Recently in Stratford Category

We are a bit hoist by our own petard with our up-coming Place East London conference, which is being supported by the UKR Forum.  This event, which I am privileged to be chairing, is being held on 20 June at Stratford Town Hall (yikes! I've just realised that's tomorrow!).

It is a half-day conference, starting at 2pm and finishing (with drinks) at 5.15pm.  And we find we are a little in demand.  I wrote to the target audience promising "energetic and pacy" content, with some quick fire sessions, to provide a thoroughly focused opportunity to discuss East London, not just in the run-up to the Olympics but also - and more crucially really - in this strange new economy in which we find ourselves! 

 

The first thing for Mr Altman to tackle on starting in post at the Olympics Legacy Company on 1st August is the nonsense of the current proposals for the new DLR extension to Stratford International from Canning Town. We are sooooo missing a trick here.

The aerial photo on the left shows what, in my humble opinion, the line should do in order to drop in to the Media Centre site and create a hub (combined with the planned bus depot and station upgrade at Hackney Wick, not to mention the 1,200 odd space multi-storey car park). The thick blue line shows the approximate route. The line should continue from Stratford International and loop around the park following existing boundaries (like the A12).

The Media Centre is about 11ha or so and in terms of the Main Press Centre (MPC) and Broadcast Centre (IBC) is providing about 1.3m sq ft. Assuming a clean slate and a site coverage of 25% and an average height of 20 storeys (small compared to Canary Wharf) you would get 6m sq ft, a gain of about 5m sq ft. Not an inconsiderable uplift for a small amount of extra track.

One of my little friends has measured the approximate route for me and makes it 2.5 km.

This is a public transport opportunity that the Swiss would be proud of. Why oh why are we not (literally) more joined up?