London Olympics leaves East End legacy

Guy Nicholson, councillor for Hackney/ by Wang Yu, for China Daily

Timeline: Growth of East London

1800s: East London thrived as an industrial hub and fostered many important breakthroughs like the invention of plastic in 1860 and dry cleaning in 1876.

1900s: WWII devastated East London because its docks, railways and industry formed a target for bombing, especially during the Blitz. East London became crippled and derelict.

2005: London won the Olympic bid. Construction of the Olympic Park cost cost the British government 9 billion pounds ($14.10 billion) over 7 years.

2011: Private developers opened Westfield Stratford City, Europe's largest urban shopping centre. It cost 1.4 billion pounds, created 10,000 jobs, and greatly improved prosperity of Stratford.

2005 – 2012: London’s 17 billion pounds public transport investment ahead of the Games made East London much more connected, including the upgraded underground lines and newly built cable cars and high speed trains.

2012 - 2014: After the Games end, Olympic Park will be developed into a new community that includes schools, nurseries, community spaces, health centers and 6,800 new homes, creating 8,000 permanent jobs in the process.

2016: Park is projected to attract 9.3 million inbound visits a year. To put the numbers in context, 30.8 million inbound visits were made across Britain in 2011.