London 2012 and the Post-Olympics City

London 2012 and the

Post-Olympics City

Phil Cohen • Paul Watt

Editors

London 2012

and the

Post-Olympics City

A Hollow Legacy?

Editors

Phil Cohen

Centre for East London Studies

University of East London

London, E 16 United Kingdom

Paul Watt

Geography, Environment and Development

Birkbeck, University of London

London, United Kingdom

ISBN 978-1-137-48946-3 ISBN 978-1-137-48947-0 (eBook)

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-48947-0

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017947827

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our contributors for the quality of their

engagement with the project and their patience in answering our editor￾ial queries. At Palgrave Macmillan, Dominic Walker commissioned the

book and Stephanie Carey saw it through to publication. Thanks to

Joana Barros (Department of GEDS, Birkbeck) for providing Fig. 1.2,

and to the Building Exploratory for providing Fig. II.1. Thanks to John

Wallett for preparing the images in Chapter 5 for publication and to

Bernadette O’Shea of Triathlon Homes for allowing us to reproduce the

tenure map of East Village (Fig. 5.3). We are very grateful to the World

Cup and Olympics Popular Committee of Rio de Janeiro for allowing us

to reproduce an extract from their brilliant report in Chapter 14.

v

Contents

1 Introduction: A Hollow Crown – Understanding the

Olympics in Prospect and Retrospect 1

Phil Cohen and Paul Watt

Part I London 2012: The Mega-Event in Context

2 East London’s Post-Olympic Economy 27

Gavin Poynter

3 Hollow Sovereignty and the Hollow Crown? Contested

Governance and the Olympic Security Edifice 53

Pete Fussey and Jon Coaffee

Part II The 2012 Legacy Story: Views from East London

4 Legacy for Whom? Housing in Post-Olympic East London 91

Paul Watt and Penny Bernstock

5 A Place Beyond Belief: Hysterical Materialism and the

Making of East 20 139

Phil Cohen

vii

6 ‘The Best New Place to Live’? Visual Research with

Residents in East Village and E20 179

Debbie Humphry

7 Expert Knowledge and Community Participation in

Urban Planning: the Case of Post-Olympic Hackney Wick 205

Isaac Marrero-Guillamón

8 Contesting Community on London 2012’s Olympic

Fringe 233

Francesca Weber-Newth

9 West Ham United in the Olympic Stadium: A Gramscian

Analysis of the Rocky Road to Stratford 259

Jack Fawbert

10 Youth Transitions and Legacies in an East London

Olympic Host Borough 287

Anthony Gunter

Part III Sporting Chances? The Social and Health Legacies of

2012

11 Are the Olympics Good for Your Health? Physical

Activity, Sports Participation and Health Before, During

and After London 2012 313

Mike Weed

12 Observing Legacy: Ethnographic Moments in and Around

the London 2012 Paralympic Games 339

P. David Howe and Shane Kerr

13 Social Legacies of Olympic and Paralympic Games in East

London 357

Ian Brittain and Leonardo Jose

Mataruna-Dos-Santos

viii Contents

Part IV From London 2012 to Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020

14 The Rio Dossier: The Exclusion Games 385

Phil Cohen and Paul Watt

15 From London 2012 to Tokyo 2020: Urban Spectacle,

Nation Branding and Socio-Spatial Targeting in the

Olympic City 407

Grace Gonzalez Basurto

16 Conclusion: New Directions in Olympic Legacy Research 445

Phil Cohen and Paul Watt

Index 455

Contents ix

List of Abbreviations

ABI Area Based Initiative

BAME Black and Minority Ethnic

BTL Buy-to-Let

DCLG Department for Communities and Local Government

DCMS Department for Culture, Media and Sport

GLA Greater London Authority

GLL Get Living London

IOC International Olympic Committee

IPC International Paralympic Committee

JSC Japan Sports Council

LBH London Borough of Hackney

LBN London Borough of Newham

LBTH London Borough of Tower Hamlets

LBWF London Borough of Waltham Forest

LDA London Development Agency

LDDC London Docklands Development Corporation

LHA Local Housing Allowance

LLDC London Legacy Development Corporation

LOCOG London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic

Games

NEET Not in Education, Employment, or Training

ODA Olympic Delivery Authority

ONS Office for National Statistics

OPLC Olympic Park Legacy Company

xi

QDD Qatari Diar and Delancey

QEOP Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

PRS Private rented sector

SRH Social rental housing

TMG Tokyo Metropolitan Government

UEL University of East London

UKTI United Kingdom Trade and Investment

WHU West Ham United

xii List of Abbreviations

List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 A hollow crown? 2

Fig. 1.2 Map of 2012 London Olympics Host Boroughs 11

Fig. 3.1 Activism and the corporate image of Olympic

security. Photo: Pete Fussey 59

Fig. 3.2 The ‘Shoal’: public sculpture designed to con￾ceal Stratford’s municipal architecture. Photo:

Pete Fussey 64

Fig. 3.3 Potemkin Façades in Leyton: pastel colours as

a signifier of regeneration. Photo: Pete Fussey 65

Fig. 4.1 New and Old Stratford – Stratford Plaza tower

and Dennison Point, Carpenters’ Estate, August

2014 96

Fig. 4.2 New homes advertisement, Queen Elizabeth

Olympic Park, August 2014 103

Fig. 4.3 Percentage of additional affordable and social rent

dwellings in London provided by Host Boroughs,

2009–15 109

Fig. 4.4 Households in temporary accommodation, and

accepted as homeless and in priority need in Host

Boroughs, 2009–15 114

Fig. 4.5 Households in temporary accommodation located

within and outside local authority, Host

Boroughs, July–September 2015, N. 123

xiii

Fig. 4.6 Welwyn Garden City – studio flat for two adults

and two children (kitchen and washing in back￾ground), June 2015 125

Fig. 4.7 Visitor’s written testimony at the Focus E15 stall,

Stratford Broadway, August 2014 129

Fig. 5.1 Newham poster celebrating winning the 2012 bid 140

Fig. 5.2 Installation East Village 147

Fig. 5.3 East Village tenures 158

Fig. 6.1 East Village E20 180

Fig. 6.2 Get Living London sign ‘Winner Best New Place

to Live London Planning Awards 2014’, in East

Village apartments’ foyer window 181

Fig. 6.3 The sparsely populated E20 landscape 184

Fig. 6.4 Police on bikes outside Sainsbury’s in East Village 186

Fig. 6.5 Landscape gardeners at work in the Get Living

London forecourt 187

Fig. 6.6 Jet washers cleaning the pavement outside the Sir

Ludwig Guttman Health and Wellbeing Centre

on its launch day 188

Fig. 6.7 A tour group head towards the Olympic rings in

QEOP 189

Fig. 6.8 Workers near Pudding Mill Lane station, one of

the five new planned neighbourhood develop￾ments in E20 190

Fig. 6.9 Professionals and a patient in the Sir Ludwig

Guttman Health and Wellbeing Centre in East

Village 191

Fig. 6.10 Couple on the Velopark bike track, in front of

Chobham Manor residential development hoard￾ings, with East Village in the background 192

Fig. 6.11 Resident in shared ownership flat in East Village 194

Fig. 6.12 Resident in social rented flat in East Village 194

Fig. 6.13 Residents in East Village play area 195

Fig. 6.14 East Village Family in Wetlands, QEOP, E20 196

Fig. 6.15 Family in a penthouse flat in East Village 197

Fig. 6.16 Disabled resident crossing the bridge from East

Village to QEOP 198

xiv List of Figures

Fig. 6.17 Resident unable to open a door in her block of

flats, East Village 199

Fig. 6.18 Intermediate tenant in her flat 200

Fig. 6.19 Two young men looking into the Neighbourhood

Pub, East Village 201

Fig. 7.1 General view of Hackney Wick from the

Overground Station, 2014 209

Fig. 7.2 Initial proposal for Neptune Wharf (detail) 211

Fig. 7.3 Richard Brown’s Affordable Wick cabin in cam￾paign mode, 2013 213

Fig. 7.4 The LLDC’s Draft Local Plan and supporting

evidence, as seen at the public hearing 223

Fig. 7.5 Policy B.4: Providing low-cost and managed

workspace 224

Fig. 8.1 A community-oriented legacy as London 2012

authorities imagine it: Lea Navigation canal with

the White Building on the left, July 2013 234

Fig. 8.2 View over Hackney Wick Fish Island with

Olympic stadium and ArcelorMittal Orbit sculp￾ture visible in the background, March 2012. The

letters HW stand for ‘Hackney Wick’ 237

Fig. 8.3 The Eton Mission Rowing Clubhouse next to the

‘legacy’ bridge, during the construction of the

wheelchair accessible lift, February 2014 247

Fig. 9.1 Outside the main ‘John Lyall gates’ at the Boleyn

Ground 268

Fig. 9.2 The ‘Legends’ statue opposite the Boleyn public

house 269

Fig. 9.3 The last season at the Boleyn Ground; the view

from the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand Lower Tier 276

Fig. 9.4 The ‘Party’s Over’ 277

Fig. 14.1 Rio and the Olympics 389

Fig. 14.2 Rio’s favelas 391

Figs. 15.1–15.4 (clockwise): Yoyogi National Stadium 2nd

Gymnasium, Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium,

Budokan, and Yoyogi National Stadium 1st

Gymnasium 419

Fig. 15.5 New National Stadium site, 22 May 2015 422

List of Figures xv

Fig. 15.6 Jingu Gaien District 426

Fig. 15.7 Toei Kasumigaoka Housing Complex 427

Figs. 15.8–15.9 (L–R) Enclosure of Toei Kasumigaoka Buildings 429

Figs. 15.10–15.11 (L–R) Rough sleepers and their belongings

around the premises of the New National

Stadium 432

Figs. 15.12–15.13 (L–R) Enclosure of the Meiji Park 433

xvi List of Figures

List of Tables

Table 1.1 Total median annual household income estimates for

Host Boroughs, Kensington and Chelsea, London and

UK, 2005–06 – 2012–13 12

Table 2.1 Distribution of household income levels for Tower

Hamlets and London, 2013 (%) 43

Table 2.2 Employment rates for Growth Boroughs, London and

England (12 months to December 2013) 44

Table 2.3 House price growth 2005–2014, selected Host Boroughs

(%) 45

Table 4.1 Mean private rents (all properties, 12 month rolling

average), £ per month, Host Boroughs and London,

2012–15 97

Table 4.2 Weekly rents for Get Living London properties at East

Village, 2013–15 98

Table 4.3 Additional affordable and social rent dwellings provided

by local authority area, Host Boroughs and London,

2009–15 106

Table 4.4 Temporary accommodation in Host Boroughs and

London, 2012–15 115

Table 4.5 Households accepted as homeless and in priority need in

Host Boroughs and London, 2012–15 116

Table 4.6 Possession claims issued by landlords in Host Boroughs

and London, 2012–15 117

xvii