Quite a lot really. The name of a place certainly conjures up an image even if it is only a perception. London will get five new places after the Olympics, all named by members of the public, all created from that desperate strip of land running from Bow Road up to Eton Manor – or the Olympic Park as it is currently known.
At the outset let me make clear that I am a big fan of the regeneration that will take place as a result of the Olympics, if not the event itself. I am also very bored with the continued grizzling of some that “the jobs won’t go to local people” or “I could create more jobs than that with £9 billion”. The fact is that, were it not for the Olympics, there would have been no new jobs, the money would not have been spent and the area concerned would still be in the same state of dereliction in ten years time.
That said it looks like “members of the public” have allowed their imaginations to run wild! One of the golden rules for a new place is to make it sound classy. The view from East London is that Surrey is definitely high-class so what better than to steal a bit of Surrey as a new place. Chobham Manor will be the area north of the athletes village – the views of the inhabitants of Chobham village (Surrey) are unknown.
Pudding Mill has a vaguely bucolic feel to it – at least to anyone who hasn’t been there – but the real eyebrow raiser is Sweetwater. Now, I am sure that the plans for the area involve cleaning up the river Lea, but, looking at its current state, Sweetwater takes a pretty big leap of imagination. Research by University College London, shows the amount of faecal e-coli bacteria in the River Lea is more than 80 times the recommended level. Lovely!
The only name that really fits seems to be Marshgate Wharf, adjacent to the new Stratford City development, which has an authentic, gritty industrial feel to it. Eastwick will be the area east of Hackney Wick – see what they did there? I prefer to think that it has been named after the witches. Perhaps they will invite Jack Nicholson to the opening.
A phased reopening of the park will begin in 2013, with families moving into the new conurbations in 2015. It will be interesting to see if any differences in value emerge amongst the different communities.
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