Analysis | Olympics | Eton Manor

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PICKING UP THE PIECES

It may not be an Olympic venue but lots of people will visit Eton Manor, which will host the Paralympic tennis, supply plenty of sports backup and offers a flexible legacy

Words Eleanor Young

THE ETON MANOR sports complex doesn’t feature as a venue in the Olympics although the remarkable wheelchair tennis will be here during the Paralympics. During the Olympics scores of swimmers will be training in its five large pools. The tanks of these are now in place, under tents with a little city of plant sitting

‘ The permanent work has been making this site into a useable link between Hackney Marshes and the Olympic Park site’

outside. But at the end of the event they will be offered to schools and communities, offered as 25m or 50m pools . The permanent work has been making this

site, once bounded by walls and fast roads, into a useable link between Hackney Marshes and the Olympic Park site, in particular the new Queen Elizabeth II Park. Being part of the major Olympic development meant Stanton Williams could take remediated surplus soil from the rest of the site via the ‘soil hospital’ and use it to build up Eton Manor, by up to 6m. One connection across the busy A12 and another to Hackney East Marsh give the venue slightly more chance of being part of the local fabric of Lee Valley Park – although in legacy it will have a large users’ car park. Early plans had gymnastics training as well

as Paralympic archery on site, but it proved too tight. What did act as a generator of the masterplan was a symbolic Olympic wind turbine. Distraction issues and maintenance

RIBA JOURNAL : SEPTEMBER 2011

TOP: Finishing off the timber-clad sports centre.

ABOVE: Impression of the post-games tennis courts under the huge glulam beans of the sports centre.