East Village, Stratford
| East Village | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Olympic and Paralympic Village, April 2012. To the rear is the temporary Basketball Arena |
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 East Village
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| East Village shown within Greater London | |
| OS grid reference | TQ385845 |
| • Charing Cross | 6 mi (9.7 km) WSW |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | E20 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| EU Parliament | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
East Village is a neighbourhood in East London that was designed and constructed as the Olympic Village of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games and has been converted for use as a new residential district, complete with independent shops, bars and restaurants. The area was formerly contaminated waste land and industrial buildings to the north of Stratford.
As part of the regeneration programme within the bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Olympic Village design to house the athletes was based on reusing the buildings after the games as a new residential district for Stratford. Through a competitive bidding process, the then Labour British government chose a proposal by Lend Lease Project Management & Construction which covered financing and construction of both the Olympic Village and part of the London Olympics Media Centre. This would both provide accommodation for 24,000 athletes, and afterwards provide a mix of low cost and private residential housing, within a community that would comprise offices, shops, schools and a health centre.
Lend Lease engaged a team of: architects Fletcher Priest; structural engineers Arup; and urban planning/landscape architecture firm West 8 and Vogt Landscape. They were briefed to design a village-garden type district to fit in with the wider urban park vision of the Olympic Park legacy, emulating the classical Victorian architecture layout of Maida Vale and other parts of Victorian west London. On a 27 hectares (67 acres) site, the plan provided for 11 residential plots, each made up of 5 to 7 blocks, built around communal squares and courtyards, with water features accentuating the closeness of the River Lea. Each of the 67 blocks is of between 8 and 12 storeys high, nominally laid out: Street level of mostly three storey townhouses, with front doors on street level to create an "active frontage". These are supplemented by a mix of single to three storey shops and offices. Floor 3 and above in the centre of the complex are communal raised gardens, which hide carparks beneath. At and above this level are a mix of low cost and private residential apartments, ranging from one to five bedroom. Each apartment provides generous floor spacing, and each includes its own balcony that is big enough for a table and chairs.
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