jones said: “This abandoned part of London is rich in ecology and biodiversity. There are some beautiful elements in there, some hidden corners and real gems that are being woven into the Olympic legacy plans.”

The format of the Olympics adds to the complexity of the project. Speaking at the London School of Economics in November 2009, London 2012’s chief advisor on architecture and urbanism, Professor Ricky Burdett said: “The Olympics is a conundrum. It has to be behind closed doors because of security; the Olympic Committee is very jealous about who has rights of access and television rights, therefore it is conceived of as something which is separate. The plan is to turn this project into something which really connects different parts of the city in ways that have not been done before.”

Jones said: “By creating connections between Bow and Stratford, between Hackney and Leyton, the lower Lea valley can really play a role in the future of the economy and the life of London, enabling the East End to benefit as the city grows and develops.”

The communities surrounding the Olympic Park have much to gain. The lower Lea valley has some of the poorest education standards in the UK. Many people have no qualifications and few opportunities. Twelve out of 30 school students live in poverty.

World’s biggest building site
The Olympic Park is the biggest building site in the world. The city of Venice would fit comfortably within its perimeter fence. A project of this scale has a huge impact on the reputation of the UK construction industry. Reynolds said: “We are building a project that is USD 4.6bn more than Heathrow Terminal 5, in half the time. With some of the reputations around organisations being involved in previous major programmes in the UK for sports facilities, it was a considerable risk.”

The Olympic build is proving to be an exception to the trend. “We are 50 per cent complete,” said Reynolds in March 2010. “We are on time, on budget and looking forward to it – and we really mean it.” The construction project has come under fire for not employing as many local people as hoped. Reynolds admitted: “Workforce is a challenge for us on site. We currently have 9,000 workers. About 20 per cent come from the five host boroughs, providing benefits and work for the host community.”

There are many job opportunities for young people. “For around one fifth of people employed on the Olympic Park, this is their first job,” said Reynolds. “We have a target of delivering 350 apprentices on the programme and currently we are achieving about 150.”

Reynolds said 13 per cent of workers come from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds. “Around 10 per cent of the workforce are women – we would like to have far more, but construction is still a male-dominated industry.” He estimates that 120,000 people will have worked on the park by the time construction work finishes in 2013.

As for supplies of building materials and equipment, Reynolds said about half of the supply chain comes from UK companies, mostly SMEs. Around half of the 1,000 UK suppliers are based in London. 58 per cent of materials, by weight, are delivered either by rail or by water. The Lea valley waterways are being used primarily to take away waste.

Some landowners and businesses have been forced to sell property. Inevitably, some remaining locals find the building project intrusive. Reynolds said: “Not all of the residents have been happy having a construction project on their doorstep for the best part of five years, but hopefully in the long term, they will see the benefits.”

One benefit will be the creation of 2,800 new homes in the Olympic Village complex, which is due for completion by August 2011. But the real housing revolution will take place outside the park. According to Andrew Jones, the next phase of development surrounding the park could create 400,000 homes over the following 20 years.

Some new residential infrastructure is already under construction, such as a complex just to the south of Stratford International station. Professor Burdett described this as: “a series of large perimeter blocks, like you find in Berlin, with a lot of public space around it, which connects to the main park.” The housing units are up to ten storeys high, with the first three floors of every unit designed as town houses, with affordable apartments above them.

Moving the centre East
Andrew Altman is CEO of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, set up in 2009 by the mayor of London and the UK government to capitalise on all assets created by the Games. Speaking at Legacy Lives, he said: “The important thing about urban transformation is that it has to be integrated. Canary Wharf did not have the transportation infrastructure when it opened and it suffered for many years. The lower Lea Valley was always industrial and a gap in the heart of the city; we are starting to reconnect it.”

Linking Stratford International station to mainland Europe via the Channel Tunnel Rail Link was a significant first step. Over USD 450m of capital expenditure has gone into upgrading the rail network, including the extension of the Dockland Light Rail trains by three cars. In the Olympic Park itself, 30 new bridges, 12km of new road and four transport mouths are more than half complete.

Work on utilities in the park is also well advanced. A new energy centre, which includes a combined heat and power facility, has been built to power the Park during the Games and afterwards. According to Reynolds, 165km of telecom ducts, 100km of electrical ducts, 12km of water mains and 7km of gas mains are being provided.

All this work is in preparation for a vast influx of people. Unlike many cities in the western world, London is growing. Its population is fast approaching eight million and has been forecast to grow by up to 20 per cent over the next two decades.

Altman said: “Where is that growth going to go? It’s going to go east. Over 25 per cent of London’s growth could be housed in this area over the next 25 years. That’s a phenomenal shift in the city. No longer is east London considered the outer part of London; it is moving to the centre.”

The effects of the regeneration work could take decades to become really tangible. “You are starting to build a whole new piece of the city. From 2025 and beyond, it will become a great metropolitan centre for London, an international destination. You won’t see this type of change for at least a generation and I think it will be one of the greatest urban regeneration projects in the world.”

One of the biggest challenges in transforming the area will be improving education standards. A school for 1,800 pupils is planned for the Olympic Park, but Altman knows that this is not enough. “You need a connection to the surrounding community. We are looking at social infrastructure, what’s happening around the site – how to strengthen schools – there’s a lot of work to do before we get to delivery. We have to be equally concerned about the residents that are already there and how they are benefiting.”

Sports participation in schools in the host borough has already increased dramatically. Paul Brickell, executive member for Olympics and public affairs at Newham Council, told the London School of Economics: “A couple of days after the bid was won, Tessa Sanderson, the Olympic javelin gold medallist, picked up the phone to us and said ‘I reckon there are people in your schools, a couple of whom could be Olympic gold medallists, but they don’t know that yet’.”

Following this discussion, the Newham Sports Academy was set up. “That now has 60 young people competing successfully, some internationally and many winning medals, some of whom hadn’t put on a pair of athletics shoes four years ago. The first people ever to win awards at the London Youth Games had not been privately educated; they came out of Newham schools.”

A park to rival St James’s
The park is being designed to stand alongside some of London’s most famous green spaces. Altman said: “What the Olympic Park is about is the next great metropolitan park in London. You want to make it a must-see, must-return-to destination.”

The new public park will be more than 100 hectares, of which 18 will be made up of new biodiverse habitats. According to Reynolds, landscaping was already more than 23 per cent complete as of March 2010. Alongside the open spaces will be a number of sports venues and Europe’s largest urban mall in Europe, the Westfield Mall.

Altman said: “This becomes a must-see destination among the great parks in the world. Get excited about this; it is up there with St James’s or Kew in the consciousness and identity of London. The Legacy Park will be a great place you want to go to; it’s going to have character and it’s going to be exciting.”

After the Games, there will be a short transition period before the Legacy Park reopens in 2013. Altman said: “We have the next two years to plan, prepare and get operators for all the venues. The important thing is continuity of activity, so that when the park reopens, there will still be a lot of energy and excitement.”

Post-Games event programming will be crucial to the park’s success. “The first five years are critical for the development of the park. That’s going to be key in those first years, lots and lots of programming.”

The promise of transforming a forgotten corner of London was the winning element of the city’s bid to host the Olympic Games. Disconnected East End communities would be linked with one another and with the rest of London. Meanwhile, a safe and well connected area of new affordable housing would be created, with a massive new area of parkland on its doorstep. London would turn the Olympic ideal of social transformation into a reality.

To achieve this, one of the largest planning applications ever – the London 2012 Olympic Legacy Masterplan – has been lodged. This design for post-Games use of the Olympic Park and its surroundings is being led by Andrew Jones, managing director of AECOM Design + Planning. When developing the masterplan, he evaluated the Olympic Parks of the last two decades.

“Barcelona was a strong plan and strong regeneration offer that followed it. Atlanta was criticised for not having a legacy and also for being overly commercial. Sydney was a great Games but the legacy took a long time to start moving. Athens had a fragmented site and unclear legacy plans following the Games,” said Jones, speaking at Legacy Lives in London.

“The huge ambition and scale of the projects in Beijing is something that London wouldn’t want to replicate in terms of the shape and measure of the city”. Instead, the 2012 plan is “something that sits back within the fabric of London.”

The forgotten valley
Once a vital nerve centre of the industrial revolution, the lower Lea valley was heavily bombed during the Second World War. It was subsequently left out of the Abercrombie Plan, which redeveloped London as an interconnected series of villages. “The lower Lea valley was not one of these thriving villages, not one of the Hampsteads or the Wimbledons or Camdens. The whole of the East End of London is separated from the City and the West End and the real economic drivers of London,” said Jones.

The marks of war and heavy industry were clear when work began on the Olympic Park in 2006. “The land itself was highly contaminated through industrial workings, through landfill, through wartime blitz spoil, as well as polluted waterways.”

Mark Reynolds is deputy chief executive at MACE, the delivery partner responsible for building the Olympic Park. He said: “When we took over the site in early 2006, the river Lea was a pretty horrid river; it’s been significantly cleaned up. We found things like cars, shopping trolleys and guns in the river – we haven’t found any dead people, thank goodness.”

As well as polluted waterways, the site was criss-crossed with roads, railways, sewers and pylons. Bout, somehow, nature has kept a toehold in this urban wilderness. Jones said: “This abandoned part of London is rich in ecology and biodiversity. There are some beautiful elements in there, some hidden corners and real gems that are being woven into the Olympic legacy plans.”

The format of the Olympics adds to the complexity of the project. Speaking at the London School of Economics in November 2009, London 2012’s chief advisor on architecture and urbanism, Professor Ricky Burdett said: “The Olympics is a conundrum. It has to be behind closed doors because of security; the Olympic Committee is very jealous about who has rights of access and television rights, therefore it is conceived of as something which is separate. The plan is to turn this project into something which really connects different parts of the city in ways that have not been done before.”

Jones said: “By creating connections between Bow and Stratford, between Hackney and Leyton, the lower Lea valley can really play a role in the future of the economy and the life of London, enabling the East End to benefit as the city grows and develops.”

The communities surrounding the Olympic Park have much to gain. The lower Lea valley has some of the poorest education standards in the UK. Many people have no qualifications and few opportunities. Twelve out of 30 school students live in poverty.

World’s biggest building site
The Olympic Park is the biggest building site in the world. The city of Venice would fit comfortably within its perimeter fence. A project of this scale has a huge impact on the reputation of the UK construction industry. Reynolds said: “We are building a project that is USD 4.6bn more than Heathrow Terminal 5, in half the time. With some of the reputations around organisations being involved in previous major programmes in the UK for sports facilities, it was a considerable risk.”

The Olympic build is proving to be an exception to the trend. “We are 50 per cent complete,” said Reynolds in March 2010. “We are on time, on budget and looking forward to it – and we really mean it.” The construction project has come under fire for not employing as many local people as hoped. Reynolds admitted: “Workforce is a challenge for us on site. We currently have 9,000 workers. About 20 per cent come from the five host boroughs, providing benefits and work for the host community.”

There are many job opportunities for young people. “For around one fifth of people employed on the Olympic Park, this is their first job,” said Reynolds. “We have a target of delivering 350 apprentices on the programme and currently we are achieving about 150.”

Reynolds said 13 per cent of workers come from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds. “Around 10 per cent of the workforce are women – we would like to have far more, but construction is still a male-dominated industry.” He estimates that 120,000 people will have worked on the park by the time construction work finishes in 2013.

As for supplies of building materials and equipment, Reynolds said about half of the supply chain comes from UK companies, mostly SMEs. Around half of the 1,000 UK suppliers are based in London. 58 per cent of materials, by weight, are delivered either by rail or by water. The Lea valley waterways are being used primarily to take away waste.

Some landowners and businesses have been forced to sell property. Inevitably, some remaining locals find the building project intrusive. Reynolds said: “Not all of the residents have been happy having a construction project on their doorstep for the best part of five years, but hopefully in the long term, they will see the benefits.”

One benefit will be the creation of 2,800 new homes in the Olympic Village complex, which is due for completion by August 2011. But the real housing revolution will take place outside the park. According to Andrew Jones, the next phase of development surrounding the park could create 400,000 homes over the following 20 years.

Some new residential infrastructure is already under construction, such as a complex just to the south of Stratford International station. Professor Burdett described this as: “a series of large perimeter blocks, like you find in Berlin, with a lot of public space around it, which connects to the main park.” The housing units are up to ten storeys high, with the first three floors of every unit designed as town houses, with affordable apartments above them.

Moving the centre East
Andrew Altman is CEO of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, set up in 2009 by the mayor of London and the UK government to capitalise on all assets created by the Games. Speaking at Legacy Lives, he said: “The important thing about urban transformation is that it has to be integrated. Canary Wharf did not have the transportation infrastructure when it opened and it suffered for many years. The lower Lea Valley was always industrial and a gap in the heart of the city; we are starting to reconnect it.”

Linking Stratford International station to mainland Europe via the Channel Tunnel Rail Link was a significant first step. Over USD 450m of capital expenditure has gone into upgrading the rail network, including the extension of the Dockland Light Rail trains by three cars. In the Olympic Park itself, 30 new bridges, 12km of new road and four transport mouths are more than half complete.

Work on utilities in the park is also well advanced. A new energy centre, which includes a combined heat and power facility, has been built to power the Park during the Games and afterwards. According to Reynolds, 165km of telecom ducts, 100km of electrical ducts, 12km of water mains and 7km of gas mains are being provided.

All this work is in preparation for a vast influx of people. Unlike many cities in the western world, London is growing. Its population is fast approaching eight million and has been forecast to grow by up to 20 per cent over the next two decades.

Altman said: “Where is that growth going to go? It’s going to go east. Over 25 per cent of London’s growth could be housed in this area over the next 25 years. That’s a phenomenal shift in the city. No longer is east London considered the outer part of London; it is moving to the centre.”

The effects of the regeneration work could take decades to become really tangible. “You are starting to build a whole new piece of the city. From 2025 and beyond, it will become a great metropolitan centre for London, an international destination. You won’t see this type of change for at least a generation and I think it will be one of the greatest urban regeneration projects in the world.”

One of the biggest challenges in transforming the area will be improving education standards. A school for 1,800 pupils is planned for the Olympic Park, but Altman knows that this is not enough. “You need a connection to the surrounding community. We are looking at social infrastructure, what’s happening around the site – how to strengthen schools – there’s a lot of work to do before we get to delivery. We have to be equally concerned about the residents that are already there and how they are benefiting.”

Sports participation in schools in the host borough has already increased dramatically. Paul Brickell, executive member for Olympics and public affairs at Newham Council, told the London School of Economics: “A couple of days after the bid was won, Tessa Sanderson, the Olympic javelin gold medallist, picked up the phone to us and said ‘I reckon there are people in your schools, a couple of whom could be Olympic gold medallists, but they don’t know that yet’.”

Following this discussion, the Newham Sports Academy was set up. “That now has 60 young people competing successfully, some internationally and many winning medals, some of whom hadn’t put on a pair of athletics shoes four years ago. The first people ever to win awards at the London Youth Games had not been privately educated; they came out of Newham schools.”

A park to rival St James’s
The park is being designed to stand alongside some of London’s most famous green spaces. Altman said: “What the Olympic Park is about is the next great metropolitan park in London. You want to make it a must-see, must-return-to destination.”

The new public park will be more than 100 hectares, of which 18 will be made up of new biodiverse habitats. According to Reynolds, landscaping was already more than 23 per cent complete as of March 2010. Alongside the open spaces will be a number of sports venues and Europe’s largest urban mall in Europe, the Westfield Mall.

Altman said: “This becomes a must-see destination among the great parks in the world. Get excited about this; it is up there with St James’s or Kew in the consciousness and identity of London. The Legacy Park will be a great place you want to go to; it’s going to have character and it’s going to be exciting.”

After the Games, there will be a short transition period before the Legacy Park reopens in 2013. Altman said: “We have the next two years to plan, prepare and get operators for all the venues. The important thing is continuity of activity, so that when the park reopens, there will still be a lot of energy and excitement.”

Post-Games event programming will be crucial to the park’s success. “The first five years are critical for the development of the park. That’s going to be key in those first years, lots and lots of programming.”