Olympic Legacy Walking Tour - Saturday 4 May 2024 2.30pm
Regular price £19.50Join Open City for a walking tour exploring the 2012 Olympic Legacy — assessing how much progress has been made10 years on in the creation of a new chunk of Metropolitan City on the former industrial lands of the Lower Lea Valley.
This insightful walking tour around the Olympic Park — led by expert guide Nick Edwards — tells the story of the post 2012 landscape and success of Legacy ambition. It will tell the story of the multi-billion regeneration project which has transformed 250 hectares of former industrial land in the Lower Lea Valley, covering the pre-Games, Stratford City metropolitan plans and Legacy masterplan proposals for five new neighbourhoods alongside some ground-breaking community engagement programmes.
Providing a fun way for enthusiastic urbanists to explore the city in our pandemic era, this walking tour is part of a new series responding to the core themes of the Open House festival and wider Open City programme.
The tour will cover the planning, design and delivery of this new large-scale mixed use district which is now home to the Financial Conduct Authority, Transport for London, Cancer Research UK, UNICEF, British Council, Loughborough University, BT Sports and the Bartlett.
Landmark buildings featuring on the tour include Manhattan Loft Gardens by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), East Village (former Athletes Village) with towers by Hawkins Brown and Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, Chobham Manor - the first of the five Legacy Neighbourhoods, Michael Hopkins’ Velodrome, Lend Lease’s International Quarter, Zaha Hadid Architect’s Aquatics Centre, HOK’s London Stadium and Good Growth Hub by Turner Works, a temporary skills and job training centre with glimpses into the fringe neighbourhood of Hackney Wick.
The tour will visit 2012 Gardens South Park by New York based winner James Corner Field Operations and discuss the emerging East Bank - a new powerhouse for innovation, creativity and learning — where you will soon find the V&A, Saddlers Wells, BBC, London College of Fashion and UCL.
This tour will examine the success of the 2012 Legacy project to date while also looking ahead to what the future for the area might hold.
Key information
Meet: Outside the entrance to the Stratford International DLR Station on corner of International Way and Celebration Avenue E20 1DB
End: London Aquatics Centre
Duration: 3 hours approx
Nick Edwards is an architectural educator and change driver with 20 years experience creating innovative participation opportunities which encourage greater understanding of architecture, regeneration, planning, placemaking, active citizenship and sustainability.
Since studying architecture, Nick has spent most of his career working in formal and informal education demystifying built environment processes, changing perceptions and advocating for the role that communities can play in shaping and caring for their neighbourhoods.
Much of Nick’s professional experience has focused on East London and specifically the 2012 Games and its Legacy. This included co-founding Fundamental Architectural Inclusion funded by CABE; establishing the Architecture Crew, Britain’s first youth architecture forum and setting up the Legacy YouthPanel on behalf of the London Legacy Development Corporation to facilitate young people’s response to the Legacy Masterplanning Framework for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and surrounding area and feeding directly into the Legacy Community Strategy; bringing young people to the forefront of influencing and shaping socio economic and community engagement policy at the London Legacy Development Corporation.He joined the Open City team in February 2021.
Tickets are non-refundable and tours go ahead rain or shine.
* Please check for any planned transport engineering works, planned strike action or large scale events that may effect your journey before making your ticket purchase *
If you find you can no longer make the tour for any reason we are unable to transfer you to another date, but please feel free to pass your booked place onto a friend to go and enjoy the tour in your place.
In the event your tour date is cancelled you will be issued with a credit note (with no expiry date) that you can use to
- book onto a rescheduled date
- book onto any other tour from our programme
or you can request a refund.
All ticket purchases are in support of the work of our organisation including our pioneering education programmes. We really appreciate your support!
Get in touch with Adrianna at tours@open-city.org.uk with any queries.
Please select solidarity pricing to help Open City offer the concessionary tickets rate for student and jobseekers.
Our concession pricing (£9.50 for walking tours / £19.50 for boat tours) is available for students and jobseekers only.
If you find you can no longer make the tour for Covid or any reason we are unable to transfer you to another date, but please feel free to pass your booked place onto a friend to go in your place.
In the event your tour date is cancelled due to Covid or any other reason you will be provided with the opportunity to book onto a rescheduled date, book onto another tour, provided with a credit note (with no expiry date) or you can request a refund.
All ticket purchases are in support of the work of our organisation including our pioneering education programmes. We really appreciate your support!
Get in touch with Adrianna at tours@open-city.org.uk with any queries.
