On July 6th 2005 the International Olympic Committee announced that London was to be the setting for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. This exciting news had implications for all Londoners over the next few years, but it had specific implications for the archaeology and built heritage of the Lea Valley.
The east of London is being transformed as London prepares for the 2012 Games. The boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Newham will see huge amounts of private and public investment. Derelict land and ‘brownfield’ sites will be used to build a new Olympic Park including venues and the athletes Village, playing fields, new housing and transport infrastructure, and new parkland and waterways.
The impacts of these projects on existing archaeological monuments or deposits, historic buildings, or London’s industrial heritage, has been fully weighed as part of the normal planning process, and appropriate field evaluation and/or ‘mitigation’ is now taking place, whether that means incorporation of significant remains or buildings into the new designs, or excavation, recording and ‘preservation by record’.
From September 2003 the two biggest archaeological organisations working in London, MoLAS (the Museum of London Archaeology Service) and PCA (pre-Construct Archaeology) joined forces to work together on the redevelopment plans for the Lea Valley for London’s bid. In 2004 we produced the Archaeological and Built Heritage chapters of the Environmental Statement (ES) which was commissioned to support the planning applications by the London Development Agency (LDA) for the London 2012 bid. The overall (ES) was coordinated and produced by Capita Symonds. The Planning Applications and supporting information - including the ES - were submitted to the four Lower Lea Valley London Boroughs (LBs) in January 2004 and outline Planning Consent was granted on 14th October 2004. MoLAS-PCA contributed again to the revised Planning Application in 2006.
During 2006 and 2007 MoLAS-PCA with Capita Symonds have commenced, on behalf of the Olympic Delivery Authority, an extensive programme of field evaluation for below ground archaeology, at the same time as conducting recording of a large number of standing buildings and other structures prior to demolition. At the end of 2007 more than 50 of a total of c 150 large evaluation trenches have been excavated. A number of these have lead to further mitigation (excavation or more extensive sampling) being required. Reports on these exercises can be found under ‘Sites’ below.
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