Published in CityAM on 30th April 2025
No: Passing the baton to another UK city would be a more worthy legacy
2012 was spectacular – indeed the Games were so positive for London that their transformational impacts are still being felt and will be for some time. The Olympics and Paralympics inspired people to be better and to do more, creating places that are clean and lush where once they were polluted and sterile. Who wouldn’t want more?
Yet one of the key questions for a future London Games is whether there is another fissure like the Lea Valley that needs bridging with streets, parks, stadia and real estate development. Or that has existing, box-fresh transport infrastructure such as the likes of Stratford International handed to the designers of 2012.
No, London doesn’t need another Olympics and Paralympics for some time to come. Certainly not before another UK city has received that honour. Instead, the lessons of 2012 need to be passed to one of the nation’s other great cities where, like London, there are inequalities between west and east, or north and south. Where development needs to be undertaken on a scale that only the Games can deliver. A New York to Los Angeles or a Sydney to Melbourne.
But let’s not leave London out entirely. After all, this city remains the repository for much of the knowledge, passion and guile that delivered that summer of love. Let London’s contribution be in offering the people that made 2012 possible. A collective memory of Olympics wisdom resides here in the capital, with a tome of tips and tricks to make things happen faster, cheaper and better. Let’s offer a different kind of Games volunteers. That would be an extraordinary legacy.
Tim Stonor 
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