London 2012 Olympics Rehearsal Facility
Year 2012
Built for LOCOG at the old Ford factory in Dagenham, east London, to provide a secure rehearsal facility for the opening and closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympics. This 4,000m2 (43,000ft2) structure provided the perfect private rehearsal area.
Big top secret: 2012 Olympic opening ceremony is taking shape in a closely guarded tent.
The traffic streaming down the A13 can hardly miss it: a giant blue-and-yellow big top slap bang in the middle of the old Ford factory at Dagenham, east London. But this, in fact, is the world's most top-secret circus.
Police and security guards have been swarming around it like bees since it appeared almost overnight two weeks ago, much to the surprise of local residents, who have not had much to twitch the net curtains over since the last British-built Ford Fiesta drove out the front gates almost a decade ago.
It is under these stripy spires that the Greatest Show on Earth (copyright Seb Coe) is about to take shape. The first full-scale rehearsals for Danny Boyle's Olympics Opening Ceremony are soon to begin.
The Independent Newspaper
