East London, Not As Bad As You Thought

East London also known as the East End is known for its slums and rookeries (where criminals and prostitutes are), but today's East End is rapidly changing. When London found out it would be the host of the 2012 Olympic Games they decided to build the Olympic Park and Village in the East End in Newham. Not only did that demolish old, rundown buildings, but it began the changing of a poor area. The rehabilitation and repurposing of the area brought in a lot of new jobs for the area. Plus when the the the Games will bring in more. It's exciting to see this kind of change in a community since we are in a tough time.

The Olympic Park is massive with with around 2,000 trees planted and another 2,000 to go. The first one closes to the stadium was planted by Queen Elizabeth II. The gardens built around and in the park give visitors a place to sit and have a picnic. There is also the ArcelorMittal Orbit, which is a large red structure that will have an orb shaped building on top. It will look a lot like a roller coaster.

My favorite part of the East End was seeing where 3Mills Studios, which is London's largest film studio. I love the fact that this studio is built in such a historic setting. Our tour guide Sean told us that films like Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and theatre productions rehearsed there like Billy Elliot. The film nerd in me was so excited to see this building. I kept looking around for a place to break in at, but my silly conscience told me not too.