Steve Wallbridge is spooked by the eeriness and emptiness of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
The War brought three billion human lives to a premature end. It culminated in a nuclear fire which the handful of survivors refer to as ‘Judgement Day’.
A raging inferno swept cities, towns and villages alike, consuming everything in its path. London – yes, London – was all but destroyed.
East London’s Olympic Park somehow escaped relatively unscathed, but its survival is futile. The children’s play area stands as nothing more than an abandoned reminder of the horror, the horror.
Climbing frames encased in scorched cinder, rope ladders reduced to charred twine and decorative trees twisted into the aftermath of a forest fire. The Park is a monument to the devastation which enveloped this city.
Of course, I’m exaggerating – but not that much. If you visit the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was the set for Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
They day I went to have a look around, when I finally got there after a full 15 minute walk, in my mind I kept hearing a ponderous drumbeat and I half-expected Arnold Schwarzenegger to appear out of a flaming background.
The Olympic spirit has well and truly vacated Stratford. Where there was an upbeat atmosphere, now there is only a characterless, almost featureless space.
Not so much urban regeneration, seems more like degeneration.
Serene and peaceful would have been fine; but the Park was eerily empty. This is not the place to be if you do not like being alone.
Apart from a couple of swans and a duck, the closest it comes to offering a diverse selection of wildlife are the peculiar plaques embedded in the wooden seating areas, which offer seemingly random information about similarly random animals.
I’ve got nothing against goats but I did not come to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to learn that they have ‘rectangular pupils’. Maybe information about Olympic medal winners and world record holders would be more fitting, but what do I know?
I appreciate that this green Park has risen from a brownfield site, following the removal of two million tonnes of industrial waste. But apart from the view of the Velodrome – which continues to look great from any angle – surely it must amount to more than an environmental exercise.
Otherwise those of us who think that the whole Olympic thing was really all about the athletics, may start to get properly exercised!