Tag: London Olympics

Open House London Walking Tour: September 22

Beyond the Olympic Park – the Lower Lea Valley from Hackney Wick to Leamouth

I’ve teamed up with Ralph Ward, a former regeneration advisory for the Olympics and Thames Gateway, to organize a walking tour of the Lea Valley on September 22 during the Open House London weekend. Between my study of the environmental and social history of the Lower Lea Valley and West Ham through to the early twentieth century and Ralph’s wealth of knowledge derived from working in the region during its recent transformation, we’ll provide a broad overview of the the Lower Lea’s history. If you read my recent post on the history of the region, you’ll see that I believe the history needs to be taken into account as a part of the Olympic legacy.

Olympic site begins to take shape, but the Lea remains polluted


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/30/stratford-london-2012-olympics

The Guardian published another article on the Olympic transformation taking place in West Ham.  Anna Kessel is impressed by the changes in the landscape and she looks forward to the time when the Lea is transformed into a more pleasant river.  Interestingly enough, she is not the first person to bemoan the condition of the Lower Lea and its back rivers that flow through the 2012 Olympic site.  In 1844, decades before the height of the industrial boom in West Ham, James Thorne, in his book Rambles by Rivers, talks about the Lower Lea and its degraded industrial condition:

But by this time our river has ceased to be either picturesque or interesting: lime-kilns, calico-printing, and distilleries are the most prominent objects along its banks; and however useful these may be, they are not agreeable to either nose or eye.