In December last year, Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced his plans for an ‘Olympicopolis’ on The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park site, which will reopen to the public tomorrow, 5 April, after being partially closed since 2012.
The Mayor is keen for the area in east London to become ‘Olympicopolis’, a 21st-century version of the Victorian ‘Albertopolis’ cultural complex in west London. ‘Albertopolis’ encompasses the South Kensington Museum and Royal Albert Hall, and was a legacy of the Great Exhibition 1851.
Today, Johnson attended a new play park on the site with Prince Harry, who played with children on the swings.
The Victoria and Albert Museum and University College London have both confirmed that they will be involved in the project, and have plans to build new sites adjacent to the Stratford waterfront, between the stadium and Stratford station.
UCL said their decision to move to the east London site is ‘founded on the fact that we need more space, the Bloomsbury campus is cramped’.
The Mayor of London has also been in discussion with the Guggenheim in New York, over a proposed Guggenheim East London.
It is hoped that the project will come to fruition in 2018.
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The many faces of Mary Magdalene