The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is the one post-Olympic regeneration project in the world that actually worked. The park uses the 2012 Games infrastructure as a framework for 560 acres of wetland, woodland, and public gardens — the largest new park in London since the Victorian era.
The ArcelorMittal Orbit is the architectural statement: a spiralling red lattice tower by Kapoor and Balmond that can be descended by a helter-skelter slide added afterwards. The Waterworks Nature Reserve at the park's south end, converted from Olympic broadcast and utility areas, has genuine ecological value. The walk ends at Hackney Wick, where the artist studios in Fish Island have been the most interesting creative neighbourhood in London for fifteen years.
