The London 2012 Olympic Park will become a new ‘great park’ helping to transform east London after the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, in legacy plans unveiled by the Olympic Delivery Authority.
Work is already underway to create around 250 acres of parklands, on former industrial land, that will provide a colourful and festival atmosphere for London 2012 and afterwards become the largest new urban park in the UK for over 100 years.
Alongside permanent parklands with over 4,000 trees, the legacy transformation plans, which have developed with the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) and recently submitted for approval, include temporary wildflower meadows on plots awaiting development and temporary avenues of trees and hedges along future development areas to create a welcoming entrance to the Park.
Other highlights from the new plans, inspired by Britain’s lead role in creating the world’s first public parks, include:
• ‘Hanging gardens’ thirty foot above ground on the huge footbridge from Stratford City with meadows, lawns, shrubs and rows of trees welcoming people over the main walking entrance into the Park.
• A tree-lined ‘park road’ into the north of the Park modeled on The Mall and Birdcage Walk next to St James’ and Hyde Park, with distinctively designed surfacing, lighting and bollards and traffic management so visitors feel like they are in the park.
• A new regional sports club set in parklands with a tranquil garden square centred on the original Eton Manor Boys Club war memorial and lined with Sweet Gum trees which turn red around Remembrance Day.
• 4,000 semi-mature trees, 300,000 wetlands plants and hundreds of thousands of plants and bulbs in varied parklands including wooded hills, meadows, ponds, lawns, gardens and wet woodlands.
LOCOG Chairman Sebastian Coe told The Landscaper “With a little over two years to go until the Olympic and Paralympic Games come to London, the further regeneration of east London continues apace and our vision of a new urban parkland is developing before our eyes. After the Games have gone, an incredible legacy will be left – not least a family-friendly park with state of the art sporting facilities transforming this area for London, creating and serving new communities for generations to come.”
www.london2012.com.
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Four companies are currently competing to supply the 60,000 plants and 60,000 bulbs for the 2012 Gardens