Olympic Park prepares for full opening with Prince Harry, Boris Johnson playdate
by Tom Walker | 04 Apr 2014
The prince, pictured here launching his new Invictus Games initiative, made full use of the Olympic Park facilities
With east London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to fully open to the public for the very first time tomorrow (5 April), Prince Harry and Boris Johnson stopped by this afternoon to ensure the play equipment was up to scratch.
The London Mayor and the fourth-in-line to the throne joined local school children for some fun on the tyre swing and rope bridge ahead of the official opening tomorrow (see video below).
Stretching across 230 hectares (568 acres), the site will become the biggest new park to open in Europe for 150 years. A programme of music, sports and arts will run throughout the weekend to mark the opening.
More than £300m has been invested in the park since the closing ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games. The works in the park have been overseen by the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), which is responsible for the park in legacy mode.
Parts of the park have already been accessible to the public, including the "northern half" which houses the Lee Valley VeloPark, touted as the UK's foremost cycling facility.
The southern half - South Plaza - covers the size of 16 football pitches and sits between the Zaha Hadid-designed aquatics centre, the Olympic Stadium and the ArcelorMittal Orbit - the UK's tallest sculpture.
As well as the iconic sporting facilities, the park will include interactive fountains, waterways, landscaped gardens and children's play areas with giant swings and climbing walls.
The waterways that stretch up to the centre of the Park will be used for transport including water taxis, kayaking and other water based activities, while along the waterways future developments will include floating restaurants and cinemas.
Sustainability has been at the heart of the park's design.
Using the London 2012 Games' infrastructure as inspiration, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is seeking to provide a "pioneering model of urban regeneration" by promoting sustainable lifestyles through sustainable infrastructure.
The recently published Your Sustainability Guide to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
sets out the vision for living in and visiting the Park in 2030 and how the aim is to create an environment that drives behavioural change.
With east London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to fully open to the public for the very first time tomorrow (5 April), Prince Harry and Boris Johnson stopped by this afternoon to ensure the play equipment was up to scratch. The London Mayor and the fourth-in-line to the throne joined local school children for some fun on the tyre swing and rope bridge ahead of the official opening tomorrow (see video
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