Olympic Park bosses highlight Royal links to the site

Luke Jacobs Wednesday, June 13, 2012
11:00 AM

Olympic Park planners will draw on the community spirit shown during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee to map out the site’s post-Games future.

The London Legacy Development Corporation is putting together a programme of events, including concerts and festivals to be held in and around what will be called the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from July 27 next year.

They will kick off in the North Park with a welcoming event for residents and visitors, before a weekend-long cycling festival for London in August.

The Park’s South Plaza will then open in Easter 2014 with a public space hosting events, food and music festivals, concerts, cultural programmes .

Derelict buildings will be brought back into use while the Park is closed for refurbishment.

They include the White Building, a new cultural centre which will open next month in a former print works in Hackney Wick with studio space for artists, a café with canal side seating and a community and event area.

It follows last month’s opening of an independent cinema in Sugar House Studios, Stratford, which has been set up in an abandoned former sign writer’s workshop.

Corporation chief executive Andrew Altman, said: “There will be a mix of different attractions so visitors have new experience every time they visit.”

“The Legacy Corporation has designed a number of sites across the Park which can be used for community events including an ecology themed community hub building and lawn in the North Park to open in 2013.”

In addition to being a Royal namesake the Park is also home to a 19-year-old English white willow planted by the Queen close to the Olympic Stadium when she came to view progress on the Olympic site in November 2009.

It was the first of 4,000 trees to be planted on the Park.