Public to name London 2012 Olympic suburbs

The public are being invited to suggest names for five neighbourhoods to be built on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park after the 2012 Games.

The neighbourhoods will accommodate up to 8,000 new homes in total, along with schools, nurseries and health centres.

People have eight weeks to suggest names for the neighbourhoods to the Olympic Park Legacy Company.

Organisers said they could be inspired by anything from the history of east London to the Olympics.

Andrew Altman, chief executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, said: "This is a unique opportunity to shape the history of London.

"The area has a rich history ranging from its role at the forefront of the industrial revolution making confectionery, gunpowder and the first plastics, to Roman roads and other ancient settlements."

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "Like any part of London these new neighbourhoods will have their own unique character, defined as much by the people who live, work and play there as by their landscape and buildings.

"What better start, therefore, than for Londoners to get involved in bringing them to life by naming them?

"Our city has some of the most famous place names of any city in the world, and I am sure we can come up with some names that put Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park well and truly on the map and resound for centuries."

Entries will be judged by a panel including representatives from Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Waltham Forest, the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Museum of London.