Description

During the Games, the Olympic and Paralympic Village will comprise residential apartments for around 17,000 athletes and officials, along with shops, restaurants, medical, media and leisure facilities and large areas of open space.

The Village will also include a 'Village Plaza' where athletes can meet with friends and family. The plan retains London's tradition of building homes around communal squares and courtyards, with water features accentuating the closeness of the River Lea.

Athletes will have an inspirational view over the Park. Every apartment will provide comfortable accommodation and state-of-the-art communications facilities, including internet access and wireless networking. All the apartment blocks will be fully accessible and equipped with modern lifts.

Athletes will have easy access to the travel and leisure facilities of the adjacent Stratford City complex, and the High Speed 1 Javelin® shuttle service will link the Village to central London in just seven minutes.

During the Games, the Village will include ‘back of house' operations, and services for athletes such as catering and transport. The majority of these will be accommodated in temporary structures on sites that can be cleared for development immediately after the Games.

The Olympic Village will be able to house up to 16,000 thousand athletes and team officials during the Olympic Games and 6,200 thousand athletes and team officials plus 1000 referees and umpires during the Paralympic Games, all from 200 countries around the world. The fit-out and overlay work that started in January 27th 2012 includes:

• Installing 16,000 beds, 64,000 bed sheets and 21,000 pillows
• 9,000 wardrobes and more than 170,000 coat hangers
• 11,000 sofas, 5,000 bins and 5,000 toilet brushes
• Equipping each apartment with a television and wi-fi services
• Constructing the temporary 24-hour main dining facility with 5,000 seats, as well the Village Plaza Café and ‘Grab-and-go' carts - the Village will provide the largest peacetime catering operation in the world with up to 60,000 meals served daily
• Sustainably sourced food from around the world will be available including 25,000 loaves of bread, 232 tonnes of potatoes, 75,000 litres of milk and more than 330 tonnes of fruit and vegetables
• Building the Olympic Village Plaza - the main ‘social hub' of the Village with essential shops and services for athletes and guests including a café, general store, bank, beauty & grooming salon, internet lounge, London 2012 shop and entertainment centre
• Constructing the Welcome Centre, the initial arrival point for athletes and officials to be officially accredited for the London 2012 Games
• Installing exercise equipment to create a state-of-the art athlete gym in Chobham Academy

The ODA started work on the Village in June 2008 and had completed the construction of 2,818 new apartments on time in January 2012. The construction of the Village has included:

• Building apartments for Games-time and legacy use in 11 residential plots, complete with spacious courtyards, gardens and balconies
• Developing and completing the construction of a world-class education campus - the Chobham Academy - with places for 1,800 students and a state-of-the-art Polyclinic with a full range of health facilities
• Landscaping work throughout the Village, which continues and will be completed in the spring
• Providing work for more than 16,500 people, part of more than 46,000 who have worked on the Olympic Park and Village during construction
• Making provision for removing temporary Games-time fittings in the apartments after September 2012 and ‘retro-fitting' them with new kitchens

After the Games

After the Games, the Village will be a lasting legacy of essential new housing for east London. It will be transformed into 2,800 new homes, including 1,379 affordable homes.

The communities that develop in the area after the Games will be supported by new parks, open space, transport links, and community facilities including Chobham Academy - a world-class new education campus with 1,800 places for students aged 3-19.

Source: london2012.com May 2011