A University of East London historian will lead a heritage project at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Dr. Toby Butler will lead a project to create into a new visitor experience, which will share the history of the Stratford site with visitors.

“For some years we’ve been very keen to have some historical information available to park visitors,” Dr Butler said.

“I think a lot of people in Newham have a lot of memories of that space. They’ve worked and lived there. It’s very important not to forget that.”

Dr. Butler’s project is backed by a £97,800 Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

He will lead a team of UEL students and community volunteers who will research and document the social, archaeological and environmental history of the site.

Once the research is complete, visitors can experience the history through a variety of ways.

The park will offer two app-based audio heritage trails, a website, a guide book, a pop-up children’s book as well as other learning tools that will be available online and in the park.

“We want to give newcomers who are moving into the neighbourhood, as well as the millions of park visitors, a sense of the history of Newham and the extraordinary things that have happened in that space,” Dr Butler said.

“We know a lot of local people, artists and photographers have images, documents and memories of the pre-Olympic period and if anyone is interested in sharing those, we do hope they get in touch.”

The project begins this month and will take about a year and a half to finish. Dr. Butler will work with different places across the area to involve residents in the project. He’ll work with the Building Exploratory, Discover Children’s Story Centre, and UEL’s research centre, Rix Research and Media.

“I’m absolutely delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund has given us the chance to work with some really exciting partners in a really applied history project that hopefully will reach many thousands of people,” Dr. Butler said.

For more information, email Dr. Butler at t.butler@uel.ac.uk.