Old Ford Island

The Old River Lea is the former natural channel of the River Lea below Lea Bridge, in the London Borough of Hackney. The Old River forms a large meander from the Middlesex Filter Beds Weir to rejoin the main channel of the River Lee Navigation below Old Ford Lock, just west of the 2012 Olympic stadium. The natural channel is joined by the River Lee Flood Relief Channel, and Dagenham Brook and a number of subsidiary channels to form the semi-tidal Bow Back Rivers, discharging into Bow Creek. The natural channel forms the boundary between the London Boroughs of Hackney and Waltham Forest; and forms the eastern boundary of Hackney Marshes, and historically the western boundary of Leyton Marshes.

Old Ford Lock is a paired lock and weir on the River Lee Navigation, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England. It is at Fish Island in Old Ford and takes its name from the natural ford which used to cross the River Lea.

The Big Breakfast is a British breakfast light entertainment television programme that was broadcast on Channel 4. Originally presented by Chris Evans and Gaby Roslin, the show was latterly presented by Mo Gilligan and AJ Odudu. The programme was distinctive for broadcasting live from a real house (which had been lock-keepers' cottages), commonly referred to as "The Big Breakfast House", or more simply, "The House", located on Fish Island, in Bow in east London. The original house on Fish Island in Bow has since been sold. The show was a mix of news, weather, interviews, audience phone-ins and general features, with a light tone which was in competition with the maturer GMTV and BBC Breakfast programmes.

Old Ford is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets that is named after the natural ford which provided a crossing of the River Lea.

The East London Waterworks Company was one of eight private water companies in London absorbed by the Metropolitan Water Board in 1904. The company was founded by Act of Parliament in 1806, and in 1845 the limits of supply were described as "all those portions of the Metropolis, and its suburbs, which lie to the east of the city, Shoreditch, the Kingsland Road, and Dalston; extending their mains even across the river Lea into Essex, as far as West Ham."The water supplied by the company was taken from the Lea, with waterworks on 30 acres (0.12 km2) of land at Old Ford. The company also acquired existing waterworks at Shadwell (dating from 1660) Lea Bridge (pre 1767) and West Ham (1743). Although the legislation that established the London water companies intended that they would compete for customers, in 1815 the East London company drew up a legal agreement with the New River Company defining a boundary between their areas of supply. In 1829, the source of water was moved further up river to Lea Bridge as a result of pollution caused by population growth. In 1770, the Hackney Cut, had been built across Hackney Marshes to avoid a 2 miles (3.2 km) meander of the natural river course; clean water was now abstracted from the natural channel to a new reservoir at Old Ford. In 1830 the company gained a lease on the existing reservoir at Clapton. This was replaced by a new reservoir at Stamford Hill in 1891.In 1841 the company supplied 36,916 houses. By 1903 this figure had risen to 223,891 houses, with the area of supply having a population of 1,482,156.In 1866, during a cholera pandemic outbreak, where 5,973 Londoners perished, the East London Water Company was found guilty of supplying contaminated water taken from River Lea and stored into open reservoirs. Dead eels were found in water pipes, and foul water taken from the reservoirs and pumped into the main supply.The Metropolis Water Act 1902 amalgamated the eight private water companies into the Metropolitan Water Board, whose members were chosen by the various local authorities of the metropolitan area.

Thornton's Field Carriage Sidings was a stabling point located in Stratford, London, England. The depot was situated on the north side of the Great Eastern Main Line, between Bethnal Green and Stratford stations.The depot code was TF.

Fish Island is an area in east London, England in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It encompasses one of 58 designated conservation areas in Tower Hamlets, with many of its buildings considered important to Britain's industrial heritage, though there are no listed buildings in the area.Regeneration and construction projects in Fish Island from 2016 onwards have caused the area to be referred to as "the new Shoreditch", in reference to the gentrification of that neighbourhood in the late 1990s.Nearby Hackney Wick has a similar character to Fish Island and this sometimes leads to Fish Island being described as part of Hackney Wick, though they are in different boroughs. Fish Island, despite its name, is not an actual island.

The 2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony was held on 29 August 2012, starting at 20:30 BST and marking the official opening of the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, England. The show – named Enlightenment – had Jenny Sealey and Bradley Hemmings as its artistic directors, leading a team that included Jon Bausor as set designer and Moritz Junge as costume designer. Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Games. The ceremony was performed in the Olympic stadium in London in front of a capacity audience of 80,000 people.

The opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on the evening of Friday 27 July 2012 in the Olympic Stadium, London, during which the Games were formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combined the ceremonial opening of this international sporting event (including welcoming speeches, hoisting of the flags and the parade of athletes) with an artistic spectacle to showcase the host nation's culture. The spectacle was entitled Isles of Wonder and directed by Academy Award-winning British film director Danny Boyle. Prior to London 2012 there had been considerable apprehension about Britain's ability to stage an opening ceremony that could reach the standard set at the Beijing Summer Games of 2008. The 2008 ceremony had been noted for its scale, extravagance and expense, hailed as the "greatest ever", and had cost £65m. In contrast, London spent an estimated £27m (out of £80m budgeted for its four ceremonies), which was nevertheless about twice the original budget. Nonetheless, the London opening ceremony was immediately seen as a tremendous success, widely praised as a "masterpiece" and "a love letter to Britain".The ceremony began at 21:00 BST and lasted almost four hours. It was watched by an estimated worldwide television audience of 900 million, becoming the most-viewed Olympic opening ceremony in both the UK and US. The content had largely been kept secret before the performance, despite involving thousands of volunteers and two public rehearsals. The principal sections of the artistic display represented Britain's Industrial Revolution, National Health Service, literary heritage, popular music and culture, and were noted for their vibrant storytelling and use of music. Two shorter sections drew particular comment, involving a filmed cameo appearance of the Queen with James Bond as her escort, and a live performance by the London Symphony Orchestra joined by comedian Rowan Atkinson. These were widely ascribed to Britain's sense of humour. The ceremony featured children and young people in most of its segments, reflecting the 'inspire a generation' aspiration of London's original bid for the Games.The BBC released footage of the entire opening ceremony on 29 October 2012, edited by Danny Boyle and with background extras, along with more than seven hours of sporting highlights and the complete closing ceremony.

The closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Paralympics, also known as The Festival of the Flame, was held on 9 September at the Olympic Stadium in London. Kim Gavin (who also directed the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics) served as director for the ceremony, while Stephen Daldry served as its executive producer. The ceremony was themed around festivals and the four seasons, and was set to music performed live by the British rock group Coldplay, also joined by special guest performers such as the British Paraorchestra, Rihanna and Jay-Z. In a formal handover ceremony, the Paralympic flag was passed from Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, to Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, the host city of the 2016 Summer Paralympics. During his closing speech, International Paralympic Committee president Philip Craven congratulated London for hosting "the greatest Paralympic Games ever." Following the official closure of the Games, the Paralympic cauldron was extinguished by swimmer Eleanor Simmonds and sprinter Jonnie Peacock.

The closing ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympics, also known as A Symphony of British Music, was held on 12 August 2012 in the Olympic Stadium, London. The chief guest was Prince Harry representing Queen Elizabeth II. The closing ceremony was created by Kim Gavin, Es Devlin, Stephen Daldry, David Arnold and Mark Fisher. The worldwide broadcast began at 21:00 BST (UTC+1) and finished on 13 August 2012 at 00:11, lasting three hours and eleven minutes. The stadium had been turned into a giant representation of the Union Flag, designed by Damien Hirst. Around 4,100 people partook in the ceremony; which reportedly cost £20 million. The 2012 Summer Olympics were officially closed by Jacques Rogge, who called London's games "happy and glorious." The ceremony included a handover to the next host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro and saw the Olympic flame extinguished and the Olympic flag lowered. The main part of the evening featured a one-hour symphony of British Music as a number of British Pop acts appeared. Tributes to John Lennon and Freddie Mercury and the fashion industry were included in the section. Rio marked the handover with an eight-minute section known as "Embrace" created by Cao Hamburger and Daniela Thomas, featuring Pelé. Sebastian Coe gave a speech, and the volunteers of London 2012 were thanked. An average of 23.2 million viewers in the United Kingdom watched the event, with an estimated 750 million worldwide. Critics were generally positive, but noted that it was not as good as the opening ceremony. Some of the foreign reviews questioned whether everyone would have understood the nods to British film and television. George Michael was roundly criticised for his song choice while Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Russell Brand were criticised for not demonstrating the Olympic ethos in their past behaviour. Some performers were initially reluctant to appear, and other high-profile acts turned down invitations to perform at the ceremony. NBC in the United States, TV5 in the Philippines and Prime TV in New Zealand were criticised by viewers for their broadcasts of the ceremony. There was also a concert in Hyde Park to close the Olympics, featuring Blur, New Order, and The Specials.

Betar Bangla (Bengali: বেতার বাংলা) is a British radio station based in London aimed at the Bangladeshi community in the UK.