Daniel Ritterband with the Olympic street decorations

London 2012 Olympics: First street decorations go up in Stratford

Melissa York, Reporter Friday, June 8, 2012
1:59 PM

Stratford was the first place to hang up Olympic bunting this morning ahead of this summer’s Games.

The first of the Olympic decorations going up around Stratford

The Grove, the first London high street to be decorated, showed it was the place to be as it was decked out in Olympic colours.

The Mayor of London’s director of Marketing and Communications Daniel Ritterband was on hand to help hang up the first line of bunting, and it is estimated that bunting equivalent in length to 2,000 Routmaster buses is going up soon across town centres, railway stations, and landmark locations.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “With less than 50 days to go before the greatest show on earth I am delighted that London is getting spruced up to show why it’s the best city in the world in which to live, visit and invest.

“The Diamond Jubilee showed just how fantastic the city can look during a celebration and the Games will offer another superb opportunity to capture people’s imaginations and make them feel part of this once-in-a-lifetime event.”

Each London borough has been given £50,000 by the Mayor to decorate ahead of the Olympics and other features to expect include sculptures such as giant javelins “to inspire during the Games”, a giant tea-making machine in Victoria Park, Hackney, while at King’s Cross station, travellers will allow people to create sounds on a ‘Song Board’ of black and white spheres.

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