Brand London 2012 and ‘The Heart of East London’: Competing Urban Agendas at the 2012 Games

Abstract

In its bid to host the 2012 Games in London, the UK government committed to regenerate East London. This article opens by considering East London’s comparative deprivation and what its regeneration would mean. Then, rather than focusing on long-term material evidence of regeneration which, by its nature, is mostly not yet available, this article explores how London – and particularly East London – was and was not represented by London 2012 Games organizers. It argues that East London, East Londoners and East London’s comparative deprivations were predominantly occluded from view, displaced by focuses on West and central London, a corporate brand ‘London 2012’ and a series of island-like shopping opportunities. Where and when brand London 2012 did allow East London to come into public view, at the Olympic Park, it was as flowery meadows. These apparently harked back to an Edenic pre-industrial past, artlessly masking the site’s actual industrial past, not to mention East London’s current high rates of un- and underemployment. The article argues that these representational displacements and neutralizations of East London damagingly suppress the important incentives for its regeneration: to redress acute deprivation and inequality. The article concludes that East London’s realities must be brought back into focus to incentivize urgently needed regeneration.

Notes

1. London Olympics Candidature File, 2004, 3 volumes, archived at <http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20070305103412/http:/www.london2012.com/news/publications/candidate-file.php> [accessed 20 August 2013], Vol. 1, 2004, p. 19. Quoted in Josh Ryan-Collins and Paul Sander-Jackson, Fools Gold: How the 2012 Olympics Is Selling East London Short, and a 10 Point Plan for a More Positive Local Legacy (London: nef [the new economics foundation] and Community Links, 2008), p. 8, <http://dnwssx4l7gl7s.cloudfront.net/nefoundation/default/page/-/files/Fools_Gold.pdf> [accessed 20 August 2013].

2. Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Our Promise for 2012: How the UK Will Benefit from the Olympic and Paralympic Games (London: DCMS, June 2007), p. 3.

3. The borough of Barking and Dagenham subsequently became a sixth host borough. Gillian Evans, ‘Materializing the Vision of a 2012 London Olympic Games’, in Handbook of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Volume One: Making the Games, ed. by Vassil Girginov (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013), pp. 45–61 (p. 58). For sports studies expert, Mike Weed, ‘No previous host had been so ambitious or explicit about using the Olympic and Paralympic Games as a catalyst for economic and social good, not only in the host city but across the country as a whole’. The IOC Olympic Charter was only amended in 2002 ‘to emphasise the importance of “promoting a positive legacy from the Olympic Games to the host city and the host country”’; the 2012 Games were the first in which bidding host cities had to address legacy explicitly. Mike Weed, ‘London 2012 Legacy Strategy: Ambitions, Promises and Implementation Plans’, in Handbook of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, ed. by Girginov, pp. 87–98 (p. 87); Weed quotes from IOC Olympic Charter: In Force as from November 2002 (Lausanne: IOC, 2002).

4. DCMS, Our Promise for 2012, p. 3.

5. Vassil Girginov, ‘Social, Political, Economic and Operational Context of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games: An Introduction’, in Handbook of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, ed. by Girginov, pp. 1–13 (p. 2).

6. Wealth is disproportionately concentrated in the UK’s south-east. ‘A higher share of individuals in the South East region live in wealthy households than is the case for other regions.’ Office for National Statistics, ‘Total Household Wealth by Region and Age Group’, 4 June 2013, <http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/regional-trends/regional-economic-analysis/wealth-by-age-group-and-region--june-2013/rep-total-household-wealth-by-region-and-age-group.html#tab-conclusions> [accessed 20 August 2013].

7. Girginov, ‘Social, Political, Economic and Operational Context’, p. 5.

8. Randeep Ramesh, ‘London’s Richest People Worth 273 Times More Than the Poorest’, Guardian, 21 April 2010, <http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/apr/21/wealth-social-divide-health-inequality> [accessed 20 August 2013]. Ramesh quotes Danny Dorling, Injustice: Why Social Inequality Persists (Bristol: Policy Press, 2010).

9. Girginov, ‘Social, Political, Economic and Operational Context’, p. 6. Girginov cites HBSU, Olympic and Paralympic Legacy: Strategic Regeneration Framework (London: HBSU, 2009).

10. Graeme Evans, ‘London 2012’, in Olympic Cities: City Agendas, Planning and the World’s Games, 1896-2016, ed. by John R. Gold and Margaret M. Gold, 2nd edn (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), pp. 359–89 (p. 383).

11. Ibid., p. 378.

12. Five Boroughs Strategic Unit (FBSU), Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Strategic Regeneration Framework: Summary Document, Stage 1, October 2009, <https://democracy.walthamforest.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=10510> [accessed 20 August 2013], p. 3; the same document located on a different URL (no longer active at the time of writing) is cited in Iain MacRury, ‘Involving East London Communities: The Evocative Olympic Games and the Emergence of a Prospective “Legacy”’, Handbook of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, ed. by Girginov, pp. 147–60, (p. 147).

13. FBSU, Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Strategic Regeneration Framework, p. 2; cited in MacRury, ‘Involving East London Communities’, p. 148.

14. Graeme Evans, ‘London 2012’, p. 359. London’s presentation bid made on 6 July 2005, can be seen on BBC Sport, ‘London’s Olympic-Winning Presentation’, BBC News <http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/sol/newsid_4650000/newsid_4657800/4657857.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&nol_storyid=4657857&bbcws=1> [accessed 20 August 2013].

15. Andrew Fraser, ‘One Great Day in Singapore’, BBC, 6 July 2005, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/olympics_2012/4657685.stm> [accessed 20 August 2013]. Amber Charles is one of several of these East End ambassador children who participated in the London bid in Singapore and are featured in BBC Radio 4’s eight series of Children of the Olympic Bid, presented by Peter White, broadcast before 2008 and mostly available here: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007tmb0/episodes/guide> [accessed August 2013].

16. He concluded, ‘Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack. They will stand together in solidarity alongside those who have been injured and those who have been bereaved and that is why I’m proud to be the mayor of that city.’ ‘Text of Statement by Mayor Ken Livingstone’, 7 July 2005, ft.com/world, <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/dcdfe116-ef08-11d9-8b10-00000e2511c8.html#axzz2aiK7jRGR> [accessed 20 August 2013].

17. Of course, many representations of the Games circulated – for example, in sponsor advertising, different national media, social networking and more. Because I am concerned with the ways that the UK’s commitments to regenerating East London were fulfilled or not, I concentrate on representations produced or commissioned by the UK’s representative Games organizers.

18. Girginov, ‘Social, Political, Economic and Operational Context’, p. 6.

19. Ryan-Collins and Sander-Jackson, Fools Gold, p. 13.

20. See, for example, James Woudhuysen, ‘Battle in Print: The “Regeneration Games”, London, 2012’, Battle of Ideas, 31 March 2008, <http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/site/battles/1132> [accessed August 2013]; and Pete Fussey, Jon Coaffee, Gary Armstrong and Dick Hobbs, Securing and Sustaining the Olympic City: Reconfiguring London for 2012 and Beyond (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), p. 8.

21. David Harvey, ‘Neoliberalism as Creative Destruction’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 610 (March 2007), 22–44 (p. 27).

22. DCMS, Our Promise for 2012, p. 3.

23. See, for example, Weed, ‘London 2012 Legacy Strategy’, p. 95; and John R. Gold and Margaret M. Gold, ‘Future Indefinite? London 2012, the Spectre of Retrenchment and the Challenge of Olympic Sports Legacy’, The London Journal, 34 (July 2009), 179–96. The final London Olympic bid film, screened in Singapore in 2005, showed children worldwide being inspired by the 2012 London Games. See Inspiration, dir. by Daryl Goodrich (2005), <http://vimeo.com/28366735> [accessed 20 August 2013].

24. DCMS, Our Promise for 2012, p. 10.

25. Ibid.

26. For example, the UK Conservative-led coalition government stated its commitment to ensure ‘that the Olympic Park can be developed after the Games as one of the principal drivers of regeneration in East London’. DCMS, Plans for the Legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (London: DCMS, December 2010), p. 1, <https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/78105/201210_Legacy_Publication.pdf> [accessed 20 August 2013].

27. Much land usage on the main Stratford Games site was, from the eighteenth century on, industrial and reportedly included ‘mustard gas stored during World War I’. Graeme Evans, ‘London 2012’, p. 388. The ‘toxic legacy’ of this usage required that much soil be cleaned in a ‘purpose-built “soil hospital”’. John Horne and Garry Whannel, Understanding the Olympics (Abingdon: Routledge, 2012), p. 18.

28. Notoriously, in 2007, UNICEF ranked the UK last of twenty-one industrialized nations in its assessment of children’s living standards and well-being. Girginov, ‘Social, Political, Economic and Operational Context’, p. 5. Girginov cites UNICEF, Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries. A Comprehensive Assessment of the Lives and Well-Being of Children and Adolescents in the Economically Advanced Nations (Florence: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre Report Card 7, 2007).

29. LOCOG, Open: The World in a City: The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (London: LOCOG, February 2008), p. 6.

30. ‘London 2012 Olympic Sponsors List: Who Are They and What Have They Paid?’, Guardian, 19 July 2012, <http://www.theguardian.com/sport/datablog/2012/jul/19/london-2012-olympic-sponsors-list> [accessed 20 August 2013]; comparatively, see Girginov, ‘Social, Political, Economic and Operational Context’, p. 9.

31. Kevin Peachey, ‘Olympics: Tackling Ambush Marketing at London 2012’, BBC, 19 July 2012, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18628635> [accessed 20 August 2013].

32. One could argue that London ‘earned’ the right to self-promotion at the Games given its state (if not corporate) funding of the event: it contributed £875 million to the Games through funds from the London Development Agency and from increased taxation to Londoners over approximately ten years from 2006. Girginov, ‘Social, Political, Economic and Operational Context’, p. 2; Guy Masterman, ‘Preparing and Winning the London Bid’, in Handbook of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, ed. by Girginov, pp. 29–42 (p. 32). But its contribution only made up 10 per cent of public funding: the UK provided £6248 million, or 67 per cent of public funding; and the National Lottery provided £2175 million, or 23 per cent. Girginov, ‘Social, Political, Economic and Operational Context’, p. 2. In other words, despite the brand prominence London claimed at the Games, it was the least significant state funder and was perhaps less entitled to self-promotion than might have been, for example, ‘Britain 2012’.

33. Alan C. Middleton, ‘City Branding and Inward Investment’, in City Branding: Theory and Cases, ed. by Keith Dinnie (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 15–26 (p. 17).

34. Li Zhang and Simon Xiaobin Zhao, ‘City Branding and the Olympic Effect: A Case Study of Beijing’, Cities, 26 (December 2009), 245–54 (p. 246).

35. An edited BBC broadcast version of Isles of Wonder, 27 July 2013, is here: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b037w9df/Olympic_Opening_Ceremony_2012_Isles_of_Wonder/> [accessed 20 August 2013].

36. For 2012 Olympic equestrian jumping photos, see, for example, <http://www.olympic.org/photos/london-2012/equestrian-jumping#> [accessed 20 August 2013].

37. Sport at Heart, dir. by Daryl Goodrich (2005), <http://vimeo.com/28381929> [accessed 20 August 2013].

38. MacRury, ‘Involving East London Communities’, p. 152; MacRury cites BBC, ‘London 2012 Olympic Marathon Route a “Travesty”’, BBC News, 5 October 2010, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11471541> [accessed 20 August 2013].

39. Quoted in BBC, ‘London 2012 Olympic Marathon Route a “Travesty”’.

40. On Occupy LSX, see, in this issue, Marissia Fragkou and Philip Hager, ‘Staging London: Participation and Citizenship on the Way to the 2012 Olympic Games’, 532–41.

41. Ramesh, ‘London’s Richest People Worth 273 Times More than the Poorest’.

42. This representation may have been designed to allay IOC fears that London transport would not cope with increased capacity demands during the Games. Eerily, this depiction of London as semi-vacant came partially to pass in summer 2012, when an aggressive advertising campaign co-sponsored by the Mayor of London warned commuters to avoid commuting where possible. See ‘Public Urged to “Get Ahead of the Games”’, Gov.uk, 30 January 2012, <https://www.gov.uk/government/news/public-urged-to-get-ahead-of-the-games> [accessed 20 August 2013].

43. John Horne, ‘From 1908 to 2012: Continuity and Change in London Olympic Narratives’, in Handbook of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, ed. by Girginov, pp. 17–28 (p. 18).

44. Girginov, ‘Social, Political, Economic and Operational Context’, pp. 8–9.

45. Ibid., p. 9.

46. Graeme Evans, ‘London 2012’, p. 376.

47. Ibid., p. 377.

48. Ibid.

49. See Keren Zaiontz’s article in this issue for a discussion of the demolition of Acme Studios on the Stratford site, making way for the Aquatics Centre. Keren Zaiontz, ‘On the Streets/Within the Stadium: Art For and Against the “System” in Oppositional Responses to London 2012’, 502–18 (p. 510).

50. National Federation of Artists’ Studio Providers (NFASP), Artists’ Studio Provision in the Host Boroughs: A Review of the Potential Impacts of London’s Olympic Project (London: NFASP and David Powell Associates, December 2008), <http://www.acme.org.uk/support/capital> [accessed 20 August 2013].

51. Graeme Evans, ‘London 2012’, p. 382.

52. This opening sequence of Isles of Wonder, dir. by Danny Boyle (2012), is viewable here: <http://vimeo.com/58453541> [accessed 20 August 2013].

53. This Happy and Glorious sequence of Isles of Wonder is viewable here: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW5abat5NEU> [accessed 20 August 2013].

54. Hari Marini discusses ArcelorMittal Orbit in this issue. Hari Marini, ‘The ArcelorMittal Orbit’s Ambivalent Effect and the London Olympics: Art, Regeneration, Business and Sustainability’, 587–92.

55. Stephen Lacey, ‘Olympic Park Flowers: Planting with an International Theme for London 2012’, Telegraph, 3 August 2012, <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/9443825/Olympic-Park-flowers-Planting-with-an-international-theme-for-London-2012.html> [accessed 20 August 2013]. Images are available in David Levene, ‘London 2012: Olympic Park Gardens – In Pictures’, Guardian, 10 August 2012, <http://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2012/aug/10/london-2012-olympics-park-gardens-in-pictures#/?picture=394530664&index=0> [accessed 20 August 2013] and ‘London 2012: The Olympic Park in Bloom’, Telegraph, n.d., <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningpicturegalleries/9449066/London-2012-The-Olympic-Park-in-bloom.html> [accessed 20 August 2013].

56. Phil Askew quoted in Lacey, ‘Olympic Park Flowers’.

57. Graeme Evans, ‘London 2012’, p. 382.

58. Simon Garfield, ‘Manor from Heaven’, Observer, 8 April 2007, <http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2007/apr/08/features.magazine37> [accessed 20 August 2013].

59. Stephen Graham, ‘Olympics 2012 Security: Welcome to Lockdown London’, Guardian, 12 March 2012, <http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/mar/12/london-olympics-security-lockdown-london> [accessed 20 August 2013].

60. BBC, ‘London 2012: Olympic Missiles Sites Confirmed’, BBC, 3 July 2012, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18690861> [accessed 20 August 2013].

61. Fussey et al., Securing and Sustaining the Olympic City, p. 8.

62. Tracey J. Dickson and Angel M. Benson, London 2012 Games Makers: Towards Redefining Legacy (London: DCMS, 19 July 2013), p. 3, <https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/224184/Games_Makers_Annex.pdf> [accessed 20 August 2013].

63. See Colette Conroy’s article in this issue, ‘Paralympic Cultures: Disability as Paradigm’, 519–31.

64. See, for example, BBC News Europe, ‘Sochi Olympics: Rogge Asks Russia to Clarify Gay Law’, BBC News, 10 August 2013, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23630868> [accessed 20 August 2013].

65. Françoise Papa quoted in Luo Qing, ‘Encoding the Olympics – Visual Hegemony? Discussion and Interpretation on Intercultural Communication in the Beijing Games’, in Encoding the Olympics: The Beijing Olympic Games and the Communication Impact Worldwide, ed. by Luo Qing and Giuseppe Richeri (Abingdon: Routledge, 2012), pp. 420–68 (p. 428).

66. Gillian Evans, ‘Materializing the Vision of a 2012 London Olympic Games’, p. 56.

67. Weed, ‘London 2012 Legacy Strategy’.

68. London Legacy Development Corporation, ‘How We Listened’, n.d., <http://www.legacycompany.co.uk/legacy-communities-scheme/how-we-listened-2/> [accessed 20 August 2013]; cited in a slightly different form in MacRury, ‘Involving East London Communities’, p. 154 [MacRury accessed what was then the Olympic Park Legacy Corporation website December 2011].

69. Ryan-Collins and Sander-Jackson, Fools Gold, p. 5.

70. Graeme Evans, ‘London 2012’, p. 383.

71. Ibid., p. 382.

72. I discuss this in detail in Jen Harvie, Fair Play – Art, Performance and Neoliberalism (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), ch. 3, ‘Space: Exclusion and Engagement’, pp. 108–49.

73. See also Penny Bernstock, who looks in detail at housing development around the Stratford Olympic site, repeatedly noting the under-provision of affordable family accommodation: ‘London 2012 and the Regeneration Game’, in Olympic Cities: 2012 and the Remaking of London, ed. by Gavin Poynter and Iain MacRury (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 201–18 (pp. 208–15). Graeme Evans also explores reasons why the London 2012 Games were unlikely to deliver the government’s pledges on employment, skills development and business development in the local area, largely (though not entirely) due to anticipated inward migration of skilled workers (for example in construction) and, within the Olympic Park and other venues, business dominance by sponsoring global brands. Graeme Evans, ‘London 2012’, pp. 383–86. Gavin Poynter is slightly more encouraged about emerging benefits for local businesses and workers in ‘London: Preparing for 2012’, in Olympic Cities, ed. by Poynter and MacRury, pp. 183–99 (pp. 194–96).

74. John Horne, ‘‘The Politics of Hosting the Olympic Games’, in The Politics of the Olympics: A Survey, ed. by Alan Bairner and Gyozo Molnar (London: Routledge, 2010), pp. 27–40 (p. 39). For more discussion of and response to negative Olympic legacy in London see, for example, the special 2012 issue of Corporate Watch on ‘Corporate Games: Corporate Watch Report 2012’; Iain Sinclair, Ghost Milk: Calling Time on the Grand Project (London: Hamish Hamilton/Penguin, 2011); Ryan-Collins and Sander-Jackson, Fools Gold; Counter Olympics Network, <http://counterolympicsnetwork.wordpress.com/> [accessed 20 August 2013]; and Games Monitor, <http://www.gamesmonitor.org.uk/> [accessed 20 August 2013].