ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the development ambitions for East London which lay behind the London 2012 bid and evaluates how far the ambitions be realised. Stratford as a comprehensive location for the Games emerged as the plan to use the new Wembley Stadium for Olympic athletics evaporated for technical and cost reasons. This introduced the possibility that the money and muscle unique to an Olympic project could be deployed to address the hitherto intractable territory beyond Stratford City. The emphasis of the East London legacy focuses on the growing success of the immediate built legacy of the park. The Lea Valley hosts the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and is one of the most exciting and challenging urban regeneration opportunities in Britain, with the potential to accommodate up to 40,000 new homes and provide 50,000 new jobs. Olympicopolis was the term used by Mayor Boris Johnson to describe a development strategy which creates a new cultural zone for the city.
