Celebrating the history of Olympic Way on 19 April 2023 - a richly illustrated article

Guest post by local historian Philip Grant in a personal capacity

1.    Sir Arthur Elvin, Lord Burghley and the Mayor of Wembley watch the Minister of Transport unveil the Olympic Way name in July 1948. (Courtesy of Margaret Winter)

 

In July this year we will be celebrating the 75^th anniversary of the 1948 London Olympic Games, and the opening of Olympic Way which was built to provide the main route to Wembley Stadium. On Wednesday 19 April, Quintain hosted another ceremony, marking their improvements to Olympic Way, and celebrating its history with the unveiling of several local history features.

 

I was first made aware of the plaque, unveiled at the opening of Olympic Way in 1948, by a fellow Wembley History Society member about ten years ago. I had to trample down nettles on a piece of waste ground behind the westbound Wembley Park Station bus stop (since moved) to get to see it, and it was in a poor state. 

 

2.    The 1948 Olympic Way opening plaque, c.2014.

 

I later discovered that the plaque was on land belonging to Quintain, not Brent Council. In recent years there had been several requests to Quintain (or their Wembley Park managing company) to clean the plaque and tidy up its surroundings. This was done, but because of its situation, the plaque and its site soon looked untidy again.

 

A big change came in January 2022, when Mike Collett contacted Wembley History Society about the plaque. Mike was a sports journalist, who had covered numerous events at Wembley as well as six Olympic Games. He’d spotted the plaque while in Wembley Park and asked what could be done about it, because ‘it’s in such a dirty, sorry and neglected condition’. 

 

3.    The Olympic Way opening plaque and its site, January 2022. (Photo by Mike Collett)

 

I put Mike in touch with my contacts at Quintain, and to their credit (and after a bit more pressure from his friends in sport) they came up with some ideas for improvements by March 2022. A site meeting, bringing together Quintain/Wembley Park, Mike and myself, the British Olympic Association and Brent’s heritage officers, was held in April 2022, and a plan of action agreed.

 

A year later, and that plan has come to fruition. The 1948 Olympic Way opening plaque has been restored by stone carver and conservator, Louis Russell. It is now set in a garden with a path leading up to it from the pavement. The restored plaque was the first item to be unveiled on 19 April. 

 

4.    The new 1948 garden, with the restored plaque covered-up, 30 March 2023.

 

The plaque was officially unveiled by the Mayor of Brent, Cllr. Abdi Aden, after several short speeches. Mike Collett’s, read on his behalf, recalled how he had stopped for a quick drink while visiting Wembley Park in January, noticed the plaque for the first time, in a neglected state, and thought something must be done about it. Fifteen months later, he was very pleased to see the transformation, and thanked Quintain, and everyone else involved, for bringing this about, so that this part of Wembley’s Olympic history was properly valued.

 

5.    Margaret Winter, speaking before the unveiling of the 1948 Olympic Way plaque.

 

Margaret Winter had been invited to take part in the unveiling because her father, Walter Steadman, had helped to design Olympic Way in 1947/48, and the original subway bringing pedestrians from the station to it. She said that it had been one of the proudest achievements of his long career as Wembley Council’s Borough Engineer and Surveyor.

 

6.    Mike Collett, admiring the restored 1948 Olympic Way plaque.

 

At the bottom of the steps down onto the pedestrianised Olympic Way, just outside the Bobby Moore Bridge subway, on the wall below the 1948 plaque garden, is an illustrated local history panel. This welcomes visitors to Olympic Way and tells its story. I had some input into the panel’s contents and text, but the design is Quintain’s. We passed this on the way to the second unveiling.

 

7.    The Olympic Way Story local history panel. (Courtesy of Quintain Ltd)

 

The improvements which Quintain have made to Olympic Way in recent years, part-funded by £17.8m from Brent Council’s Community Infrastructure Levy pot, include several references to “48”. This is to reflect that Olympic Way was constructed in preparation for the 1948 Olympic Games. (It was later pedestrianised by Brent Council in the early 1990s, ahead of the 1996 Euros football tournament matches at Wembley).

 

8.    Tree-lined Olympic Way, with crowds going to the opening of the 1948 Olympic Games. (Brent Archives)

 

When it opened, Olympic Way had trees on either side of it, a legacy from the grounds of the 1924 British Empire Exhibition. Now, on either side of the wide pedestrian thoroughfare, Quintain’s improvements include 24 pairs (24 + 24 = 48) of “Champion Trees of the World”. They were chosen and planted to show the wide range of trees from similar temperate latitudes to those of Wembley, but from worldwide spread of longitudes. 

 

9.    Some of the “Champion” Olympic Way trees coming into leaf, April 2023.

 

Beginning from the west at the station end, they move down to our own 0º longitude, then increasing until they reach the furthest east near the stadium. Each tree has a large metal frame around it, allowing for plenty of growth, carrying the (Latin) name of the tree species, and the longitude of the part of the world it originates from.

 

10. The metal grid around a “Pterocarya Fraxinifolia” (Caucasian walnut), from 50º E.

 

As the unveiling group of around 30 people approached Engineers Way, there, ahead of us, were the Olympic Steps (48 of them!). These controversially replaced the old concrete pedway as the pedestrian way up to Wembley Stadium. Four new high-capacity lifts were installed first, as an integral part of the whole design, before the Olympic Steps were constructed and opened in time for the 2021 Men’s Euros football tournament.

 

Here, a new Portland Stone plaque, also carved by Louis Russell, has been attached to a cast stone plinth. This new plaque repeats the words of the 1948 plaque, then marks the completion of the Olympic Way improvements. It also carries the Olympic Rings, which celebrate Wembley’s part in the 1948 and 2012 London Olympic Games. It was Quintain’s CEO, James Saunders, who spoke first, before inviting the Mayor of Brent to unveil the plaque.

 

11.  James Saunders and the Mayor, Cllr. Abdi Aden, beside the plinth near the Olympic Steps.

 

Mr Saunders spoke proudly of the improvements Quintain had made to Wembley Park, and the public spaces along Olympic Way. He praised the co-operation of Brent Council in bringing about these achievements, and especially thanked Carolyn Downs, on her last day as Brent’s Chief Executive before retirement, for all of her help, then presented her with a bouquet.

 

12. Carolyn Downs with her bouquet, watched by Cllr. Muhammed Butt and the Mayor.

 

Council Leader Muhammed Butt responded on behalf of Brent. He commended Quintain’s part in Brent’s continuing journey of regeneration, renewal and growth, while also remembering its history, and said that he was proud of ‘what we can do if we work together’. He also thanked a number of people, and I was surprised when I was one of them! Cllr. Butt publicly thanked me for ‘keeping the Council on its toes over heritage’. [I must write to thank him for his kind words, but also to remind him that actions speak louder.]

 

Looking back at Olympic Way from the Stadium, over the Olympic Steps, you can see the line of trees. They will grow, with time, but at the moment they are dwarfed by the lines of tall lamp posts, and the overly large advertising banners which hang from them.

 

13.   The view down Olympic Way from in front of Wembley Stadium, April 2023.

 

Olympic Way is now a busy thoroughfare every day, serving Quintain’s “new” Wembley Park as well as the Stadium and Arena which played such a big part in the 1948 Olympic Games. I’m glad that the 1948 plaque has been given the respect it deserves, and that people emerging from the Bobby Moore Bridge subway can read about Olympic Way’s history, and be directed up the steps to see it.

 

14.  The new Olympic Way plaque, just before Engineers Way on the route to the Stadium.

 

The new plaque, by Engineers Way, is more about celebrating Quintain’s improvements to Olympic Way, which are also part of its history. And its location, plus the Olympic Rings on it, gives residents and visitors the chance to be photographed (or take selfies) with the Olympic Steps and the stadium in the background, to capture part of Wembley’s Olympic heritage.

 

Philip Grant.