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East Village, London history

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Planning and construction

As part of the regeneration programme within the bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Olympic Village design to house the athletes was based on reusing the buildings after the games as a new residential district for Stratford. The basis for the residential plan was taken from the SCDC regeneration plan for the area as a consequence of the creation of the London-Paris high speed link. The spoil from the tunnel which went underground at Stratford created the platform on which Westfield Shopping Centre and the Olympic Village was created. Through a competitive bidding process, the then Labour British government chose a proposal by Lend Lease Project Management & Construction which covered financing and construction of both the Olympic Village and part of the London Olympics Media Centre. This would both provide accommodation for 22,500 athletes and team officials, 16,000 as Olympic and 6,500 as Paralympic built to Life Time Home standards to support the Paralympic residents and future residents with impairments or other physical challenges:afterwards provide a mix of low cost and private residential housing, within a community that would comprise offices, shops, schools and a health centre. Cilantro Engineering were appointed to work as part of a collaborative team to deliver Design and Build MEP Installations for LendLease. Lend Lease engaged a team of: architects Fletcher Priest; structural engineers Arup; and urban planning/landscape architecture firm West 8 and Vogt Landscape. They were briefed to design a village-garden type district to fit in with the wider urban park vision of the Olympic Park legacy, emulating the classical Victorian architecture layout of Maida Vale and other parts of Victorian west London. On a 27 hectares (67 acres) site, the plan provided for 14 residential plots, each made up of 5 to 7 blocks, built around communal squares and courtyards, with water features accentuating the closeness of the River Lea. Each of the 69 blocks is of between 8 and 12 storeys high, nominally laid out: Street level of mostly three-storey townhouses, with front doors on street level to create an “active frontage”. These are supplemented by a mix of single to three-storey shops and offices. Floor 3 and above in the centre of the complex are communal raised gardens, which hide carparks beneath. At and above this level are a mix of low cost and private residential apartments, ranging from studio to five bedroom. Each apartment provides generous floor spacing, and each includes its own balcony that is big enough for a table and chairs. The whole Olympic Park site was proposed to be secured under a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) by the London Development Agency. In late 2005, a row broke out between then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and Newham Council/Westfield Group over the use of the legal instrument. The site for the Olympic Village was to be located next to the £4Bn development of Stratford City, but access difficulties meant that the Olympic Park CPO extended onto the site for Stratford City. In November 2005, an agreement was made whereby the CPO over the Westfield site was removed, subject to agreed access provisions to the Olympic Village. In light of the 2008 financial crisis, Lend Lease found difficulties in raising funds on the commercial markets for the construction of the village, the single largest project in the 2012 Summer Olympics scheme. The government via the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) hence agreed to underwrite a greater part of the required sum, and a scale-back of the project scale by 25%, on the proviso that athletes competing in non-London based events would be housed locally to their competition, that three of the plots would be deferred until the post-Games period, plots 5,6 & 8. This did not solve the challenge of providing Games time bed numbers. A Games design plan was created which introduced temporary walls within the legacy design so create more bed spaces: thus a 2-bed space, single bedroom apartment became 4; a four-bed apartment, 2 bedrooms became 6 and six bed apartment became 8 mainly by dividing the open plan lounge, dining and kitchen areas. Everything was retrofitted back to the original concept after the Games. Only the town houses over three levels were not subject to this Games time modification but still increased bed spaces from legacy 6 to 8 by use of the separate lounge. Following the athletes’ experiences in Beijing 2008, and in particular through comments concerning athletes’ welfare by International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, this compromise was to be reconsidered whilst pressure built for the finance deal to be resolved. Up until this point, the proposed site had been a mix of former industrial buildings and contaminated waste land. The proposed site for the village provided two living camp sites for Irish Travellers, one on Clays Lane, Newham, and a second on Waterden Crescent, Hackney. The final part of the Olympic CPO covering the village site, secured in December 2006, was unsuccessfully challenged by the travellers in the High Court in May 2007. Towards the end of demolition/site clearance, on 12 November 2007 a fire broke out in an old industrial warehouse on Waterden Road, Hackney Wick, on the western edge of the proposed Olympic village site. With flames of 50 feet (15 m) in height engulfing the building and sending clouds of acrid black smoke over the city centre, it took 75 firefighters from the London Fire Brigade to bring the fire under control.

Olympic and Paralympic village

The first use of the blocks was as the Olympic Village for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The village also included a plaza, where athletes were able to meet with friends and family. The British team stayed in Calla House, Kotata House and Tayberry House.

After the Games

After the Olympics, the Olympic housing was adapted to create a new residential quarter to be known as East Village. The new construction created 2,818 new homes, including 1,379 affordable homes and houses for sale and rent. The wider community is planned with wide vistas filled with gardens, parks and communal areas, within which are to be housed a school, a health clinic and shops.

  

East Village, London map & travel guide with history & landmarks to explore

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Tourist Guide to East Village, London Map

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