Former names | Eton Manor |
---|---|
Location | Leyton, London Borough of Waltham Forest |
Coordinates | 51°33′11″N0°00′54″W / 51.55305°N 0.01513°W |
Owner | Lee Valley Regional Park Authority |
Operator | Great Britain Hockey England Hockey |
Seating type | All-seater |
Capacity | 15,000 [1] |
Record attendance | 15,000 |
Surface | Synthetic |
Construction | |
Opened | 2014 |
Years active | 2014– |
Construction cost | £30 million |
Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre is a sports and leisure venue located in Leyton, London Borough of Waltham Forest, to the north of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It is regularly used for international field hockey fixtures by both the Great Britain men's and women's field hockey teams. It hosted the 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup. Owned and managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, the site was previously known as Eton Manor and was a wheelchair tennis venue for the 2012 Summer Paralympics before being converted for public use and reopening in June 2014.
The site was originally known as Eton Manor, the name taken from Eton College, which from the 1880s had run a "mission" to raise living standards in the East End of London. In 1909, four Old Etonian philanthropists founded Eton Manor Boys' Club to provide sporting facilities in the Hackney area, purchasing the former Manor Farm in 1913. In 1920, an old rubbish tip site was converted into the club's new sports ground, known as The Wilderness. Facilities included nine football pitches, two rugby pitches, cricket pitches, six tennis courts, a bowling green, a squash court and a running track. Eton Manor Boys' Club closed in 1967 and the club ground fell into disuse in 2001 before being selected for use during the 2012 Olympic Games. The charitable trust set up in 1924 to run and support Eton Manor Boys' Club still continues with different aims and a new name, Villiers Park Educational Trust. [2]
Four sports clubs originating from Eton's "mission" are still in existence:[ citation needed ]
Eton College has a second connection to the 2012 Olympic Games, as the rowing events were held at the college's private facility, Dorney Lake.[ citation needed ]
During the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Eton Manor was the only purpose-built Paralympic venue. It hosted the wheelchair tennis. The venue comprised nine competition courts and four warm-up courts. [5] There were a total of 10,500 seats for spectators, with a 5,000 capacity centre court. The 27-acre site also housed temporary training pools for participants in aquatics events, including three 50m pools for swimmers and smaller pools for synchronised swimmers and water polo competitors.[ citation needed ]
Before the Games, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy was commissioned to write a poem about Eton Manor to celebrate its history and legacy. The poem is inscribed on a brass plaque at the entrance to the venue and was part of the Winning Words initiative, a national poetry scheme inspired by London 2012 which integrated permanent and temporary poetry on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. [6]
After the Olympic Games, Eton Manor housed the scaled down Olympic Hockey Centre which was relocated from Riverside Arena. The venue was made public following a £30 million conversion and was renamed Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre. Run by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, it has two hockey pitches and ten tennis courts four indoor and six outdoor. The venue offers a range of events and programmes from grassroots to elite level. [1] [7]
In December 2012, the International Tennis Federation announced that the venue would stage the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters, an annual event, on its indoor courts. [8]
Since 2014, Lee Valley has staged a number of major international events, most notably the 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup, which was the 14th edition of the tournament. [9] It also hosted the 2016 Women's Hockey Champions Trophy and the 2016 Men's Hockey Champions Trophy. From 2019, it has been the home venue of both the Great Britain women's and men's field hockey teams for their home matches in the Women's FIH Pro League and Men's FIH Pro League, most recently in May and June 2022 for the 2021–22 Women's FIH Pro League and the 2021–22 Men's FIH Pro League. The women's team played its first Pro League match at Lee Valley against the United States on 27 April 2019. [10] For major hockey events, the stadium capacity is increased from the default 3,000 to 15,000 all seated. [1]
Leyton is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River Lea, to the west. The area includes New Spitalfields Market, Leyton Orient Football Club, as well as part of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The town consists largely of terraced houses built between 1870 and 1910, interspersed with some modern housing estates. It is 6.2 miles (10 km) north-east of Charing Cross.
The London Borough of Waltham Forest is a North East London borough formed in 1965 from the merger of the municipal boroughs of Leyton, Walthamstow and Chingford.
Dorney Lake is a purpose-built rowing lake and Meetings & Events Venue in England. It is near the village of Dorney, Buckinghamshire, and is around 3 km west of Windsor and Eton, close to the River Thames.
London 2012 was the successful bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, held in London with most events taking place in Stratford in the borough of Newham. The British Olympic Association had been working on the bid since 1997, and presented its report to government ministers in December 2000.
Lee Valley Regional Park is a 10,000-acre (40 km2) 26 miles (42 km) long linear park, much of it green spaces, running through the northeast of Greater London, Essex and Hertfordshire. The park follows the course of the River Lea (Lee) along the Lea Valley from Ware in Hertfordshire through Essex and the north east of Greater London, through the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to East India Docks Basin on the River Thames. The park is managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and is made up of a diverse mix of countryside areas, urban green spaces, heritage sites, country parks, nature reserves and lakes and riverside trails, as well as leading sports centres covering an area of over 10,000 acres (40 km2). It is crossed by a number of roads and railways.
Lee Valley White Water Centre is a white-water slalom centre in the Middle Lea Valley, in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. It was constructed to host the canoe slalom events of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
England Hockey is the national governing body for the sport of field hockey in England. There are separate governing bodies for the sport in the other parts of the United Kingdom.
The Riverbank Arena was a stadium in the Olympic Park, in Hackney Wick, London, United Kingdom, containing a water-based astroturf.
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a sporting complex and public park in Stratford, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Bow, in east London. It was purpose-built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, situated adjacent to the Stratford City development. It contains the Olympic stadium, now known as the London Stadium, and the Olympic swimming pool together with the athletes' Olympic Village and several other Olympic sporting venues and the London Olympics Media Centre. The park is overlooked by the ArcelorMittal Orbit, an observation tower and Britain's largest piece of public art.
The 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics venues were mostly located in the host city of London, though some other events required facilities located elsewhere. Between the successful bid and the Olympics and Paralympics themselves, several details and venues changed.
The Lee Valley Ice Centre is located in Leyton in the Lower Lea Valley, London. The original venue opened in 1984, and a major redevelopment and expansion was completed in 2023. The centre now has two Olympic size ice rinks. It is owned by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, and is home to the Lee Valley Lions ice hockey team.
Brent Pope was a Canadian ice hockey player, and Managing Director of the Cardiff Devils in the Elite Ice Hockey League. Pope was a financial consultant in his hometown area of Hamilton, Ontario and until his death he maintained an active freelance broadcaster career with the Olympic Broadcasting Services and the Olympic Channel.
Manor Garden Allotments were allotment gardens occupying 4.5 acres (18,000 m2) between the River Lea and the Channelsea River in Hackney Wick, London, England. They are also sometimes referred to as Eastway Allotments, particularly in the 2012 Summer Olympics planning application documents. They were demolished to make way for the Olympic site. The site was formerly in the London Borough of Hackney, but after ward boundary changes in the 1990s the footprint sat within London Borough of Newham. At the time of eviction the site was owned by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority. The "Eastway Allotments" were known more locally as "Abbott's Shoot" or "Bully Fen".
The United Kingdom was awarded a number of major international sporting events during the 2010s leading to an idea of a 'Golden Decade' in British sport. The idea of the golden decade has been discussed in many newspapers and has been mentioned by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Lord Coe.
Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) is a statutory body that is responsible for managing and developing the 26 miles (42 km) long, 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) Lee Valley Regional Park. The park was established by Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1967. The headquarters of the authority are in Myddelton House, Bulls Cross in the London Borough of Enfield, well known in the horticultural world for the gardens developed by E.A. Bowles (1865–1954) and still fully maintained and open to the public.
The Copper Box Arena is a multi-sport venue built for the 2012 Summer Olympics, located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, England.
Eton Manor Boys' Club was a boys' sports club in London, England.
The 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup was the 14th edition of the Women's Hockey World Cup, a field hockey tournament. It was held from 21 July to 5 August 2018 at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in London, England.
The 2018–19 Men's Hockey Series was the inaugural season of the Hockey Series, a field hockey championship for men's national teams. The tournament started in June 2018 and finished in June 2019.
The 2018–19 Women's Hockey Series was the inaugural season of the Hockey Series, a field hockey championship for women's national teams. The tournament started in June 2018 and finished in June 2019.