Plans for a cultural hub at the Olympic park have been relaunched under Sadiq Khan, and include an east London outpost of the V&A. But will it draw the crowds? Trapped in a purgatory of masterplans, consultations and yet more plans, east London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is no stranger to revisions. Proposals for a £1.3bn cultural hub, announced by former mayor Boris Johnson in 2013 and unveiled in 2016, have just been redesigned, rebranded and relaunched by the current mayor, Sadiq Khan, who, in a moment of deja vu, hailed it on Tuesday as “the most ambitious new project of its kind for decades”. Featuring an outpost of the Victoria and Albert Museum, a Sadler’s Wells dance theatre and a new home for the London College of Fashion, along with residential towers, the park’s planned arts district, once known as Olympicopolis, in tune with Johnson’s penchant for ancient Greek, has been reborn as East Bank, with the addition of a new base for the BBC symphony orchestra and recording studios. It now features four towers rather than two, the V&A has been slashed to a third of its size and what was a parade of dour brick blocks has been jollied up in more expressive clothing. Continue reading...
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