We Londoners have very mixed feelings about these Olympics. Sure, it’s a once in a lifetime chance to go to an Olympic event — if you can get a ticket, and if you can afford it once you’ve gotten it. It’s fun the way the entire city is becoming one big street party. Even the poetry world has gotten involved with its week of Poetry Parnassus. But the traffic! The crowds! I know just as many people who are fleeing the whole thing, as I do people embracing it with outstretched arms.
We at Chez Guiney are a bit conflicted. We do have one set of tickets. We’re not uniformly excited about putting up with the hassle of going — especially since it’s rowing and out by Eton. But I knew that, if nothing else, I wanted to make sure I got a good look at the new architecture that’s been built. That I had to see.
So this week I took advantage of a rare, beautiful day, hopped on the tube and headed out to Stratford with a friend who had already been on a tour and was happy to show me around. We, of course, couldn’t go into the Olympic site itself, but we could see all the buildings from just behind the hoarding, and from several ready-built vantage points from public places like the amazing, enormous mall, Westfield.
Here’s what I saw:
This is Anush Kapoor’s new monument. I can’t say I get it, unless it is some kind of Daliesque deconstructed set of Olympic rings. But it is cool and it does dominate the landscape. And it is very red.
Here are some of the new purpose-built structures. Behind the sculpture is the new arena. Looks a lot like Wembley to me, but I guess it was easier to build a new one than move the old 🙂 In front is the aquatic centre. I wish I took better photos, because it is quite striking. I think it is meant to look like a whale. I’m not sure it does that, but it is very suggestive of water and is a building I would just love to get inside of. What I don’t have a photo of is the water polo building which is right behind it, looking to all the world like a big blown-up water bed.
In the distance is the Olympic Village where the athletes will be staying. I’m standing in the Westfield Mall and that’s the Stratford train station in the foreground. The Village is actually closer than it looks, and the athletes will actually be walking through the mall to get to the Olympic venues. After the Olympics, these buildings will be retrofitted to create apartments which will be the centrepiece of an entire new part of London, with a new postcode even!
And here’s me, feeling like I was back in the New York World’s Fair, too many decades ago to even say.
*The title of this post is a little nod to my baseball-loving American friends and family……..
Thanks so much for the great pics, I was curious what the hell was going on… and probably not going to venture near the capital to find out until it’s all over!