London 2012 Venue

 

 

Even the Prime Minister is looking forward to the beach volleyball in Horse Guards Parade

 

MUCH excitement has been generated already by the fact that beach volleyball will take place in Horse Guards Parade, right in the centre of London. Even Tony Blair said: “To have beach volleyball outside the Prime Minsters’s office will keep the Prime Minster involved in the Games.”

 

Horse Guards Parade in the heart of Westminster was built in 1745 to house Buckingham Palace’s personal guards and is just a stone’s throw away from the Prime Minister’s official residence in Downing Street.

 

It is named after the troops who have mounted the Queen’s Life Guard on this spot since the restoration of the monarchy with King Charles II in 1660. It was formerly the site of the Palace of Whitehall's tilt-yard, where tournaments were held in the time of Henry VIII. It was also the scene of the annual celebrations of the birthday of Queen Elizabeth I.

 

Horse Guards remains the official entrance to St James’s and Buckingham Palace and this is why The Queen’s Life Guard is still mounted here. Apart from members of the Royal Family or cavalrymen on duty, everyone needs the Sovereign’s permission in the form of an Ivory Pass to either drive or ride through Horse Guards.

 

The Parade stages the Mounting of the Queen’s Life Guard and on the Queen's official birthday in June the Trooping the Colour ceremony is a popular televised event.

 

A number of military monuments and trophies ring the outside of the parade ground, including statues of Field Marshals Kitchener, Roberts and Wolseley; a Turkish cannon made in 1524 “by Murad son of Abdullah, chief gunner” which was captured in Egypt in 1801; and the Cádiz Memorial, a French mortar mounted on a cast-iron Chinese dragon which commemorates the lifting of the siege of Cádiz in Spain in 1812.

 

As London’s largest single open space, Horse Guards Parade will make an ideal venue, although there are security concerns following an IRA attack on Downing Street launched from there in February 1991.

 

The plan during the Olympics is to erect two countries with capacities of 12,000 and 5,000 respectively.

 

The indoor volleyball tournament will be staged in one of four multi-sport arenas to be built within the Olympic Park, the 500-acre site that lies at the heart of London’s plans for 2012.

 

The site in Stratford is located just seven minutes from the centre of London and will also contain an aquatics centre, velodrome, a hockey centre, media facilities and the Olympic Village, in which 17,800 athletes and officials will be housed.

 

“We aim to end up with the best collection of sports facilities in Europe, maybe anywhere in the world,” said London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe.

 

It will be set in a huge new Olympic Park, the largest created in Europe since the 19th century, a network of cleaned up and revitalised canals and the River Lea will wind through the Park, providing a magnificent setting for the Games in the East London borough of Newham.

 

The Olympic Park will kick-start the regeneration of the Lower Lea Valley in east London, which is a national regeneration priority and one of the biggest regeneration opportunities in Europe.

 

The Olympic Park will be transformed for local use after the Games. Key sporting venues will be retained, including two of the multi-sport arenas. One will remain as a competition and training venue, the other as a regional centre for indoor sports.

 

The remaining two arenas will be dismantled after the Games and rebuilt somewhere else in Britain.

 

All the new venues will be situated within easy walking distance of each other, allowing competitors and spectators alike to experience the unique atmosphere of an Olympic Games.