ABSTRACT
Hosting a mega-event, particularly the Olympic and Paralympic Games, compels a city to embrace rapid transformation, especially in the areas in which the event is located. In the case of London 2012, the city’s east side was the chosen location for the Olympic Park. The area was no stranger to urban change. In the last half of the 20th century, it experienced the dislocation of deindustrialisation and the creation of the city’s new financial and commercial centre in London Docklands. The new flows of financial capital were paralleled by the inward migration of human capital, creating an area of considerable social and cultural diversity in which wealth and relative poverty rested uneasily side by side. For the bid organisers, addressing the needs of the resident population was central to the public investment committed to putting on the event. The bid adopted a narrative that presented hosting the world’s major sporting festival as a means to achieving a lasting legacy – the social transformation of East London.
