Olympic Legacy

Experience London's ambitious regeneration of 250 hectares of former industrial land into the vibrant Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Discover iconic landmarks like the Aquatics Centre and Velodrome, and see the emerging East Bank cultural quarter.

Hosting an Olympics is an expensive undertaking (staging the 2012 Olympics cost £9.3 Billion!) which is why there is an imperative for Host cities to leave a lasting Legacy for their city and avoid the wasteful underused ‘white elephants’ of the past. 

Creating a Legacy was top of the agenda for London 2012 from the outset. London’s 2005 bid to host the 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games made 5 key promises. Over 10 years on we can evaluate these Legacy ambitions to assess how much progress has been made in the creation of a new chunk of Metropolitan City on the former industrial lands of the Lower Lea Valley in East London, now known as Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Our Olympic Legacy Walking Tour tells the story of a multi-billion regeneration project which is transforming 250 hectares of brown field industrial land in the Lower Lea Valley, covering the various proposals including the Stratford City Metropolitan Plans and Legacy Masterplan Framework proposals to create five new neighbourhoods.

We will look at the planning, design and delivery of this massive new mixed-use district, which has attracted Transport for London, the Financial Conduct Authority, Cancer Research UK, UNICEF, British Council, Loughborough University, BT Sports, UCL and the Bartlett School of Architecture to the area.

Buildings featuring on the Tour include Manhattan Loft Gardens by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), East Village (former Athletes Village), Chobham Manor and Eastwick, the first new housing developments of the five Legacy Neighbourhoods that are planned across the park, Michael Hopkins’ iconic Velodrome, Here East a new tech hub, Lend Lease’s International Quarter, Zaha Hadid Architect’s Aquatics Centre and HOK’s London Stadium.

The Tour will visit 2012 Gardens South Park by New York based James Corner Field Operations and discuss the rapidly emerging East Bank, a new cultural quarter creating a powerhouse for innovation, creativity and learning with buildings by O’Donnell Tuomey and Allies & Morrison for the V&A, Sadler's Wells, BBC, London College of Fashion and UCL.

We will evaluate the success of the 2012 Olympic Legacy project to date while also looking ahead to what the future for the area might hold.

Length of Tour: 2.5 - 3 hours depending on level of interest

Please Note: This tour can be extended by also visiting the nearby Royal Docks and Greenwich Peninsular regeneration zones, or Canary Wharf.