London Blossom Garden

Carpenter's Road Lock is a rising radial lock in the London Borough of Newham, near Marshgate Lane in Stratford, England. It is located on the Bow Back Rivers and was constructed in 1933/34. It is the only lock in Britain with rising radial gates at both ends. British Waterways were hoping to restore it as part of the upgrade to Bow Back Rivers which took place for the 2012 Summer Olympics, but the gantries which enabled the gates to be raised were demolished to accommodate a wide bridge giving access to the main stadium. After the Games, most of the overbridge was removed. Funding for the restoration of the lock was in place by early 2016, and it is expected to be brought back into use in 2017.

Waterworks River is a river, at one time a tidal river, in the London Borough of Newham, one of the Bow Back Rivers that flow into the Bow Creek part of the River Lea, which in turn flows into the River Thames.The river is an artificial channel, cut for the Stratford Waterworks (later purchased by the East London Waterworks Company) in 1743, from the Old River Lee channel (above Old Ford Lock), to supply a reservoir at Saynes Mill, Stratford. It was widened to 100 feet (30.5 m) in the 1930s, as part of a project to prevent flooding in Stratford. The channel is lined for large stretches with concrete slabs, though sections through the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park have been landscaped to a more natural setting. Whilst running through the park, which hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics, the river forms the border between the London Aquatics Centre on one bank, and the Olympic Stadium on the other. Steles (Waterworks) by artist Keith Wilson was the first artwork completed in the Olympic Park. It consists of thirty-five brightly coloured stele-like sculptures rising from the river.

The Olympic Bell was commissioned and cast for the 2012 London Olympic Games, and is the largest harmonically-tuned bell in the world. Cast in bronze bell metal, it is 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) high with a diameter of 3.34 metres (10 ft 11 in), and weighs 22 long tons 18 cwt 3 qr 13 lb (51,393 lb or 23.311 t). The bell is now displayed in the Olympic Park.

The Water Polo Arena was a temporary sporting venue of the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London from 27 July to 12 August 2012. It was situated in the south-east corner of the Olympic Park, alongside the Aquatics Centre, and opposite the Olympic Stadium on the opposite bank of the Waterworks River. The Aquatics Centre and Water Polo Arena were adjacent to each other in one of the most compact areas of the park. To make the best use of the space available, some back-of-house facilities, such as space for broadcasters, catering and security, were shared between the two venues.

UK Black Pride (UKBP) is a black gay pride event in London that has taken place since 2005. It is Europe's largest celebration of African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American and Caribbean heritage lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people attracting nearly 8,000 people annually. Event co-founder Phyllis Akua Opoku-Gyimah, also known as Lady Phyll, is executive director.

London 2012 was the successful bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, held in London with most events taking place in Stratford in the borough of Newham. The British Olympic Association had been working on the bid since 1997, and presented its report to government ministers in December 2000. Following three consecutive unsuccessful UK bids to host summer Olympic Games (Birmingham for 1992 and Manchester for 1996 and 2000), the decision was made to bid with London, given the clear indication that it was the only UK city that had a chance of being selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) when put up against other world cities in a competitive bidding process. On 6 July 2005 at its 117th Session in Singapore, the IOC awarded London the right to host the Games of the XXX Olympiad. The city beat the favourite Paris 54 to 50 on the fourth and final ballot. London is the first city to host the Games three times.At the time of the bid, the budget projection was around £2 billion, but it was later estimated that the true cost would be around £9 billion. The project involved a major regeneration of the Stratford area of London, as well as improvements to surrounding services and associated venues. Public transport, an aspect of the proposal which scored poorly for the bid, saw numerous improvements, including to the London Underground and the new "Olympic Javelin" service.The celebrations of the bid's success were partly silenced the day after the announcement when the 7 July 2005 London bombings killed 52 people and injured hundreds more. There was no confirmed link between the IOC decision and the attack, which also coincided with the G8 Summit in Scotland. Following the success of the bid, the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) was established to oversee the ongoing development of the games. Some alterations were made after the bid was accepted, including the decision by the IOC to eliminate some sporting events, and a new layout for the Olympic Zone, both resulting in some relatively minor changes to the Olympic venues.

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a sporting complex and public park in Stratford, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Bow, in east London. It was purpose-built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, situated adjacent to the Stratford City development. It contains the Olympic stadium, now known as the London Stadium, and the Olympic swimming pool together with the athletes' Olympic Village and several other Olympic sporting venues and the London Olympics Media Centre. The park is overlooked by the ArcelorMittal Orbit, an observation tower and Britain's largest piece of public art. It was simply called The Olympic Park during the Games but was later renamed to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II (though it is not an official Royal Park of London). The park occupies an area straddling four east London boroughs; Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest. Part of the park reopened in July 2013, while a large majority of the rest (including the Aquatics Centre, Velopark and Orbit observation tower) reopened in April 2014.

International Quarter London (also known as IQL, The International Quarter and TIQ) is a business development project built by Lendlease and commercial developer LCR in a subdivision of Stratford, London, England. It is located between the site of the Westfield Stratford City shopping centre and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The postcode designations are part of E20. Endeavour Square is part of the International Quarter.

Manor Garden Allotments were allotment gardens occupying 4.5 acres (18,000 m2) between the River Lea and the Channelsea River in Hackney Wick, London, England. They are also sometimes referred to as Eastway Allotments, particularly in the 2012 Summer Olympics planning application documents. They were demolished to make way for the Olympic site. The site was formerly in the London Borough of Hackney, but after ward boundary changes in the 1990s the footprint sat within London Borough of Newham. At the time of eviction the site was owned by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority. The "Eastway Allotments" were known more locally as "Abbott's Shoot" or "Bully Fen". The gardens were established in 1924 by Major Arthur Villiers, director of Barings Bank and philanthropist, to provide small parcels of land for local people in that deprived area to grow vegetables. In keeping with conditions of Villiers' bequeathal that the allotments be maintained in perpetuity, the 80 individual plots were tended for decades by a tight-knit community. Many members belong to long-standing East End families, with some individuals present since the 1920s. However, in keeping with the area's increasing diversity, numerous more recent joiners represented a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds. The site was managed by the Manor Gardening Society, through an elected Committee who saw to the business of keeping the site and issuing tenancies to new gardeners. The promontory location of the site on top of a Victorian refuse pile, clay-capped and dressed with topsoil by Villiers, lent a sense of refuge and escape for the generations of gardeners that worked the land. The character of the place was semi-rural, enhanced by Villers planting plum trees down the banks of the tidal Lea, and its occupants allowing wild hedgerow to flourish alongside the vegetable gardens. This created a haven for wildlife like many of the hidden pockets of wild land in that area. Major Arthur Villiers was also one of the founders of Eton Manor Boys' Club in Hackney Wick in 1913. In the 1920s an area of Hackney Marshes was converted from a dumping ground into the Eton Manor Sports Ground. During the London 2012 Summer Olympics, the site which had fallen into disrepair from 1967 when Arthur Villiers died, became the Paralympic Tennis Venue. From 2014 the Eton Manor site will become the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre. The Manor Garden Allotments were demolished in October 2007 to make way for landscaping for the London Olympics Park and the tenants moved to a temporary site two kilometres away in London Borough of Waltham Forest. The proposal was fought by the plotholders and a support group named Lifeisland presented an electronic petition to the Prime Minister. During the summer of 2007 the site remained as allotments, despite the 'blue fence' (the secure boundary to the emerging Olympic Park development) being erected and denying general public access to the area. A small group of gardeners were permitted to enter the site and tend crops for one last season. It was notable that for this period the site became a haven for the wildlife that also had to yield habitat as the Olympic land clearances got under way. It was agreed that the allotments would be reinstated on the original site after the Olympic Games. Obligations were undertaken by both the London Development Agency and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to make provision for allotments within the Olympic Park 'greater in quality and quantity'. A promise of 2.1 hectares provision, and an offer of an equivalent replacement plot to all tenants evicted from the Eastway Allotment Site was recorded in the ODA planning permissions. Despite consultation with the ODA, the Manor Gardening Society allotment gardeners were told that returning to the original site location would be impossible, and that there was little option but to accept proposals for a split amenity, spreading the Society across two sites in the extreme Northern and Southern boundaries of the Olympic Park. In the 2009 approved planning permissions for the Olympic Park allotment sites featured at Eton Manor and Pudding Mill Lane - these represented the 2.1 Hectares re-provision promised by the ODA (Olympic Delivery Authority). The intended provision was to be delivered by December 2014. It had long been understood that Lee Valley Regional Parks, the landowners at Eton Manor and thus future landlords of the proposed allotments had been resistant to the inclusion of the amenity. By March 2014 the planning authority for the area (London Legacy Development Corporation) had received an application from London Borough of Waltham Forest that would eliminate the Eton Manor Allotments from the plans, reducing the post-Olympic provision from 2.1 to 0.9 Hectares. Despite protestations from Manor Gardening Society, the local community, and Dame Tessa Jowell, the application was approved. The LLDC had reneged on its duty to see the delivery of 2.1 Ha of allotments within the Olympic Park by December 2014. It is then evident that there would be no allotment provision in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park within the approved timeframe with delivery of the Pudding Mill Lane site further delayed until November 2015. As of March 2016, the new Pudding Mill Lane allotments have now been opened on the site off Warton Rd, nearly 4 years after the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The Copper Box Arena is a multi-sport venue built for the 2012 Summer Olympics, located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, England. Previously known as the Handball Arena, it was renamed because, aside from handball, it hosted modern pentathlon (fencing, shooting, swimming, horse jumping and running) during the Olympics and was the goalball venue for the 2012 Summer Paralympics.

Basketball at the 2012 Summer Olympics was the eighteenth appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. It was held from 28 July to 12 August 2012. The preliminary matches and the women's quarterfinal matches were played in the new Basketball Arena in Olympic Park, which seated up to 12,000 spectators. The men's knockout games and the women's games, from semifinals onward were played in the North Greenwich Arena. The US men's and US women's teams both successfully defended their Olympic basketball championships of 2008.

The Basketball Arena for the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Paralympics was located in the Olympic Park in Stratford, London. The arena was designed to be fully recyclable, and was dismantled in January 2013, the seating was sold to Barnet owner Tony Kleanthous to be used in the construction of The Hive Stadium.