In local culture, London’s 2012 bid and legacy have special meaning.
Along the banks of the Waterworks River in east London are several immaculate parks, a modern ballet theatre, a fashion school, and an aquatics center created by Zaha Hadid, once utilized for the 2012 Olympics and now a local swimmers recreation area. Less than twenty years ago, this neighbourhood was home to fridge mountain, a kilometer-long pile of abandoned refrigerators, washing machines, and other white goods that ranked as one of London’s worst eyesores.
The reconstruction of the area for the 2012 Games was the starting point for the transition, which is still ongoing a little over ten years later. Through a search for a legacy that put economic regeneration ahead of athletics, the Games renewed Stratford, the site of most events. A year after the tournament ended, the UK economy was estimated to have gained £10 billion ($13 billion) overall—roughly £1 billion more than budget—with 75 pennies of every pound spent on the Olympics going towards the legacy in a long-neglected area.
The former Olympic Park, formerly a neglected brownfield site, is now home to 12,000 people and will employ 40,000 by the upcoming year. In addition to business, it led to the construction of major civic amenities, such as three health centres, two primary schools, a secondary school, and 100 hectares of green space. It also sparked the development of a new cultural quarter that included two universities, including UCL East, a branch of one of the best universities in the world, and an outpost of the Victoria & Albert Museum, BBC music studios, and a theatre at Sadler’s Wells.
To free the Seine River from commercial traffic and restore it to a safe swimming area for future generations, Paris is considering leaving its Olympic legacy in the shape of a €1.4 billion ($1.53 billion) cleanup project.
In local culture, London‘s 2012 bid and legacy have special meaning. The British Olympic Association led the initiative in the late 1990s, and the 1997 Labour manifesto included a promise to bring the Games to the United Kingdom. A new picture of Britain‘s economy was multinational, cultural, cheerful, and at ease with increased public spending.
London’s plans have always placed more emphasis on economic regeneration than they did on supporting sports. Victorian times saw the initial development of the region that is today the Olympic Park. However, these advancements fell apart during the second half of the 20th century, alongside Britain’s general industrial decline.
The Environment Agency claimed that soil was “grossly contaminated” after decades of industrial use, especially by a chemical storage facility that left behind toxic waste.
This area was the primary focus of the pre-Games cleanup, primarily supported by the state. Government agencies spent tens of millions of pounds cleaning up the 2.5 square kilometre site.
Under the direction of newly appointed Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, organisers sought to minimise the development of new permanent venues when the Games planning process got underway. Only major sports like athletics, swimming, and cycling would receive permanent homes in London. Other Olympiads, such as the 2004 Games in Athens, had constructed numerous new permanent venues that later went abandoned.
The Olympiad officially began on July 27, 2012, starting with a ceremony with the Beatles followed by appearances made by the late Queen Elizabeth and Mr. Bean.
The Games officially ended on Sept 9, 2012, after the closing ceremony of the Paralympics. The park was soon closed after. Before it was again open to the public, it underwent a £272 million renovation transformation, which turned into the current Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Currently, the park is maintained by the London Legacy Development Corporation, a taxpayer-funded organisation that answers to the Mayor of London. Rather than passing through elected local governments, LLDC makes decisions regarding the park’s development.
Benefits of management by the LLDC include expedited project approval and the ability to plan the area as a single, cohesive entity rather than as four distinct areas divided by the borders of the London boroughs on which it sits: Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, and Waltham Forest.
Opponents claimed that by abandoning elected local governments, the LLDC allowed for less public scrutiny and accountability, which permitted less-than-ideal results for the taxpayer and the residents.
Like major large-scale projects, the 2012 Olympics was more expensive than anticipated. According to the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, in 2003, it was expected to cost £3.8 billion. It is a far cry from the £9.8 billion estimated cost of the Beijing Olympics 2008. According to the latest figures, the actual expenditure was £8.77 billion. To maintain the viability of future Olympics, Paris is purposefully keeping costs low, spending an estimated €8.9 billion ($9.9 billion) this year.
The park remains unfinished almost twenty years after London was declared the official winner of the bid.
Garner stated that there were still ten years of construction left and debts would be repaid when the residential and commercial space was finally sold. The funds would flow back to the public purse.
According to Alyson Hodkinson, head of UK at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the company that runs the adjoining Westfield shopping centre, a single indicator can demonstrate how the area has changed over time.
There were hardly any cranes in the region when she moved here more than ten years ago, indicating a weaker economy that wasn’t stimulating new construction. However, she observed 55 cranes surrounding the centre a few years later, which is absurd.
She also stated that London stands out as having the best Olympic legacy.
