please empty your brain below

DG wasn't the only one at the View Tube and Greenway yesterday. I and a friend were too and we went one better by previously taking in one of the free one hour guided bus tours the LLDC are running every weekend inside the park (and I'm back to take some more friends on one again today).

We had a friendly ex-trailblazer ex-Games Maker guiding us on the bus whose rather haphazard commentary was made up for with enthusiasm and joie de vivre. I was sad to see how much of a mess the park looks at the moment, almost as if they're starting again with many parts of it but I suppose that's inevitable given the nature of what they're doing and the stage it's at. The middle section of River Lea with the reed beds, and the Stadium and Velodrome, still look great though, and the potential is amazing. We got a very nice map too.

I second the interest of the photo exhibition in the View Tube. The cafe got quite busy too thanks to a guided walk calling in there about 3pm and we enjoyed a great garlic mushroom ciabatta.
The restitution of Leyton Marsh has also been a failure, with water logging and flooding.

Here's a campaign blog about it with all the gory details.

http://saveleytonmarsh.wordpress.com/
Didn't they announce last week that the Orbit is re-opening from March and not next year as you state,

http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/ arcelormittal_orbit_to_open_to_public_in_march_1_1805685
I read in the book about the architecture of London 2012 that the intention after the games was to redo and narrow a lot of the very large bridges in the centre of the park (such as World Square as was) as they will never deal again with so large crowds. So there will be more landscaped gardens to replace them.
I would imagine that the cold weather might be reducing the number of visitors to the View Tube.
Perhaps the orbit has to be lit up like that to help low-flying helicopters and planes?
Restoration of grass presumably can't happen until it gets warm enough for grass to grow...
The reason Greenwich Park looks a bit damp and muddy is because, in case you didn't notice, we had some snow last weekend and a lot of us had a fantastic time sledging down the hill. And yes, that probably did do a bit of damage to the turf - it is definitely what turned the hill a bit muddy. But why let such facts get in the way of a good old London 2012 Olympics bashing. My hope was that fantastic people inspired celebration would stop all this pointless, ill-informed English moaning. Sadly DG you didn't learn anything from last summer.
The hills in Greenwich Park looked fine, it's the flat bit at the bottom that's a grass-free mess.

And my apologies for the lack of ill-informed Greenwich-based moaning on this blog last summer.
Just short of two months since the re-opening of the Greenway, and the lights are STILL out between the western branch of the river Lea (at the Tower Hamlets/Newham border) and Pudding Mill Lane. I've emailed LLDC several times but I think they're ignoring my emails now. I was even told it had been fixed on 7th Jan!
Another Greenway observation!

If you go from the Greenway just before the ViewTube towards Pudding Mill Lane you will see they've put in several prominent "No Cycling" signs. At least two signs have been taken down now (at the top and bottom of the slope down from the Greenway). The rest are still in place.

In December the security staff at the zebra crossing at Marshgate Lane appeared to be putting a zero tolerance approach - stopping cyclists, informing them of the no cycling regulations etc. Now they seem to have given up and are just waving cyclists through.
Poster: "The reason Greenwich Park looks a bit damp and muddy is because...." No one has been sledging on this bit of Greenwich Park. So get your facts right.

There's been ample time to re-seed/turf the park - it shouldn't look like this still, despite the weather.

As predicted but NOGOE and others, once the Games ended, the organisers buggered off and left a mess - and they don't give a stuff.
DG. Presumably you've seen that they have started to sell tickets for 'The Park In Progress Tour' so you can see the changes at close quarter.
Brian
Tours here: http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/event/28528507-park-in-progress-tour

Post updated, thanks Brian.










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