forgiveness is sexy

Work to clean up the Olympic Park site will start a month ahead of schedule after the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) Planning Committee gave the go ahead on plans. The demolition and remediation will start in December after two planning applications from the London Development Agency and ODA were approved.

The Planning Committee also approved Transport for London’s plans to improve capacity at Stratford Station in the run up to 2012, including a new westbound platform for Central Line trains. These were the first planning approvals since the ODA Planning Committee took up its powers in September.

ODA Chief Executive David Higgins said: This means we have achieved planning approval for this land remediation a month ahead of programme … We are on track and continuing to hit our milestones. I am confident we will deliver an exceptional Games and a lasting regeneration legacy for East London.

Abbreviation for naturally.

English Heritage has announced a grant of £35,000 for the Whitechapel Library in Tower Hamlets, the building once known as the ‘University of the Ghetto’ for its role as the intellectual centre of the East End’s Jewish population.

The money will pay for repairs to the ornate red brick and terracotta facade of the Victorian Building at Risk, which is shortly to undergo a £10m restoration and redevelopment to link it to the neighbouring Whitechapel Art Gallery.

Nick Collins, Team Leader for East London at English Heritage, said: English Heritage has given the Whitechapel Gallery advice on creating imaginative linkages between the two buildings and on the general approach to the restoration of the Library. We are delighted to be able to contribute financially to the project by giving a grant for the repair of this landmark building’s distinctive exteri or which features a very fine frieze of putti (winged cherubs).

Sandy Weiland, Senior Trusts Manager at the Whitechapel Gallery, said: We are delighted to receive this grant. The gallery and the former library are landmarks in East London and this grant will enable us to fully restore the beautiful brickwork and terracotta on the historic facade of the former library. This support is invaluable in bringing the building back to life and preserving it for future generations to enjoy.

The grade II listed library was built in 1892 at the expense of the benefactor and life-long champion of the working classes, J. Passmore Edwards. The neighbouring Gallery was built in 1901 to bring great art to the people of East London as part of the same social reform movement.

In October 2005, the Library was sold by the local authority to the Gallery, which then commissioned Belgian architects Robbrecht en Daem to draw up plans to restore the building and conver t it into extra exhibition, education and community space. The project has already attracted £7.6m towards its £10m target and, if the remaining funds can be secured, work will begin soon and this historically and culturally important icon of the East End will be safe once again.