please empty your brain below
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I'd be amazed if many of the people who move there are going to be people who grew up in London. Doesn't make sense to me to move in to a completely new neighbourhood where I don't know anyone and there's no history to speak of, no emotional ties to the place.
Karen | 02.09.13 - 7:03 a.m. | #
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It looks from your photograph that bicyclists can also cross the single file bridge across the rail tracks.
Unlike Karen I like to live in a brand new estate/area. I did so when I last moved from one part of London to a new development of houses and apartments in west London which was built over an old pig farm and gravel pits. They also built on an old industrial site, a multiplex cinema, bowling alley and bingo hall, and a new shopping centre after demolishing the old one, all of which are still doing good business. The train station also got refurbished.
New house is very low maintenance and running costs, what is sad is to see over 15 years is the estate deteriorate. The once show houses where fountains played now have cars parked in their paved over gardens. Litter, weeds, wear and tear on the roads. Some vandal damage. Houses bought by buy to let landlords and rented to tenants who do not care for the property. As most residents/tenants seem to move on within five years there are not many like me who remember "how it was".
No doubt East Village will in time suffer the same.
Thanks dg for showing it in its pristine brand new condition.
I also remember the East Village site as it once was as in 1984 I lived for a year not far away in Forest Gate.
John | 02.09.13 - 8:26 a.m. | #
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DG, i always love your posts on the Olympic Park and the changing landscape of it post Olympics, but it's so hard to visualise where some of these things are without a map. I always end up going to Google/Streetmap trying to so "i think it's this bit he's talking about... isn't it?". A map would be so good. #justsayin
geofftech | Homepage | 02.09.13 - 8:31 a.m. | #
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Those granite blocks could be damaged by vandals. Paint from spray cans, chipping at the corners and if they are not really well secured to the ground rocked loose and moved.
There were two concrete entrance pillars to the new estate I moved to and after a few years vandals managed to topple them. As the developers have long moved on and the council did not erect them, and has no interest in putting them back, they still lay on the ground hidden by some bushes
If only they could use their energy to do some good.
John | 02.09.13 - 9:26 a.m. | #
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Fascinating post, DG.
I hope this place will end up as much nicer than the last major "planned neighbourhood" in London, Thamesmead. Indeed, I can't see that it won't fail to do so (as at least it isn't entirely isolated and remote).
But still....we'll see...
Dominic H | 02.09.13 - 10:30 a.m. | #
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Geoff - if you go to the Flickr gallery there should be a 'Map' option on the tabs above the photos.
diamond geezer | 02.09.13 - 10:30 a.m. | #
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Pity concrete buildings always seem to come in grey. Specially when you can get the stuff in all sorts of shades. Now if they'd built the Village in a Bath Stone sort of colour . . .
Bronchitikat | 02.09.13 - 10:51 a.m. | #
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Unlike other estates, I don;t think this will suffer from poor maintenance, or disaffected tenants. The company that bought it plans to keep it as an investment and rent it out to the private sector on leases of one to three years. It's all part of the growing investment in homes for rent built by large companies rather than buy to let individuals.
The only houses for sale are shared ownership in the blocks owned by the social housing landlord.
It's similar to how several new developments are going in the area. I believe the new IKEA neighbourhood will be entirely private rental.
Rational Plan | 02.09.13 - 11:21 a.m. | #
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I'm really enjoying this series on the Olympic area - thank you so much for writing about it.
Kerry | Homepage | 02.09.13 - 11:48 a.m. | #
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Temple Mill(s) Lane - only part of it has reopened. The section south of the A12 and west of the railway was stopped up (not just closed) and is on a new alignment.
xmb53 | 02.09.13 - 1:05 p.m. | #
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What you refer to as being a cycle lane is nothing of the sort - it's some white paint applied to the road surface!
The entire Olympic Park is clearly built for motoring only - behold the dual carriageway ripping through the centre of the park and the unsegregated cycle lanes alongside it (which are punctuated every so often by bollards and road signs).
Give it 10 years and the park will be as traffic choked as the rest of London. It's a shame to see that Legacy means nothing more the status quo.
Adam | 02.09.13 - 1:56 p.m. | #
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Was it just me, or did anyone else misread one of those building names as that of a 1990s indie band from Dublin?
Stephen Bird | 02.09.13 - 5:06 p.m. | #
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isn't the architecture depressing? looks like it's all grey concrete blocks...
on cycle lanes... shame we can't managed ramp-separated lanes in a new development. I can see that in many of London's older streets it's a challenge due to roads and pavements that are narrow enough already. But in a new development surely this should be the default?
jm | 02.09.13 - 9:13 p.m. | #
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Completely agree. The lack of segregated cycle lanes in this vast new development is shocking. I imagine there will be a lot of pressure on the Mayor to include better cycling provision in the next stages. I'm surprised given the focus on cycling today it hasn't been picked up on. A brand new suburb should be a benchmark for modern living. I can't imagine Ørestads in Copenhagen getting the go ahead without cycling provision.
| 02.09.13 - 10:53 p.m. | #
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There are segregated cycle lanes in other parts of E20, but if anything they're worse...
http://hackneycyclist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/cycling-in-olympic-park.html
diamond geezer | Homepage | 02.09.13 - 11:41 p.m. | #
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So you are saying there is no underground garage whatsoever?
Greg | 03.09.13 - 8:31 a.m. | #
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So what "dual carriageway" is that exactly? There is a road through the park which has 2 traffic lanes, 2 lanes for mixed use, such as bus stops and cycle/pedestrian facilities generally segregated. And designed for a 20mph speed limit, despite Westfield's protests.
xmb53 | 03.09.13 - 12:40 p.m. | #
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Give it 5 years and the place will be a slum. As someone else said private landlords will buy up a lot of the flats and rent out to undesirables and people who won't give a hoot for the place. Anti-social behaviour and drug trading will be rife.
I thought we learnt our lesson building high rise in the 60s and they said no more. Short memories, should have built houses with gardens, but no, they stupidly built it for a few athletes for 2 weeks - totally ridiculous - the real reason was to make money for the developers.
Agent Z | 04.09.13 - 9:01 a.m. | #
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