The Olympic Stadium is located at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London. Land preparation for the Stadium began in mid-2007, with the official construction start date on 22 May 2008, although piling works for the foundation unofficially began four weeks ahead of that date. The stadium held its first public event in March 2012, serving as the finish line for a celebrity running event organized by the National Lottery. The stadium had a capacity of 80,000, making it the third-largest stadium in England behind Wembley and Twickenham. It was constructed primarily to serve as the host stadium for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, where it hosted the track and field events, along with its opening and closing ceremonies. In late 2013, the stadium closed for renovation. Once it re-opens in 2016 it will have a capacity of 54,000 and will be the long-term home of West Ham United Football Club and British Athletics. As part of the renovation, the lower seating bowl will be replaced with a retractable seating system allowing for acceptable seating for both Athletics and Pitch sports. As of February 2014, the existing roof, with the iconic triangular floodlight towers, has been removed and will be replaced by 2015 with a new one re-using a similar design style and the original floodlights. The stadium will also host both the 2017 IAAF World Championships in Athletics and the 2017 IPC Athletics World Championships.
I arrived late to meet Gabe and Elliot5200 for a reccy of this site due to unforeseen issues caused by excessive haribo consumption. I felt a bit bad as Gabe had made the suggestion and invited me along and I turned up with uncontrollable flatulence, a wonder it didn't get us all caught to be honest. Anyway, we all turned up a bit clueless as to the layout of the park and were pleasantly surprised to find the entire park around the stadium is open at night. Once inside we headed straight uptairs and marvelled at the size of the place, took some shots and climbed up the scaffolding to the highest point. Some great views to be had up there, especially of the red orbit sculpture next door and the white metal framework of the stadium itself. At this point it began to rain hard so we made our way back down and agreed to leave on a high note. Just as we were leaving I decided to quickly step a little closer to the arena (shot 2) for a quick snap and all of a sudden a rather noisy alarm went off around the stadium. Figuring we (I) had perhaps triggered a motion sensor we hastily got the hell out of there and escaped unseen while the alarm continued to make a racket until we had left the park. All in all a successful trip with far less difficulty than we were anticipating. I used some strange settings on my camera to achieve an almost daylight effect on my shots (I don't know what the fuck I'm doing), had to bin most of them but at least these few give you an idea of what the place looks like!
Exterior shot stolen from t'interweb as we didn't have time to hang around and take any (forgot).
Thanks for looking
I arrived late to meet Gabe and Elliot5200 for a reccy of this site due to unforeseen issues caused by excessive haribo consumption. I felt a bit bad as Gabe had made the suggestion and invited me along and I turned up with uncontrollable flatulence, a wonder it didn't get us all caught to be honest. Anyway, we all turned up a bit clueless as to the layout of the park and were pleasantly surprised to find the entire park around the stadium is open at night. Once inside we headed straight uptairs and marvelled at the size of the place, took some shots and climbed up the scaffolding to the highest point. Some great views to be had up there, especially of the red orbit sculpture next door and the white metal framework of the stadium itself. At this point it began to rain hard so we made our way back down and agreed to leave on a high note. Just as we were leaving I decided to quickly step a little closer to the arena (shot 2) for a quick snap and all of a sudden a rather noisy alarm went off around the stadium. Figuring we (I) had perhaps triggered a motion sensor we hastily got the hell out of there and escaped unseen while the alarm continued to make a racket until we had left the park. All in all a successful trip with far less difficulty than we were anticipating. I used some strange settings on my camera to achieve an almost daylight effect on my shots (I don't know what the fuck I'm doing), had to bin most of them but at least these few give you an idea of what the place looks like!
Exterior shot stolen from t'interweb as we didn't have time to hang around and take any (forgot).
Thanks for looking
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