Welcoming the world
Olympic rings have been mowed into the grass by shire horses at Richmond Park in London. The rings are visible on the flight path to London Heathrow International Airport, ready to welcome athletes and visitors to the London 2012 Games.
The Games will take place July 27-Aug. 12, 2012.
The Games will take place July 27-Aug. 12, 2012.
Getting around
A cable car is seen June 28 across the River Thames in London. The cable car will make the half-mile crossing between Greenwich and the Royal Docks, allowing visitors to take in the views of Olympic Park, the Canary Wharf financial center and the Thames Barrier. Each of the 34 cars holds 10 people. Travelers can purchase one-way or round-trip tickets, with a one-way ticket costing 3.20 pounds (about $5 US).
Final countdown
Work continues July 3 on the entry routes to the Olympic Stadium in London. The stadium will host several events during the 2012 Games.
Olympic Park
A July 12 aerial view of the Olympic Park in Stratford, one of the venues for the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games.
Twisty tower
The ArcelorMittal Orbit is seen May 11 in the London 2012 Olympic Park. The 375-foot observation tower is the tallest in England and will remain a permanent fixture in the city long after the Games end.
Shopping, anyone?
Shoppers are seen at the Westfield Stratford City mall in east London. The 1.75 billion British pounds ($2.75 billion U.S.) mall includes a 24-hour casino, 14 bowling lanes, 70 restaurants and 250 shops between the main public transit hub and the main entry point to the Olympic Park. An estimated 75 percent of fans will have to walk through the mall and its temptations to reach the venues for showcase events like gymnastics, swimming, basketball and track.
Shooting events
A steward stands outside the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, London, on April 20. The OIympic shooting events will be held at this venue.
Carrying the torch
Torchbearer Zachary Franklin carries the Olympic flame on a raft down the Lee Valley White Water Centre on July 7 in Waltham Cross, England. The 70-day relay leading up on the Olympic Games involves 8,000 torchbearers covering 8,000 miles.
Tennis, anyone?
Andy Murray of Great Britain serves during a semifinal men's tennis match July 6 against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France on day 11 of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London. The 2012 Summer Olympics tennis competition will be held in the venue.
Olympic Stadium
This picture taken with a fisheye lens May 5 shows a general view of the British Universities and Colleges Sport Athletics Championship at Olympic Stadium in London. The 80,000-seat stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies during the 2012 Games.
Velodrome
The Velodrome in east London can seat 6,000 spectators and will host the cycling events at the 2012 Summer Games. A glass wall around the venue's perimeter also gives visitors a 360-degree view of Olympic Park
Olympic Park
The London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games released the new aerial image dated Dec. 5 showing the transformation of the Olympic Park.
London will host the 2012 Olympic Games taking place from 27 July-12 August 2012 and Paralympic Games 29 August - 9 September 2012.
London will host the 2012 Olympic Games taking place from 27 July-12 August 2012 and Paralympic Games 29 August - 9 September 2012.
Home sweet home
An aerial view of the Athletes' Village in the London 2012 Olympic Park on April 16.
View from above
An aerial view of the Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre and Water Polo Arena in the London 2012 Olympic Park on April 16.
Spin your wheels
Exterior view of the Velodrome within the Olympic Park in London, England, on Feb. 19. The velodrome will host the track cycling events at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Eyes on the prize
An aerial view of the Aquatics Centre and the Water Polo Arena in the London 2012 Olympic Park on April 16.
Transformation
An aerial view of Olympic Park taken on April 4, 2008, (bottom) and Dec. 21, 2011, (top) show the Aquatics Centre (front), Water Polo Arena, right, and the Olympic Stadium, back, in London and the site when construction began.
Olympic Stadium and Orbit Tower
The Olympic stadium and Orbit Tower of the London 2012 Olympic games in Stratford, east London, seen on Jan. 12, 2012.
Velodrome
A view of the Velodrome from the Parklands area in the Olympic Park in London on April 8, 2011.
Olympic Stadium
The Olympic Stadium is seen from Hackney in London on Nov. 27, 2011.
Beach volleyball venue
People walk across the Horseguards Parade on Nov. 29, 2011, in London, which will host the beach volleyball event for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Rising to the occasion
Hot air balloons rise into the early morning sky July 25, 2011, over London. Seven balloons took part in the flight over London as part of a collaboration between the London Sky Orchestra project, the 30th anniversary of the London International Festival of Theatre, and the Greater London Authority, which is marking a year to go before the 2012 Olympic Games.
Mascots
Olympic mascot Wenlock, left, and Paralympic mascot Mandeville pose for photographs May 19, 2010, at a school in London. The backstory of the two mascots is that they were created from the last drops of steel left over from the construction of the final support girder for the Olympic Stadium.
Bull’s eye
An aerial view of Lord's Cricket Ground, which will host archery events during the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Hoop dreams
An interior view of the London 2012 Basketball Arena. Construction on the 12,000-seat basketball arena for 2012 Olympics in London has been completed, just 15 months after building began. The stadium became the fourth venue at Olympic Park to be finished, on budget and in time for the first test event to be held at the site in August.
The Dome
An aerial view of the North Greenwich Arena, also known as The Dome, which will host artistic gymnastics, trampoline, basketball and wheelchair basketball events during the 2012 Olympics in London.
Manmade whitewaterAn aerial view of the Lee Valley White Water Centre, which will host the canoe slalom events during the London Olympics.
In the arena
Nina Ligon represents Thailand during an equestrian competition at Greenwich Park on July 4 in London. The equestrian eventing was one of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games’ test events prior to 2012.
Goal!
An aerial view of Wembley Stadium, which will host soccer events during the 2012 Games.
Courtside seats
An interior view of the Handball Arena at London’s Olympic Park. The Handball Arena became the third venue at the Olympic Park to be completed.
Tennis, anyone?
An aerial view of Wimbledon, which will host the tennis events during the 2012 Olympic Games.
The Mall
An aerial view of The Mall, which will host the marathon, race walk and cycling events at the 2012 Games.
Torch unveiled
Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London 2012 Olympic Organising Committee, poses for pictures with the newly unveiled 2012 London Olympic Torch on June 8 in London. Runners will use the torch to carry the Olympic flame 8,000 miles around Britain to the opening ceremony.
Tourists walk through the gardens outside Westminster Abbey on April 22, 2011, just days before the royal wedding between Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29, 2011. Westminster Abbey, one of Britain's finest examples of Gothic architecture, has been home to royal coronations, marriages and funerals since the 11th century.
Msnbc.com's Marian Smith reports: As the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games fast approach, photographer Gideon Mendel seeks to capture the diversity of life within one mile of the main Olympic site. Himself an East London resident, Mendel says he is struck by how many different people from different parts of the world live and work in the area – and is intrigued by the idea that the international participants in this summer’s games will be greeted by such an international community.
This busy intersection in the center of Stratford in the East London borough of Newham shows one slice of the neighborhood that is home to the Olympic stadium and park. This particular crosswalk is significant because it links the old Stratford Center shopping mall, filled with low-end shops and budget grocery stores, with the new Westfield Stratford City shopping center, packed with stores like Armani, Mulberry and Prada. The new mall is the largest urban shopping center in Europe.
Newham is London’s poorest borough and the second-most deprived council area in England, according to the council’s statistics. It is also one of the most ethnically diverse places in Britain, with more than 200 languages and dialects spoken. Algerian restaurants, Polish bakeries, Nigerian textile shops and traditional English greasy spoons sit elbow-to-elbow along Newham’s overflowing streets.
Some members of the houseboat community on the River Lee enjoy a fire on a chilly spring evening. There is a long tradition of people living along the river and surrounding canals, but life has changed recently for the “constant cruisers,” who pay for a yearly license but not for a permanent mooring, which means they must move every two weeks. Dredging and cleanup operations around the Olympic sites have forced many of them to move far away from their usual haunts; this summer the canals around the main sites will be closed off completely. The canals in central London will be under other restrictions – cruisers will have to pay up to 350 pounds ($550) per week to moor along their banks.
The canals were primarily built during the 19th century to accommodate Britain's rapid industrialization and manufacturing boom. Because London's factories and warehouses were clustered in East London, there are far more canals in that part of the city – and therefore around the Olympic sites. Houseboat-dwellers, an eccentric and endearing fixture in London, complain about having to travel too far from their jobs and their children’s schools in order to continue mooring for free. “Exoticism doesn’t really fit into a large-scale military operation,” says Tina Weidner, who has lived on a houseboat in London for three years. British Waterways, which is responsible for managing 2,000 miles of inland waterways, denies that it is “cleaning people out” for the Olympics. “[That criticism] is a bit unfair because we’re trying to work within quite tight security requirements,” says spokeswoman Fran Read. “We think the boats and waterways are incredibly valuable.”
Members of the Street Gym Elites exercise club work out in a newly constructed outdoor exercise area in Mabley Green, Hackney. This area, funded by Olympic sponsor Adidas, is one of the ‘adiZones’, a number of which have been built in the so-called Olympic boroughs – Barking & Dagenham, Greenwich, Hackney, Newham Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest. These are permanent installations with sporting facilities inspired by Olympic and Paralympic sports that include a basketball, soccer and tennis area, a climbing wall, an outdoor gym and an open area to encourage dance, aerobics and gymnastics.
Mikey Warner, seen at left, who has been leading outdoor training sessions around East London for 20 years, acknowledges that the new park facility is well-equipped and is one of many improvements in the area, but he’s quick to remind people that he has done the Street Gym sports program “off my own back.” He believes kids in the surrounding rough neighborhoods will stay out of trouble if they get involved in sports. “Athletes never get mixed up in that scene,” he says.
A teacher dressed as Dracula playfully scares some of his pupils at Kingsmead Primary School in Hackney on World Book Day, when the children were asked to come to school dressed as their favorite character from a book or comic. The students are looking forward to the Olympics, though mainly “to see who wins” more than for any other reason, one child says. They elected two of their peers to be “Olympic ambassadors,” who have attended opening ceremonies for some of the venues and who regularly go to meetings about the 2012 games and report back.
According to government data, Kingsmead children are among the most economically deprived in the U.K. – more than half of students are on a free school meals program. In the front entrance a world map covers one wall, dotted with flags representing the children’s families’ home countries. School officials say 95 percent of their pupils are an ethnic minority and they speak 46 different languages – 80 percent speak English as a second language. Despite these challenges, academic achievement is above the national average. The school also recently won an award for Creative School of the Year for the London borough of Hackney.
Visitors on a tour of the Olympic sites head toward the London 2012 Olympic stadium, which will hold 80,000 people this summer. Olympics organizers tout its environmentally friendly credentials – it has been built with lightweight steel and low-carbonate concrete, which is made up of recycled industrial waste. After the games, 55,000 seats will be removed and it will be used for a variety of athletic and cultural events.
To the right is the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower, designed by renowned British-Indian artist Amish Kapoor. It has been both lauded and viciously criticized by artists in the local area. Admirers are quick to point out that many people in France hated the Eiffel Tower when it was first built and now it is the icon of Paris.
Construction workers take a break from their task of building the Olympic site to enjoy a substantial lunch at The Griddler, a local café very close to site of the games. Because their breaks are so short, often under half an hour, the chef tries to get their food to them within five minutes of placing the order. The owners of the café, Frank and Rosie Aviatti, are popular local characters who strongly resent the impact of the Olympic construction on their business and their community.
“We was doing all right until the Olympics come along,” Frank says. A few years ago part of the road that the café is on was shut down for Olympics-related construction projects and “business went down 90 percent,” he says. They considered shutting it down but powered through, buoyed slightly by the business that construction workers brought them. “My problem now is that I’ve been talking to the workers, and they’ve only got another month-and-a-half,” he says. “What are we left with? Shambles.”
A view of the entrance to the new Westfield Stratford City shopping center, which houses 236 stores and 50 cafes and restaurants. There has been much controversy about the fact that around 70 percent of spectators attending the games will have to walk through its courtyard to enter the Olympic park.
Jean Jeffrey, commercial officer for Newham Council, hails it as an example of how much the Olympics has regenerated the borough, and points out that it has brought jobs to the area. “The Olympics coming to Newham is a bonus,” she says. “If you think about it, because of the global financial crisis and the economic downturn, we wouldn’t have had that shopping center built and opened now.”
A busy Saturday afternoon scene at the Roman Road Market in Tower Hamlets, very close to the Olympic park. In the background the top of the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower at the center of the site can be seen. This area, which was traditionally a white working class East End community, now has a large Bengali population.
“We get all kinds of cultures, ethnic origins … It’s one of few places you can go where you can get all that, where they can socialize together – and it works,” says Larry Elliot, an operations manager at the Gala Bingo club in Stratford, shown here. Older people come in the afternoons to enjoy other people’s company and younger visitors tend to come in the evening, Elliot says. While the regeneration projects brought on by the Olympics have been “brilliant” there are mixed feelings, he says. The club worries that people might have trouble getting there on packed buses and trains this summer.
Dancers enjoy a long night of electronic house music put on by event company Select Elect at a warehouse complex directly across the River Lee from the main Olympic site. Revelers buy tickets to Select Elect parties online and then organizers send out details of the location the day before – the parties are held in old warehouses, basements and other “secret” venues. “[People] engage with us because they want to know what they bought their tickets for,” says Robert Zweiniger, one of the company’s promoters.
Zweiniger doubts the Olympic crowds will be attracted to this kind of event – “they will be into a more commercial scene,” he says – but the games will still have a marked long-term effect. “Underground raves and parties might have a problem with sustainability if everything is being rebuilt,” Zweiniger says, worrying about potential party venues disappearing. “Subcultural movements might get lost and move.”
Two young artists and models who live in an old industrial building overlooking the Olympics site pose for photographs. Their building has been converted into live/work studios so many creative people in the arts and music scene live there. The rooftop also has some noticeable and vibrant graffiti by an anonymous artist known as Sweet Toof, whose work keeps popping up in various shapes and sizes around the sites of the 2012 Olympics.
Graphic designer James Brown, whose studio is in an old peanut factory building, says this part of East London used to feel “like the end of the world,” but now it is more accessible to people. So much has changed recently that in some cases, “I can’t remember what was there before,” he says.
Artist Jeannette Barnes works in her Hackney Wick studio near the Olympic stadium. She is one of a large community of artists who work in the old industrial buildings in the area, and is one of the rare supporters of the development brought on by the games. She says there are parts of the neighborhood she wouldn’t have dared walk through for fear of her safety before the building started. “I would have got mugged,” she says.
Many of Barnes’ recent works depict the construction around the Olympic sites – in this picture she is working on a charcoal drawing of the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower, the controversial sculpture by Amish Kapoor at the center of the site. “I love it,” she says, shrugging off others’ criticism. “It’s a lovely, complicated interesting thing.” The framed work alongside shows the construction of the Olympic stadium.
Hackney Wick has one of the highest concentrations of art studios in the world, according to the local artists, and many of them resent the Olympics’ intrusion into their lives. “There are thousands of art studios already, and really cheap housing, so [new buildings] feel like competition,” says Rebecca Whyte, who runs the Stour Space studio and gallery – the closest public building to the Olympic stadium. She fears artists will be priced out of their studios and worries that the unique community will be lost. “In a big, huge, international project like this, the little guy never wins,” she says.
A member of the Hertfordshire County Council talks on his phone after hearing a presentation in a viewing platform in a building overlooking the site of the 2012 Olympic games. He is looking out over the borough of Newham, London’s poorest. Roughly a quarter of households live in poverty and the employment rate is 55.3 percent, the lowest in the country, according to statistics from the council.
“We’ve had nothing in our borough for a long time,” Jean Jeffries, the Newham Council officer, says. But with the Olympics in town she is hopeful that those numbers will turn around. “We’re going to give West London a run for their money in time,” she says.
A group of volunteers cleans the banks of the River Lee, close to the site of the 2012 Olympic games. They are mostly teenagers and are taking part in the Big Waterways Clean Up 2012 campaign, a partnership campaign to improve East London’s waterways.
British Waterways is also working with the Metropolitan Police and the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) to improve security and the environment, and facilitate a clean water supply for the greater number of people mooring their houseboats around London. Dredging will clean and deepen the channels, says Fran Read, the British Waterways spokeswoman. “We want to keep the waterways navigable for boats,” Read says, explaining that there will be higher traffic along the rivers and canals from both security vessels and passenger boats.
“They say this is the green lung of London. Well it’s not really green right now, is it?” says Vicky Sholand, a Leyton Marsh resident and dog-walker. She and a group of locals have been protesting the Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA) construction of a temporary basketball training court on an area of natural parkland, shown here. Sholand says most residents didn’t know what was happening until the fence went up to block off the site for construction. “They put up notices on small pieces of paper but most people didn’t see them,” she says.
The ODA won the right to build despite a petition signed by more than 1,250 local people. It promised the construction would only dig 15 centimeters (6 inches) into the ground and said the green space would be returned to its natural condition after the games. This is disputed by the Save Leyton Marsh group, which claims it is a land grab by the Olympic authorities and believe there will be long-term damage to the site.
Members of the press, Coca-Cola sponsors, music producer Mark Ronson and pop singer Katy B gather for a media event as part of the company’s London 2012 sponsorship campaign, “Move to the Beat,” in the shadow of the Olympic stadium. Ronson and Katy B collaborated to produce Coca-Cola’s “Anywhere in the World” anthem, which Coca-Cola says fuses the sounds of Olympic sports with the beat of London music.
The “Beat Wall” artwork, by photorealist artists Neil Edward, Hadley Ever and Same Bates, represents how Ronson gained inspiration from young athletes for the song. Shortly after the filming of the media event the wall was painted over.
On Aug. 12, a colorful and vibrant East London will say farewell to thousands of athletes, coaches, officials and visitors at the Olympic closing ceremony.
A woman takes a photograph of British Union Jack flags hanging along London's Regent Street on April 22, 2011, in preparation for the royal wedding between Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Pedestrians walk along the south bank of the River Thames. The Thames flows along some of the major sights in London, such as the Houses of Parliament, pictured, Big Ben, the Tower of London and the London Eye.
Summer crowds gather in Trafalgar Square in front of the National Gallery. At the center of Trafalgar Square is Nelson's Column, which commemorates the 1805 battle of Trafalga
The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square houses the national collection of Western European paintings dating back to the 13th century. Admission to the museum is free.
The building 30 St Mary's Axe, nicknamed The Gherkin, is the second-tallest building in the historic core of London at 591feet.
Visitors enjoy summer sunshine as they row boats on the Serpentine in Hyde Park. One of King Henry VIII's former hunting grounds, the 350-acre park in the middle of London features more than 4,000 trees, a lake and a meadow.
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park opened on July 6, 2004, in London. The fountain was designed by American Kathrun Gustafson as a tribute to the former princess, who died in a car crash in 1997.
At the end of The Mall is Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace, where Her Majesty The Queen resides.
The Tower of London is a historic castle that early in its history served as a royal residence but is probably most well-known for its use as a place of imprisonment. King Henry VIII executed two of his wives there, and before she became queen, Elizabeth I was held captive there by her half-sister, Queen Mary I.
Tower Bridge, which officially opened in 1894, is one of the most iconic landmarks of London.
The Globe Theatre was built in 1599 and is associated with playwright William Shakespeare's company of actors. The oiginal theater burnt down in 1613. It was replaced by a second theater, which later closed. The current Globe was founded by American director Sam Wanamaker and opened in 1997.
The Globe Theatre is dedicated to the exploration of William Shakespeare's works.
London's Little Venice is a tranquil canal area that is home to waterside cafes and pubs.
Shoppers and tourists flock to the eclectic mix of retail outlets in the north London district of Camden Town. The area has been immortalized in many films and recently has become a popular haunt of musicians and supermodels.
The historic Royal Observatory, Greenwich, is the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian of the World, making it the official starting point for each new day and year.
The Greenwich foot tunnel runs under the River Thames between Cutty Sark Gardens and Island Gardens, on the Isle of Dogs.
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament, is where members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons meet to conduct business.
The Millennium Dome in southeast London was built to house an exhibition celebrating the third millennium that ran Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2000. It was renamed the O2 in 2005 and includes an indoor arena that serves as a concert venue.
St Paul's Cathedral is seen from the Millennium Bridge. The Anglican cathedral sits on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in London's historic core.
The London Symphony Orchestra rehearses at Saint Paul's Cathedral on July 9, 2009.
The theater, which dates back to 1720, has been the site of several theatrical innovations, including the first matinee performance.
Pedestrians walk in front of Harrods, a department store that sells luxury goods.
An aerial view of London shows the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye and the financial district. The UK's capital city is home to more than 7.5 million people.
A scenic view of the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament photographed on August 18, 2007.
An aerial view of Wimbledon at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
2012 Olympics
An aerial view of Olympic Park under construction. On the left is the Olympic Stadium and on the right the Aquatics Centre.
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기