Entering The Final Straight

Looking at the year ahead it’s difficult to see past that fortnight in late summer when the greatest show on earth (or whatever the IOC publicity department is calling it these days), rolls into town.

For Londoners, and perhaps Britons in general, the four digits ‘2012’ are inseparable from the Olympic Games. We’ve lived with it ever since 2005, when Coe, Becks and co. managed to steal it from beneath Parisian noses.It’s dominated the news with hardly a week going by in the last six years without some headline in the Metro or the Evening Standard about the cost of building the stadia, the impending traffic disruption, or if we’re really lucky, then a positive story about athletics.

But now, 2012 has finally arrived and, after the pessimism, doubt and negative headlines, it’s time to get excited. Not just for the sport, which may not be everyone cup of tea, but for the event itself. Like the Royal Wedding and the London Marathon, this is an occasion when our city is at its best. It’s why I can’t understand people wanting to leave the city during the Olympics. Sure you could make a few bob on renting out your property but you’d miss out on so much more. It’s not just the major sporting events - in fact they’re just the excuse - but the smaller periphery events and the unifying atmosphere these create. In south west London alone this includes a music festival in Battersea Park, Olympic flame events across Lambeth, Wandsworth and Fulham, international food markets and public big screens showing films and sport.

All in all, 2012 is going to be quite a year in London and I, for one, can’t wait.

Have a wonderful January

Jon Watt is editor of the Clapham & Battersea and Fulham editions of Time & Leisure Magazine.