The ‘nature’ of legacy under localism: fragmentation along the Greenway

‘Where the pastoral meets the post-industrial’. London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) Chief of Design, Kathryn Firth's words to describe the area that the Corporation inherited as part of its remit following the Summer Olympic Games in 2012. Seeming to exemplify this, the former industrial warehouses of Hackney Wick, such as the Counter Café[2], allow shrubbery growth and sprawling ivy; their brick exerior walls emblazoned with art work reminiscent of William Morris. What we have here is recognition of the area's pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial episodes; a narrative that serves to provide some temporal coherence to what is a complex and fragmented landscape.