The Queen Elisabeth Olympic Park and the arenas were built in East London for the 2012 Summer Olympics that were held in the city. The London arena is now home to the football (US-‘soccer’) team West Ham United. The towering sculpture ArchelorMittal Orbit is a lookout tower with a slide, a free fall abseil, it is also labelled the tallest sculpture in the UK.
The Aquatic centre was originally designed by Zaha Hadid in 2004. This was before the Olympic bid was complete and the original design did not have room for as many spectators as was needed for the Olympics, so two spectator wings were added for the Olympics. The added sections have since been removed, they were only present during the Olympic games in 2012.
Lee River (also referred to as Lea River) that runs through the Olympic Park in East London, was long a forgotten river that ran through mountains of old refrigerators and other scrap mountains in the scrapyards that used to surround the river. It was essentially a tic wasteland. When London was awarded the 2012 summer Olympics that all changed and the river today is a beautifully restored piece of nature that enhances the environment considerably in this part of East London.
Lee Valley Velodrome was the home of track cycling events during the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. The building was designed by Hopkins Architects together with landscape Architectural firm Grant Associates.
