The UK Government has announced £140 million in public funds will be granted to the planned "Olympicopolis" cultural quarter in East London, in the former 2012 Olympic Park. The museum and educational district is planned to feature a new outpost for the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum and Sadler’s Wells theatre, and a new campus for the University of the Arts London.
The site, which is just North of Zaha Hadid's Aquatics Centre, is the focus of an ongoing design competition which reportedly attracted almost 1,000 expressions of interest in the contest's pre-registration phase. The winner of the competition will be announced in March.
The Olympicopolis funding was announced as part of the government's National Infrastructure Plan in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Autumn statement, which also included a £150 million fund for housing improvement in four London Boroughs and £55 million for a rail extension in East London.
"This is an important milestone in our plans to realise a legacy from London's 2012 Games that reaps economic and social dividends to last for generations to come," said London Mayor Boris Johnson.
Story via BBC News
