Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Planning ahead: from 2012 to 2037
So what happens on the Olympic site when the last fanfares die down and the medalists scatter to the four winds after the closing ceremony in summer 2012? Stratford doesn’t intend to stop, shut down and sit back and spend the coming decades developing a sense of nostalgia for one single event. It has big plans for the site: a 25-year post-games masterplan, to be precise.
The 500-acre Olympic Park will re-open in 2013 as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, first under the auspices of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, with subsequent developments being driven forward by the recently announced Mayoral Development Corporation.
What they’ll be delivering is up to 11,000 new homes in a family-focused environment with five distinct neighbourhoods clustered around parkland and open spaces. Housing will be a mix of high density apartments (towards Stratford City, which directly adjoins the area) and lower density family homes. There will be new infrastructure, new roads, new cultural and sporting opportunities and a new high street from the north of the park to the Athlete’s Village, establishing a major link between Leyton and Hackney.
It’s ambitious, it’s transformative and it means that Stratford won’t just deliver the games to the world: it’ll deliver a lasting legacy to London.
