2000-2010
The first decade of the new millennium saw the arrival of digitalised data underpinning urban task forces (UTF’s) strategy to deliver major inner-city regeneration. One such exemplar, 15 years on from the scheme’s opening in 2008, would be Liverpool ONE. Fabricated into the City after 7 years of planning, Liverpool ONE represents the first mixed use development of scale to be privately funded, outwardly bold and ambitious, yet resolutely anxious to be ad idem with the local community’s wishes and inputs from inception. The city became the European Capital of Culture the year Liverpool ONE opened.
2010-present
In 2011, the Localism Act permitted the Mayor of London to create mayoral corporations in Greater London, the most notable being the London Legacy Development Corporation, becoming the local planning authority for the 200-hectare landholding, now known as Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford in 2012.
Successful regeneration is notably inspired by cities winning bids for international sporting events. The opportune precedent set by the City of Manchester delivering the widely acclaimed Commonwealth Games in 2002, set up London’s bid for the summer Olympics to be held at Stratford, recognised as one of London’s most neglected post war neighbourhoods, left largely fallow and in need of significant remediation subsequent to the closure of the London Docks in the 1960’s.
Ingredients for success – why did Stratford work?
From selection as the chosen city in July 2005, The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games had 7 years to bring the lands into single ownership, remediate the land, finalise the masterplan, obtain planning consent, procure, develop, construct and service the stadia and athletes villages prior to the Olympics opening on July 27th 2012. Supported by £9.3bn of government funding, the games were an unequalled success internationally, and their regenerative resonance is still ringing in the changes across East London as evidenced with the introduction of 5 new satellite neighbourhoods of housing and amenities.
What made Stratford’s delivery the most widely accepted exemplar for regeneration in Europe this century? Not simply the scheme’s prompt delivery, not team GB’s triumphant record winning medals table or the subsequent success of the active legacy which continues to positively encourage the expansion of the local community. No, none of the above. Intentionally or otherwise the chronological construction of core infrastructure incrementally servicing East London centring on Stratford, was already incontrovertibly advancing.
- Construction of HS1, the high-speed link to the European mainland commenced in October 1998.
- The fleet of 140mph Javelin high speed trains were ordered for the London St Pancras to Ashford route in June 2005 servicing Stratford (one month prior to the Olympic Committee’s decision)
- HS1 opened November 2007
- The restored St Pancras Station opened November 2007
- Network Rail’s plans for the restoration of King’s Cross Station were approved by Camden Council in December 2007
- The High-Speed Javelin link to Stratford (9 minutes) opened in December 2009
- Stratford International station opened in August 2011
- The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) extension to Stratford International opened in September 2011
- The largest urban shopping centre in the UK by land area, Westfield Stratford opened in October 2011
The restored King’s Cross Station opened in March 2012
Beyond simply servicing twenty million spectators attending the London Olympics and Paralympics over twenty-seven unique days of international competition, this mostly unperceived and under acknowledged mass alignment of regenerative infrastructure secured and future proofed London’s global status, more tightly binding together East and West London.