What's in a name - historical significance of new Olympic neighbourhoods explored...

I have done a little more investigation around the chosen names for the five new Olympic Park neighbourhoods after an interesting response to my last blog from whyperion - thanks for that.

Chobham Manor is so named because of a manor house that existed in the area from 1329 to 1882. It originally belonged to a John de Preston who then sold it to a John de Chobham in 1343, hence where it got its name. It was demolished in the late 1800s to make way for the expanding Stratford rail yard.

Eastwick pays homage to the importance of Hackney Wick as an area of the East End with a rich and well-documented history of invention and industry. Among its notable historical tenants was Alexander Parkes who is credited with the manufacture of the first man-made plastic in the world, known as Parkesine - in 1856. He built his Wallis Rd factory in 1866, but his attempt at bulk low-cost manufacture of Parkesine was beset by many manufacturing problems, and the business closed just two years later. (This obviously goes someway to explaining what appeared to be one of the more obscure suggestions in the neighbourhood naming competition - Plastic Fantastic).

Sweetwater is so named because of the association of confectionary and jam-making in the general area including the old Clarnico factory, established in 1872 as Clarke, Nicholson & Coombs confectioners, reportedly the largest confectioner in the UK in the late 1940s.

Marshgate Wharf's name comes from the several usages of marsh in the area traditionally applied as a result of the River Lea floodplain further to the South. There is Stratford Marsh, Hackney Marsh and Leyton Marsh.

Pudding Mill is named after the Pudding Mill River which has been named as such on the earliest post-medieval mapping onwards. It is very probable that the name refers to flour milling, although all manner of other milling undoubtedly occurred along the banks of the Pudding Mill River throughout the medieval and particularly industrial periods.

Meanwhile, any suggestion that the Olympic Park will be sold to a single operator appears to have been scrapped after the Wellcome Trust's £1bn offer was rejected.

This has to make sense as the Olympic Park Legacy Company will surely be able to generate better value for the public purse by playing a long game and finding the best possible uses for each asset within the park one by one.

And finally, chemical company Dow is to fund and make a 336 panel fabric wrap around the Olympic Stadium on which it will be allowed to advertise on until a month before the Games open on 27 July 2012.

The wrap was conceived by the architects as the finishing touch to the stadium but was dropped to save £7m from the construction costs.

It's good to see the Olympic Stadium is going to get its special outfit after all in time for the big day!