On London article provides 2021 East Bank update

Read a new article on the East Bank development by On London: “London Olympic Park: How will the East Bank cultural quarter work?”.

The article features a new interview with Foundation for Future London’s CEO Maria Adebowale-Schwarte alongside an interview with UCL East Director of  Professor Paola Lettieri , an update from London Legacy Development Corporation and exciting new photographs from the construction sites.

East Bank is a new global centre for creativity, learning and innovation currently being built on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, East London.  It is a unique collaboration between world-leading universities, arts and culture institutions — UCL, Sadler’s Wells, BBC, the V&A and UAL’s London College of Fashion — creating a new cultural district that will open up opportunities for everyone who visits, lives and works in East London.

Maria talks about the role of the Foundation to create opportunities and enagagement with people in East London and how we are fundraising and delivering major funding programmes, thanks to our key partners City of London and Westfield Stratford City.

“Regeneration can be a good thing,” she says, “if it is about ensuring that people get jobs and keep them and can create businesses and opportunities.” She emphasises the principle of “co-designing” projects, meaning they are defined and shaped from community level upwards, rather than using the opposite “Victorian-style” approach.

Our current programmes include Westfield East Bank Creative Futures Fund and the Foundations Programme.

East Bank will be spread across three sites: UCL East, UCL’s new campus; Stratford Waterfront, consisting of Sadler’s Wells, BBC, V&A and UAL’s London College of Fashion; and Here East, which will include the V&A’s new Collection and Research Centre and an existing space for UCL.

The article is the first in a series following the progress of the East Bank build and regeneration project and its ambition to be a “beacon of post-Covid recovery.”

Continue reading article on On London website

Photo credit: Anne-Marie Michel