Last month, when I ventured up onto the Greenway bridge to take my monthly photo of the Olympic Stadium, I was disturbed to discover that major footpath 'upgrade' work was underway. Vegetation was being stripped back to make way for tarmac, a series of bus shelters had been installed, and temporary barriers had been erected to seal off the half of the path closest to the stadium. This wasn't entirely unexpected. There have long been plans to spruce up the Greenway prior to the Games, and a resurfaced linear mini-park is on the cards. I was reassured to hear that the bus shelters aren't for vehicles, they're to give the security guards somewhere less exposed to shelter when the weather turns grimmer over the winter. But the barriers worried me, as did the mysterious foundations being laid immediately behind. And I was right to be concerned, because my Olympic viewpoint is a viewpoint no more. Damn, drat, and sigh. [latest photo]
The security fences all around the outer perimeter of the Olympic Park are being upgraded. They used to be blue-painted wood, evidently temporary, but entirely capable of keeping out your average mischief-seeking trespasser. In places the fences were a bit more impressive, covered by logos and photos and uplifting illustrations, plus warning messages for parents to keep their offspring well away from dangerous building sites. But now they're all being replaced by permament metal mesh barriers - several metres tall and with a series of electrified wires strung across the top. Nobody's going to be cutting through this, or vaulting over it, which ensures that construction of the 2012 stadia can continue in secluded security. The new fences are see-through, unlike the previous blue wood, which means that the public now have a far better view of the scale of the Park and what's being built inside. But it's impossible to take a decent photograph through them, because the slats are too close together, and so my Olympic photography project is buggered.
The Greenway bridge used to be edged by some very ordinary low metal railings. There were occasional fenceposts, at about waist height, and I used to rest my camera on one of those. It wouldn't have been difficult to leap over the top, although there was a nasty drop on the other side which would have deterred all but the beserkest nutter. More recently there's always been a guard and a snarling dog on the bridge keeping an eye on things, and anyone attempting to enter the park over this sewertop perimeter wouldn't have got far. But apparently even that level of security's not good enough in this risk-paranoid age, so the extra-tall metal fence has been installed as well. It's about four metres away from the edge of the bridge, on both sides, narrowing the walkway through the middle and creating an inaccessible quarantine zone where once I used to stand. But no longer. Dammit.
Having said all that, I have to warn 2012 bosses that their security is still rubbish. When I popped up onto the Greenway bridge yesterday there was no guard or guard dog to greet me, just a solitary security bloke ambling slowly northwards with his back to me. Normally I get at least a querulous look from a man in a yellow vest whenever I start taking photos, but not this time. He missed me taking photos of the fence, he missed me taking obstructed photos of the stadium and he missed me taking photos of his back. Five minutes later he was still shuffling slowly forwards, oblivious to my existence, and mumbling something into a walkie talkie or mobile phone. I could (easily) have slipped through the temporary barrier and then through the gap in the megafence, where one remaining segment has yet to be installed. I could then have dashed along to my favourite viewpoint, no problem, and taken one last photo for posterity before sneaking back onto the path all nonchalant and innocent.
Or else I could have abseiled over the edge of the bridge, run across to the edge of the stadium worksite and detonated the dirty bomb concealed in my rucksack, had I been an evil terrorist intent on blighting the Olympic site with Games-cancelling radioactivity. Because no matter what security precautions are introduced there'll always be some way around them, and taking advantage of human error will always be top of the list. But, alas, there'll be no getting around this bloody annoying Outer Perimeter Security Fence for the next three years, so my monthly stadium photo project is officially terminated. It's fortunate that almost all of the transformation and arena-building has already taken place, and I did at least capture that for posterity. Anybody seeking a view over the fence now needs to seek permission to go up the ODA's new yellow 'Viewtube' observation tower, so it's official photos only from the Greenway from now on. And not from me. I should be amazed that the view lasted as long as it did, but instead I'm disappointed by the continued rise of Fortress 2012.
Olympic update
The security fences all around the outer perimeter of the Olympic Park are being upgraded. They used to be blue-painted wood, evidently temporary, but entirely capable of keeping out your average mischief-seeking trespasser. In places the fences were a bit more impressive, covered by logos and photos and uplifting illustrations, plus warning messages for parents to keep their offspring well away from dangerous building sites. But now they're all being replaced by permament metal mesh barriers - several metres tall and with a series of electrified wires strung across the top. Nobody's going to be cutting through this, or vaulting over it, which ensures that construction of the 2012 stadia can continue in secluded security. The new fences are see-through, unlike the previous blue wood, which means that the public now have a far better view of the scale of the Park and what's being built inside. But it's impossible to take a decent photograph through them, because the slats are too close together, and so my Olympic photography project is buggered.
Having said all that, I have to warn 2012 bosses that their security is still rubbish. When I popped up onto the Greenway bridge yesterday there was no guard or guard dog to greet me, just a solitary security bloke ambling slowly northwards with his back to me. Normally I get at least a querulous look from a man in a yellow vest whenever I start taking photos, but not this time. He missed me taking photos of the fence, he missed me taking obstructed photos of the stadium and he missed me taking photos of his back. Five minutes later he was still shuffling slowly forwards, oblivious to my existence, and mumbling something into a walkie talkie or mobile phone. I could (easily) have slipped through the temporary barrier and then through the gap in the megafence, where one remaining segment has yet to be installed. I could then have dashed along to my favourite viewpoint, no problem, and taken one last photo for posterity before sneaking back onto the path all nonchalant and innocent.
