Field Trip 3

East London developed in the hinterlands of the City of London, which was walled during the Middle Ages, and slowly expanded toward the Lea River Valley. Due to to the direction of the wind, the most polluting industries settled in this area. As the docks were located here, industry related to shipbuilding and trade also developed here. Over the centuries, the East End attracted various waves of immigration, creating a super-diverse part of the city.

Explore  Charles Booth's Poverty Map  of 1898-9. Paying attention to the legend, compare the differences between the East and West of London.

Q What can you deduct about East London's social makeup at that time? Is is reflected in the structure of the spatial environment in any way?

Advanced: If you are interested in learning more about the significance of this map, an early tool of measuring and visualising urban prosperity, read Laura Vaughan (2018)  Mapping Society: The Spatial Dimensions of Social Cartography . London: UCL Press.

The closure of the docks and decrease in industry in the mid-20th century meant a decline of the working class areas in East London. Slum clearance and wartime destruction resulted in a high amount of public (council) housing being built in the period following World War II.

Today, the social makeup of East London stands in stark contrast to both affluent West London and the nearby City of London, an entity that operates separately from the rest of London and is a global centre of the financial industry.

The 2012 Olympics were seen as an opportunity to rebalance the wealth of the city, to ensure that East London could also benefit from the prosperity other parts of London enjoyed. This field visit will examine how this was attempted and whether this plan been realised, over a decade after the Olympics.

Advanced: Read the ' State of the Legacy ' report which examines the outcomes of the 'regeneration promise' of the Olympics.

London has long been reshaped by what are today called mega-events. The Great Exhibition of 1851 resulted in the so-called  'Albertopolis' area around   Exhibition Road . Another such event was the Festival of Britain in 1951, which led to the  transformation  of the South Bank.

Advanced: Watch this film about the Festival of Britain at the South Bank:

In 1992, Barcelona used the  Olympic Games as means for urban renewa l, especially of post-industrial areas in decline, thereby putting the Catalan city on the map as a 'global city' . The successful transformation was soon branded the " Barcelona model ": Instead of focusing on a few large sports venues with limited use after the conclusion of the games, Barcelona spread new investment across the city, funding regeneration that outlasted the Games.

Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London during the bid for the 2012 Olympics, said Barcelona's achievement in transforming run-down areas had shaped London's plan to regenerate the East End:  "The 1992 Games were a model for us, I often talked during the bid about creating Barcelona-on-Thames. " Therefore it's worth having a closer look at this model. Begin by watching this film to get a sense of the urban transformation in Barcelona:

 Josep Maria Montaner  writes:

From a social perspective, the main objective of the Barcelona model was to achieve a balance, that is to say, an even distribution of facilities and installations to ensure a better quality of life for the city as a whole. The final objective was to reinforce the feeling that every individual was sharing urban life; the feeling that everyone was taking part in the new city.

Montaner further highlights key main aspects of the 'Barcelona model':

1. “the urban project versus the urban plan”. The urban project refers to design on an intermediate scale, to ensure the quality of architecture and public space and to improve the conventional urban planning at large following a technocratic pattern in order to define zoning and uses, standards and measures.
2. in this new and social city, the emphasis was put on public space as the urban linking device. The opening of the city to the sea front, with new kilometres of public beach, was of paramount importance, because, despite being a Mediterranean and coastal city, Barcelona had gradually lost contact with the sea, owing to the process of industrialisation that has been under way since the second half of the 19th century.
3. the agreement between the public administration and the private sector. Barcelona aimed to form a new alliance between the political power of the socialist administration, in the social democratic tradition, and private investments. This was elaborated by Pasqual Maragall, mayor of Barcelona from 1982 to 1997, who began to look for ways in which both business and public funding could be used to regenerate the city into capitalism.

Q What distinguishes the 'Barcelona model' - both in terms of the tools it used and in its urban impact?

While numerous cities have since sought to put themselves on the world map through mega-events following Barcelona's example, the significant urban redevelopment this involves often has negative impacts for the urban poor. The 2008 Olympics in Beijing resulted in the  displacement of 1.5 million people . For the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, the city aimed to become 'slum-free', resulting in the forced  eviction of 250,000 people .

When Glasgow hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2014, it intended to  demolish a set of tower blocks  as part of the opening ceremony -- reflecting just how closely sporting events and urban renewal have come to be linked, but also that the needs and sentiments of working class people and those living in informal or public housing are often not sufficiently considered, despite the social ambitions of the Barcelona model.

The  opening ceremony  of the 2012 games celebrated the industrial history of East London as well as contemporary Britain's multi-cultural identity and the  welfare state . The Olympic Legacy vision for London stated ' the Games will support the regeneration of East London, whilst also securing social and economic benefits for the whole city ' - but its realisation over the past decade may not have been quite as inclusive as the image of the UK portrayed in the opening ceremony.

Start by using the slider below to examine the changes to the built environment that the Olympic Games created around Stratford:

Now, look at these  before & after images  to see how the area transformed at the ground level.

The  London Legacy Development Corporation  (LLDC) has the planning authority in and around the  Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park .

The LLDC has the following  objectives :

• LIVE Establish successful and integrated neighbourhoods, where people want - and can afford - to live, work and play 
• WORK Retain, attract and grow a diverse range of high quality businesses and employers, and maximise employment opportunities for local people and under-represented groups
• VISIT Create a diverse, unique, successful and financially sustainable visitor destination
• INSPIRE Create a global, future-ready exemplar for the promotion of cross-sector innovation in technology, sustainability, education, culture, sport, inclusion and participation.

Q What is the LLDC, and how does it relate to the London borough councils and the Greater London Authority?

Much of the renewal of the former industrial areas that turned into the Olympic Park has resulted in open green space. However, different social, cultural, and ethnic groups have different preferences - both with regard to the visual aspects of landscaping and when it comes to the usage of green spaces.

Watch an excerpt from this presentation by Dr Bridget Snaith, University of East London, entitled ‘Weeds, Wildflowers and White Privilege.’ (from 16:00-25:00)

Q What is the aesthetic difference between the northern and the southern parts of the Olympic Park? How do design professionals' and local users' views on the Park differ? At which point does access to green space become a questions of rights rather than personal preference? And how does accessible and inclusive design of green space relate to urban health?

To learn more about the housing legacy of the Olympic Games, watch the following IGP Soundbite on affordable housing as part of the Olympic legacy in East London.

Q What were the original plans when it comes to affordable housing? Why has so little been realised? And what do community groups argue should be done?

UCL, too, is part of the post-Olympic transformation. Its new East London campus was initially planned on the site of the Carpenters Estate. However, after many residents who were threatened with displacement protested for years, the university  moved its plans  to another site. One prominent community group that played an active role in the reversal of the plans was the  Focus E15  campaign. It was led by local single mothers living in social housing who were in danger of being displaced out of London, with alternatives offered to them as far away as  Manchester .

Watch this 2012 film about the Carpenters Estate:

UCL's East London presence was temporarily based at  Here East ; the first building of the permanent campus to opened at  East Bank  in 2022. East Bank will be a new academic and cultural district featuring Sadler’s Wells (a world-famous dance venue), London College of Fashion (part of University of the Arts London), the Victoria & Albert Museum, and a partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, along the waterfront.

Watch the two short videos below to get a better understanding of UCL's initial aims for the East London campus.

Q Why were UCL's original plans for an East London campus contested? What will be the benefits and disadvantages of an East London campus - for UCL students and researchers on the one hand and for local residents on the other?

For the past six years, the IGP has developed a locally-specific and citizen-led Prosperity Index in East London. Please read Chapter 4 of IGP's  Rethinking Prosperity for London  report below.

Now familiarise yourself with the dimensions and indicators of IGP's  London Prosperity Index .

Q Do you think the domains and sub-domains of the London Prosperity Index reflect the things you've learned in this virtual field trip so far? Which ones stand out to you? Are there factors that come as a surprise to you? Are there aspects that you would include to measure the prosperity of an area that have not been included in the LPI?

Advanced: Compare the LPI domains to those of the UK Office for National Statistics'  English indices of deprivation 2019 .

Now  explore the data  collected as part of the index, as well as the  scorecards  for five neighbourhoods: Canning Town (Newham), Heath (Barking and Dagenham), Hackney Wick (Hackney), Coventry Cross (Tower Hamlets), and the Olympic Park (Newham).

Q In which dimensions of prosperity does Hackney Wick deviate most from the London average? What might be the reasons?

IGP has founded the London Prosperity Board to create long-term impact. Familiarise yourself with the  makeup of the board  and watch this short film.

Q What is the London Prosperity Board? Who are the members, and what is their common aim? What is the role of IGP researchers - including Citizen Scientists - in this collaboration?

•  Apsan Frediani, A., Butcher, S., Watts, P. (2013) Regeneration and Well-Being in East-London: Stories from Carpenters Estate . London: UCL Development Planning Unit ( Master's project).
•  Melhuish, C. (2015) Case Studies in University-led Regeneration. London: UCL Urban Laboratory. 
•  Melhuish, C., Campkin, B. (2017) Cultural Infrastructure around the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. London: UCL Urban Laboratory. 
• Woodcraft, S., Anderson, B. (2019)  Rethinking Prosperity for London: When citizens lead transformation . London: UCL Institute for Global Prosperity.
• Sender, H., Hannan, M.A, Billingham, L., Isaacs, J., Ocitti, D. (2020)  Rethinking prosperity: Perspectives of young people living in East London , London: Institute for Global Prosperity.
• Snaith, B. (2015)  The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park: Whose Values, Whose Benefits?  PhD Thesis summary.
• Vaughan, L. (2018)  Mapping Society: The Spatial Dimensions of Social Cartography . London: UCL Press.
•  State of the Legacy (2022) Conference materials: films, presentations, report 
• Steinbrink, M., Haferburg, C., Ley, A. (2011)  Festivalisation and urban renewal in the Global South: socio-spatial consequences of the 2010 FIFA World Cup , South African Geographical Journal, 93(1): 15-28.