MOLAS-PCA and the 2012 Games
Background
On July 6th 2005 the IOC announced that London is to be the setting for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. This exciting news has implications for all Londoners over the next few years, but it has particular implications for the archaeology and built heritage of the Lea Valley.
The east of London will be transformed as London prepares for 2012. The boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Newham will see huge amounts of private and public investment. Derelict land and ‘brownfield’ sites will be used to build a new Olympic Park, stadia, an ‘Olympic Village’, playing fields, new housing and transport infrastructure, and new parks and waterways. Though itself massive in scale this work is only a part of the wider project for urban regeneration in the whole of London’s East End.
The impacts of these projects on existing archaeological monuments or deposits, historic buildings, or London’s industrial heritage, will need to be fully weighed as part of the normal planning process, and appropriate ‘mitigation’ will then take place, whether that means incorporation of significant remains or buildings into the new designs, or excavation, recording and ‘preservation by record’.
London will derive a valuable long-term ‘legacy’ from all the work that goes into preparation for the Games. Infrastructure, open spaces and buildings of the highest quality will need to be integrated successfully into the historic, present and future fabrics of the London boroughs. The Games will, literally, make history.
From September 2003 the two biggest archaeological organisations working in London, MoLAS (the Museum of London Archaeology Service) and PCA (Pre-Construct Archaeology) joined forces to work together on work associated with the redevelopment plans for the Lea Valley for London’s Olympic Bid.
In 2004 we produced the Archaeological and Built Heritage chapters of the Environmental Statement (ES). This document was commissioned to support the planning applications by the London Development Agency (LDA) for the London 2012 Olympic Bid. The overall (ES) was coordinated and produced by Capita Symonds. The Planning Applications and supporting information - including the ES - were submitted to the four Lower Lea Valley London Boroughs (LBs) in January 2004 and Planning Consent was granted on 14th October 2004. Since that time we have continued to prepare written desk-based assessments and other documentation as required for the continued evolution of the designs.
Together, MoLAS and PCA, are proud of having played our part in bringing the Games to London.
The following links will take you to the MoLAS website
Background
London 2012 proposals
Archaeology in the Lea Valley
Impact Assessment
Consultation
MoLAS-PCA in the Lea Valley
Where next ?
Sites
MoLAS website
|
