The London 2012 Olympic Park is now in it’s £292 transformation stage dubbed ‘Clear, Connect, Complete’. The temporary venues are being removed, roads and bridges are being reconfigured and the woodland and plantings will double in size. From Summer 2013 it will reopen as a series of public spaces which we will come to know as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Free hour-long bus tours of the site have now started to coincide with the launch of a new website, No Ordinary Park, that sets out the details of the Park’s future.
Participating in one of the early tours this week, it’s evident that the work of the 5,000 engineers and technicians is already proceeding quickly – the Hockey venue has gone completely (it’s pitch has found a new use at a Hockey centre of excellence in Sheffield) as have all the temporary visitor spaces including the Beat Box, the McDonalds restaurants and the cargo containers that formed on-site studios for the broadcasters.
Work also continues on the Aquatic Centre, which now has its flanks exposed – the coverings of the temporary ‘cow sheds’ stuck to either side of its sinuous roof have been taken away and, peering inside, it appears that the plastic seating has disappeared too – I imagine that it will be fit for purpose as a public swimming baths in just a few months time.
I wasn’t sure whether they would remain, but I’m glad to be able to report that all of the fantastic new pieces of public art around the Park are staying exactly where they are. On the bus tour I spotted the huge mirrored letters of ‘RUN’ and the crayons (stelles) along the waterways, and the dismembered telephone boxes along the pathways are also exactly where I remember them from my visit during the Paralympic Games.
You can book a place on one of the bus tours of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park simply by sending an email to the following address:
On the trip you’ll be provided with a booklet with key facts and there’s a member of staff at the front of the bus who gives pointers throughout the hour, and who has all the latest information about developments on the site if you have any questions.