What Paris should learn from London 2012 Olympic legacy

The economic case for hosting the Olympic Games is not compelling. Each one since Rome 1960 has run over budget, on average by 172 per cent. London 2012 was meant to cost £3.3bn; final bill, £8.8bn. “Cities and nations should think twice before hosting,” cautions a 2020 Oxford university report.

Despite that, “London is definitely considered a success in terms of economic development,” says Tania Braga, impact and legacy head at the International Olympic Committee. A House of Commons report said the 2012 games had already generated £14.2bn in economic value for the UK by 2014.

Ken Livingstone, London’s mayor from 2000 to 2008, was clear in his condition for supporting a bid by the UK capital to stage the Olympics: it would be used to accelerate the regeneration of London’s industrial East End. “The games were a catalyst,” says Braga, “to change the centre of gravity of the city towards the east”.

Paris, too, is building a physical Olympic legacy in one area of the city. While much takes place in its historical heart — beach volleyball by the Eiffel Tower, equestrian events at Versailles — the Olympic Village is in Seine-Saint-Denis, the north eastern district with the highest poverty rate in mainland France. The village becomes a residential and commercial development afterwards, much like the Stratford area’s Olympic neighbourhood in east London.

“Our ambition was to create a new metropolitan district,” says Rosanna Lawes, development director at the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC). “It was never really about those six, eight weeks of sport.” Where, 20 years ago, existed a mixture of railway land, marshland, some housing and local business, now sits Stratford’s 560-acre Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Commercial tenants have flocked there, including the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. The new office district will soon be home to 25,000 workers. The Olympic media centre has been transformed into Here East, a technology campus hosting 6,500 employees and students, from homebuilders to choreographers to robotics experts. Five universities call the park home to a part of their campus. A striking hexagonal construction has hosted the virtual concert residency ABBA Voyage, which reportedly contributed £322mn to London’s economy in its first year.

“It’s a viable location, a business district,” says Gavin Poole, chief executive of Here East, which targets advanced technology tenants, offering them high-tech facilities and encouraging collaboration between the businesses there.

“It’s no longer a ‘you must be joking, why would we go to Stratford’ — it’s a ‘yes, of course’.” Poole’s advice? “Build for the long term use, and then retrofit the games. Not the other way around.”

The latest addition came after the Olympics: a new “cultural quarter”, East Bank, in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. On land that used to boast Europe’s largest fridge mountain — a pile of discarded white goods — will now live the V&A East museum; Sadler’s Wells East dance venue; BBC Music Studios; and a London College of Fashion campus. Together, they are expected to employ 2,500 people.

“This is innovation,” says Tim Reeve, chair of the East Bank Board and V&A chief operating officer. “These are world-first things that are happening in east London as part of the Olympic legacy.” His advice to Paris is clear: “Leave a bit of room for things you can’t plan for, for things that you don’t really know about. For that serendipity.”

Though Reeve says there was a good chance the V&A would have chosen east London for a second site anyway, the Olympics sped up the process with cash, space and political will. The London mayor’s office approached the V&A about establishing a Stratford site and the LLDC has taken on the significant financial risk of building the East Bank.

The games also meant the public sector stepped in to build the Olympic Village when 2008’s financial crisis struck. Without this, area regeneration may have stalled or fallen victim to austerity.

Still, the legacy is imperfect. The 1,200 new homes — and the total 5,850 planned for delivery by 2036 — do not equate to the 9,000 promised. Livingstone pledged half of the homes would be affordable. Today, only 37 per cent meet this requirement.

There are serious questions about the housing delivery and mix, agrees Rokhsana Fiaz, mayor since 2018 of London’s borough of Newham, which the park’s largest segment sits on. But she adds that, while there is of course more to do, progress is being made and the area appeals “to a diversity of our resident community”.

Fiaz remains positive. “It’s a vibrant, exciting — both culturally and socially — area. I see such mixed residents, more and more, and it’s just so wonderful to see. The diversity is glorious.”