The Lea Valley and London's Olympic bid

Clients: London Development Agency and Capita Symonds

Author: Nick Bateman

From September 2003 MoLAS and PCA (Pre-Construct Archaeology) joined forces to work on the archaeological and built heritage chapters of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) to support the planning applications to be submitted on behalf of the for the London 2012 Olympics bid. The overall environmental statement (ES) is being coordinated and produced by Capita Symonds. The Olympics planning applications and supporting information, including the ES, were submitted to the four Lower Lea Valley London boroughs in January 2004.

The principal Olympics precinct proposals include

• the main Olympic stadium and other key venues including the aquatics centre, velodrome, hockey and tennis stadia and three indoor arenas
• the main press centre and international broadcast centre, Olympic village and ancillary facilities
• major infrastructure and services, including a combined cooling, heat and power plant (CCHP)
• bridges, land bridges and underpasses
• site re-grading, remediation and enabling engineering works

The archaeology and built heritage chapter of the ES assessed the general impact of the proposals over the next few years, with equal regard to both known resources, for example visible historic buildings and structures or Roman road alignments, and unknown resources, for example buried prehistoric landscapes in the deep alluvial soils of the Lea Valley.

Work is continuing in the autumn of 2004 on the preparation of additional environmental statements on regeneration of the Lea Valley without the Olympic scenario.

This site report is extracted from MoLAS 2004: annual review