Queen's Land

Though Carpenters Estate in Stratford has been slowly emptying out and turning into its older brother Heygate Estate (Elephant and Castle) for a long time, London 2012 is bringing new problems and new locators (intruders?). Top floors and roofs of two out of three buildings have been temporaily occupied by TV stations; among them BBC, Al Jazeera and Brazilian Globo TV. Guards dressed in black head to toe and looking scary are guarding not only the entrances to these fortresses, but also corridors and lifts. All that to protect journalists from the last dozen of tenants remaining on the site. Apparently some of them used verbal violence against some of the newsmen. Well, who wouldn't get angry if one had to call police in order to persuade the guards, who constantly stop and question locators and their guests at the entrance? Who wouldn't get pissed off waiting for the lift late in the evening when all of the journalists are leaving the studios? 

To learn all of these facts, among many others, one has to simply visit the Olympic Village and wander around. Though the camera on your neck and a tripod in your hand will surprisingly not attract police attention, the guards standing in front of Carpenters Estate will tell you that "one is forbidden to shoot films on Queen's Land". 

To read more about Carpenters Estate read Bloomsbery Olympic by Richard B. 

_____________

Image: Carpenters Estate and Al Jazerra studio, by Piotr.