London Tales

Amidst the UK's celebrations over its winning bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games, sentiment among residents, businesses and employees in the neglected industrial corner of East London where the Games will be held has been far more ambiguous. Construction of an ‘Athletes' Village’ for the Olympics will involve one of Europe’s largest and most ambitious urban planning projects, and has provoked wide controversy over the compulsory purchasing of land from locals - a policy now being pursued on a scale not seen since the end of WWII. The forced resettlement of residents and local businesses, many of whom have resided here for generations, has brought into focus the fragility of our rights to property and provoked a sense of dislocation from the communities and environment we call home.