Olympic mascots unveiled at Whitechapel school

EAST End pupils were the first to see the two London Olympics mascots as the one-eyed duo were unveiled at a Tower Hamlets school. Mandeville and Wenlock were revealed as the new faces of the 2012 Games at St Paul s Whitchapel Primary in Wellclose Squ

EAST End pupils were the first to see the two London Olympic mascots as the one-eyed duo were unveiled at a Tower Hamlets school.

Mandeville and Wenlock were revealed as the new faces of the 2012 Games at St Paul's Whitchapel Primary in Wellclose Square.

London 2012 chair Lord Coe led a special assembly in the school hall, telling the youngsters to think of the alien-like creatures as "good friends", before kids joined the mascots in the playground to see them in action for the first time.

The pair is based on two bits of molten steel from a girder of the Olympic stadium that have been woven into a fictional story by renowned children's author Michael Morpurgo.

Wenlock is named after Much Wenlock in Shropshire which inspired the modern Olympics, and Mandeville after the Stoke-Mandeville hospital which inspired the Paralympic Games.

The duo will appear on everything from toys to mugs when they go on sale from this year's two-year countdown to the start of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

A limited edition run of t-shirts and pin badges is already available on the London 2012's online shop.

And if you can't wait to hear more about the duo, they have their own Twitter and Facebook sites.