2022 marks ten years since London hosted the Olympics, so it's about time I brought you an Update On Things That Have Recently Changed In The Olympic Park. Here are ten things that aren't what I told you they were last time.
••••• This is how the East Bank is shaping up, the new cultural quarter slotting in between Westfield and the Park. The building on the left is V&A East, a new museum space. Its skeleton is complete and some of the armadillo-like cladding has been added, but it's not due to open until 2025. The second building is the UAL London College of Fashion. It's the tallest of the four, the most substantially complete and due to open in autumn 2023. The third building is the new BBC Music studios, essentially a stack of floors at present. Auntie won't be moving in before 2025. The fourth and final building is Sadler's Wells East, a jaunty theatre/academy combo. It's hard to see from this viewpoint, sorry, and not much more advanced than the BBC, but still pencilled in to premiere at the end of 2023.
••••• I haven't seen a kingfisher in the Olympic Park in the last nine months, although I saw one fifteen times in the six months before that, so either I'm getting unobservant or they've gone.
••••• Last February a planning application was submitted to add 50m of fence to the edge of Stadium Island so that West Ham could shut out members of the public on matchdays. That fence has now appeared, along with one lockable gate on the towpath and another at the foot of the steps. This simple act allows the footpath alongside the Old River Lea to remain open at all times, even when claret and blue hordes are marauding up top. It's also ended the need for monthly closure dates to be pinned to surrounding bridges, reducing clutter and faff, so a bit of a win all round.
••••• Last September I told you the story of the Pudding Mill Allotments and disappearing daylight. Plotholders were concerned that a new development of 600 new homes immediately to the south would block out sunlight for most of the day and significantly impair conditions for growth. They were particularly annoyed because the developers had been told to slope their buildings away from the allotments but instead submitted a plan with four towers against the northern perimeter. It's fine, said the developers, almost all of your site will still get more than 2 hours direct sunlight on 21st March and that's the legally accepted threshold. It's not fine, said the plotholders, two-thirds of our site will get less than 8 hours direct sunlight on 21st March and that'll wreck our vegetables.
Last week the developers resubmitted their planning application with an additional 45 page document packed with considerably more information on daylight/sunlight/overshadowing. They've recalculated figures based on a more accurate building silhouette and tabulated data for each of the 50 allotment plots in December, March and June. On these maps yellow means 8+ hours of sunlight and the two shades of blue mean less than 2 hours.
In June there's no problem because the sun's high in the sky and everyone still gets lots of light. In the key month of March the north remains sunny but the southern end only gets 2-4 hours. In December hardly anywhere gets 2 hours, whereas currently most of the site gets more than 4. The report also calculates the average reduction in light availability season by season... down 49% in winter, down 31% in spring and down 24% in summer. These are reductions from a very high base, given the adjacent land is currently empty, but it's not good news for owners of certain cursed southern plots.
This is a significant intervention and so, unusually, the entire development is subject to another 30 days of public consultation. I hope everyone complains again, until the architects finally do the honest thing and shift the tall towers back where they always should have been.
••••• Last July I reported that Bridge H14 had finally opened, the new road connection between Fish Island and the southern Park. Six months later it has yet to see a single vehicle. Only the bridge and one connecting road were completed, and as yet no attempt has been made to complete the last few metres on the eastern side. This'll require more tarmac and an extra road junction, of which there is currently no sign. Even when the bridge does finally open the only vehicle allowed across will be the 339 bus, whose diversion has been rubberstamped since 2019, but for now it's pedestrians and bikes only.
••••• If you walked round the park during the Olympics, or have done since, you probably spotted a number of circular metalplaques embedded in the paths. They celebrate wildlife, plant life, sustainability and the like, and were designed to live on into legacy. Alas this month a couple of them have disappeared, one on either side of the river. They were most probably stolen, indeed a series of grooves in the tarmac make it look like both plaques were forcibly prized out. Of course it may be that they've been deliberately removed, perhaps for maintenance, but I fear resale greed has struck instead.
••••• Last July I updated you on the state of the five new Olympic residential neighbourhoods. I can now confirm that the first stage of East Wick, south of Here East, is complete. Remaining stages are totally not started. Meanwhile the entirety of Chobham Manor edges closer and closer to full completion, with the last mostly-incomplete block located where the sales office used to be.
••••• Last August I told you about the ridiculously unnecessary cycle lane junction that's been created on Northwall Road. Not only is this road closed to traffic but immediately beyond the junction one of the cycle paths has been blocked by two large concrete blocks. Now 17 more concrete blocks have joined them, scattered further down Northwall Road, additionally blocking vehicles that shouldn't be able to drive down here anyway.
••••• At Hackney Bridge the poncey perfumier Gallivant ("Fragrance for Urban Explorers") has moved out and their cubbyhole is now occupied by CakeCult, a vegan bakery operated by pink-headscarfed staff flogging small expensive sugary treats, and I'm not sure that's an improvement.
••••• Yes, they're still building the Abba Arena. Dozens are, some on the roof, some finishing off the exterior and the majority I hope inside because it's supposed to be opening in four months time.
