London 2012 Olympic Park neighbourhood names revealed

The names of five neighbourhoods which will be built on the site of London's Olympic Park after the 2012 Games have been revealed.

The new suburbs will be called Chobham Manor, East Wick, Marshgate Wharf, Sweetwater and Pudding Mill.

Almost 2,000 names were put forward in the competition to name the new neighbourhoods.

Over the next 20 years, 8,000 new homes will be built, along with schools, nurseries and health centres.

The neighbourhoods will also share a new green space called Queen Elizabeth Park.

The park will open in phases to the public from 2013, with families moving into the first new homes in 2015.

Plastic Fantastic

Suggested names for the neighbourhoods were judged by a panel including representatives from Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest councils.

Suggestions for names included Plastic Fantastic, Dog and Bike, Little Athens and Redgravia but these were rejected by the panel.

The homes will include modern versions of London's traditional Georgian and Victorian squares and terraces, as well as riverside properties.

Up to 35% of them will be affordable housing, in-line with the Mayor of London's plan.

Wessex Archaeology Historian Andy Crockitt said Chobham Manor would be built on site of the original manor of the same name.

He said the manor house was originally built in 1329 and was then renamed when it was bought by John de Chobham in 1843.

He added: He only lived there for 14 years but it remained Chobham Manor from that day on.

"The farm was swallowed up by the railway expansion at the end of the 19th Century."

'New community'

Mr Crockitt said East Wick was "clearly the area that was traditionally Hackney Wick", Mr Crockitt said.

The new name is "to give this new community a sense of autonomy and identity", he added.

He said Marshgate Wharf would be an area "going through a gate up to where the marshes used to be".

Sweetwater will be built on an area where a sweet factory stood in the mid-20th Century.

Pudding Mill is already an established area in east London.

"The reference goes back to medieval milling on the River Lee," said Mr Crockitt.

"''Pudding' is a reference to flour mills."

Chief Executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) Andrew Altman said: "The public has given a new piece of London its identity, where communities will grow in five new neighbourhoods, alongside the spectacular venues and open spaces created for the Games."

Communities Minister Bob Neill said: "It's a very good set of choices and the competition itself was a good idea.

"We are keen to make sure these aren't artificial communities that have just been plonked down. These are things that are grown and are connected with the existing background of east London."