Big Sunday in East London
Sunday was spent at Newham’s Big Sunday event — an exhibition at Excel — sorry, I mean ExCeL — promoting the borough and its part in the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. Actually it was similar to most other exhibitions you’d expect to find at Excel, but with rather more space than usual and rather fewer things to do for children than you’d hope for given its purpose. But it was very, very busy with lots of families, which made a refreshing change from the businessmen and arms traders that usually hang about there.
With all the promotion of the future of the borough it was an excellent opporunity to find out how the local councillors are dancing to the tune of your favourite multinationals. Anna discovered that we don’t need to worry about the congestion caused by the new Asda‘s car park because Asda are going to be paying for a traffic research project — but only after the car park has been built and put to use. Still, at least local protest prevented Asda demolishing the thriving Queens Market, which was the original plan.
Excel overlooks Britannia Village, on the other side of the Royal Victoria Docks. It’s quite spectacular, and certainly more dramatic than Big Sunday was. The area is populated with modern low-rise buildings — both residential and commercial — and it will be interesting to see how it develops over the next five to ten years.
