All the world’s a stage...In four and a half years the world’s biggest stage will be in London’s East End at Stratford when it hosts the 2012 Games. Tonight’s stage was also in Stratford, but in the less obvious location of the concourse of Stratford Station.
Right amongst the tube lines, the overgound trains and the Docklands Light Railway – with waves of commuters weaving their way home, ant-like - a most remarkable piece of live drama takes place.
A couple of hundred of us are perched on a generous balcony overlooking the modern concourse and we’re wired for sound with a...
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It’s hugely exciting to be joining the Culture, Ceremonies and Education Team at London 2012. The team will play a key role in making the whole Olympiad a celebration of London’s rich diversity, and I’m thrilled to be a part of that.
I’ve spent over 5 years as Chief Executive of Shape, the UK’s leading disability arts organisation. So I know just how important it is that all sections of our society gain access and play an active role in our culture. The cultural programme is our opportunity to send out a very clear message that the Games belong to everyone.
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On Sunday the Amercian NFL brought their first ever league match outside the United States to London - a clash between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants at the new Wembley Stadium. I was lucky enough to attend the game with London 2012 colleagues, not only to enjoy the US-style party but also to think about lessons for 2012 - Wembley is, of course, a Football venue for the Games.
I’m not sure all the US-style trimmings will make it to 2012 but there were certainly great lessons for our Venues and Sports teams. It was interesting for...
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I recently caught up with Tim Cagney, Head of UK Partnerships at the UK Film Council to ask him a few questions about Film and Video Nation…
What is your opinion of film making in the UK and why is it important that it features in the Cultural Olympiad?
Film can inspire, move, create, entertain, and educate. It reaches out to people of all ages, from all backgrounds and all cultures. It brings people together, creates understanding, transcends cultural boundaries. Film has universal appeal and it can tell personal stories.
Since film began, the UK has had a history of producing a...
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The annual awards season has started. On Saturday I attended the British Athletics Writers’ Association (BAWA) awards dinner where journalists who have spent all year following and reporting on athletics recognised their 'Athletes of the Year' and celebrated their achievements. This year there was a lot to celebrate.
Back in March, Birmingham hosted a very successful European Indoor Championships where Great Britain topped the medal table. It’s a great example of how well we Brits can stage major sporting events and the huge positive effect of a home crowd.
The awards for 'Junior Athletes of the Year' suggest the future of British sprinting...
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I should warn you from the outset that writing a blog during my time here at London 2012 will only exacerbate my Carrie Bradshaw fantasies. Even now you find me typing cross legged on my bed wearing, well, let's call just call it a creation, gazing through the window upon, not Manhattan but London's glamorous Herne Hill. However, I will endeavour to leave the similarities at that and suppress further Carrieisms - but no promises.
So, to Manor House with the best friend and the Castle Climbing Centre. First of all it really is a castle, albeit a faux one that...
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I was invited to present a paper at the 14th World Congress on ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) held in Beijing from 9 -13 October.
The ITS Congress is an annual event where transport authorities, system developers, and academics meet to discuss new technology and how it can be best used in the world’s major cities. Last year the congress was held in London and there was a lot of interest in the technologies supporting London’s Congestion Charge and the city’s Urban Traffic Control system (UTC).
This world-class expertise means that Transport for London (TfL) – responsible for the coordination and...
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Providing accessible and reliable transport for some 800,000 spectators on the busiest day of competition during the Games and ensuring that athletes, the stars of the show, get to their event quickly is a huge challenge.
On Tuesday we took a major step towards meeting this challenge and realising our goal of hosting a ‘public transport’ Games by releasing the first formal edition of the Transport Plan for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
To shape this plan, the ODA Transport team, led by director Hugh Sumner, consulted widely on the Consultation Draft it released one year ago – nearly...
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It’s amazing to think that in 2012, people will make the same journey as I did this morning, from the north of England into Kings Cross, and be able to reach the Games in minutes via the Javelin. I was travelling to London to be part of the announcement of the London 2012 Transport Plan. I joined John Armitt, Tessa Jowell, the Mayor and others to launch the plan with stakeholders.
Me at the launch:
The launch took place at 'The Gymnasium' next to St Pancras station. And it has it’s own part in Olympic tradition. Originally the home of the...
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Earlier this month, I attended the fourth annual Disability Capital conference, which focuses on the civil rights of disabled and deaf people living and working in London.
The conference was held at ExCeL, which will be the venue for several Paralympic sports, including Boccia, Paralympic Table Tennis, Paralympic Powerlifting and Wheelchair Basketball.
During the Paralympic Games alone, we need to ensure that transport is available to all venues for up to 160,000 spectators each day. Approximately 15-20 per cent (24,000 – 32,000) of these spectators are expected to have specific access needs.
The ODA Transport team has already engaged with organisations...
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Last Friday we announced the winners of the design for the Central Park Bridge - the main pedestrian footbridge in the Park. The process actually started back in May this year, with interviews with the shortlisted candidates taking place in September.
The Central Park Bridge sits at the centre of the Olympic Park. The brief was to design two short span bridges that would carry the large flow of visitors to the Olympic park. After the Games temporary structures need to be removed to expose Carpenters Lock a 1930’s lock on the river Lea.
The day of a presentation for a...
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After successfully completing our initial upgrade to Stratford Regional Station (SRS) last month, we are now gearing up for our next major set of works that will help prepare SRS to be the gateway to the Games.
As part of these works, which will occur over Christmas, we will demolish several old buildings in and around the station. This will help clear the station for future enhancement work and facilitate the construction of the major pedestrian bridge to the Olympic Park.
One of the old buildings that will be demolished in order to improve the station:
![stratford old station building 340x220]()
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The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be more than just the largest sporting occasion on the planet – they’ll the largest event on the planet full stop. Having only just joined LOCOG little over a month ago I can already see the scale of the challenge ahead of us to make this a really memorable Games.
With such a task ahead of us and with such a keen interest from the public it is little wonder that from time to time the politicians wish to check that we keep progressing on the achievements already made. This is why myself along...
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Trying to angle park a 15m long and 2.5m wide bus is no easy feat, as I discovered after getting behind the wheel and trying to out-manoeuvre the best in the business at the Bus & Coach Live expo in Birmingham. But for many of the 5,500 delegates, getting thousands of passengers swiftly around one of the busiest cities in the world is simply all in a day’s work.
Held last week, the Bus & Coach Live is the biggest event of its kind for the industry. Over two days, bus and coach operators, manufacturers and suppliers ply their wares, which...
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Are you one of those people who knows exactly where you were when something significant happened? Or maybe it's a piece of music that reminds you of a concert or a picture about an event? Whatever it is, many of us enjoy being with others, part of a group or crowd in all sorts of circumstances.
It's that sense of engagement which we're trying to build on for London 2012 and to bring it to places across the whole UK through the Live Sites programme for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and in the past few days I've had some...
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The marriage of sport and art is a regular topic in our part of the 2012 Team. Perhaps that is why the Director of Culture, Ceremonies and Education found himself entered for the recent “Great North Run”. That’ll be me then!
There was the odd moment along the 13 mile course when this didn’t feel like such a good idea. At the eight miles point a man dressed as a 12ft tall daffodil overtook me with ease. At eleven miles, as the course winds its way from Gateshead to South Shields, the crafty race planners throw in a hill –...
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Thomas is nineteen and he lives in a rural village in South Africa, not far from the border with Mozambique. He’s quietly spoken, a little shy at first and one of those will-o-the-wisp kind of lads who used all his growing in an upwards direction. But don’t underestimate this rather earnest young man – he’s a ground-breaker. That’s not just my view – it’s official – indeed it’s his job description.
As part of a leadership programme in South Africa and Mozambique I walk around his village – a rural township near the Mozambique boarder. There’s very little work here, and...
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The 2012 Editor, 5 October 2007
Our friends at adidas sent us this video showing what happened at the official announcement of their partnership of the 2012 Games last month.
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The 2012 Editor, 4 October 2007
Progress on the site of the Olympic Stadium accelerated this week with nearly half the buildings now demolished, temporary bridges being installed and a programme of work beginning to remove thousands of tonnes of soil to create the correct ground levels.
Demolition started in July with 16 of the existing buildings already knocked down and the rest due to be demolished by the end of the year. You can watch the progress in our time-lapse video.
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The 2012 Editor, 4 October 2007
At the recent adidas sponsorship launch, 20 twelve-year-olds were invited to take part. As part of the day they each wrote a summary of their experiences - the best summary to be published on this website.
So here's our winner: a poem by Adebisi Alakan, Hackney Free & Parochial C of E Secondary School...
Last week I was so privileged
We tripped our way to Millennium Bridge
To meet a load of Olympic trainers
And grab a free pair of Adidas trainers.
They’re the ones funding the Olympic Games
And they introduced us to sports stars of fame.
We sprinted our way to the finish line
Our feet were...
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