The legacy of London 2012 is more than bricks and mortar, it’s also well-being for communities

This piece is part of our series on “Leveraging the Games for Local Development“. By sharing insights, best practices, and success stories, this campaign seeks to inspire and guide future host cities to maximise the benefits of such global events.   

As the flame is lit for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, in the UK we are reminded that it’s already been 12 years since the Games were hosted in London.  

From the Danny Boyle-directed Opening and Closing Ceremonies to the high drama of Super Saturday, the London 2012 Games were a production on a scale the UK has not seen before or since. That said, the UK has proven its hosting pedigree by putting on a slew of major events including The Men’s Rugby World Cup, The Men’s & Women’s Euros, Eurovision and the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The physical legacy of London 2012 remains plain for all to see in the regeneration of the east end of the city, and the many purpose-built arenas and events spaces, including the iconic stadium where West Ham United now play their home games. 

Memories 

Something more intangible, but just as important, was left behind by the time the London 2012 Games was over – the social legacy. The feeling of pride and positivity they inspired taught the nation many things, not least that moments like these can unify a nation and boost collective wellbeing.  

There are often questions about how long the buzz of an event can be expected to last in public memory. Our polling suggests that the majority of the UK public believe London 2012 did have a long-term impact that continues today.

In a nationally representative poll of 2,018 adults conducted to mark the tenth anniversary of London 2012, we found that 65% of respondents agreed that the impact of the Games can still be felt on them, their communities and the country, with this number rising to 75% in London. “There are very few events that happen in the country that I feel a sense of pride,” said one participant in a focus group we ran at the time. “But actually, I do think, we’ve done really well on the world stage there.” 

© Graeme Braidwood

Understanding what works  

Spirit of 2012 was set up in 2013 by the Big Lottery Fund (now the National Lottery Community Fund) to keep this legacy of national unity and optimism alive.  London is, as far as we know, unique amongst Olympic and Paralympic Cities in establishing a legacy body specifically to focus on the intangible, social aspects of legacy. 

With our £47m endowment, over the last decade we have funded over 200 projects reaching over 3.2m people across the UK. These have included funding the last two UK Cities of Culture, the creation of an inclusive dance troop for the Birmingham 2022 Opening Ceremony, and a UK-wide physical activity programme, Get Out Get Active (GOGA) that has supported the least active disabled and non-disabled to be active together. Throughout that, we’ve had a dual aim of both championing the positive role of events, alongside exploring how they can be better designed and delivered to achieve social outcomes.

We deliberately made the decision to do this via support for UK events of many different shapes and sizes – from the Glasgow 2014 and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, to community festivals inspired by national anniversaries.   

Over that time, we have seen others in the sector – both nationally and internationally – increasingly prioritise social outcomes alongside economic ones. We were delighted to see the cross-sector support the OECD received for its measurement framework on major events, and – alongside the work that UK Sport and DCMS have done to emphasise social impact as part of the Gold Framework (the government guidance on bidding for major sporting events) we believe there is real momentum behind this in the UK.  

Whilst appetite for consistent measurement has increased, the structures to track the long-term impact of events have not yet caught up. Whilst Paris 2024 will spark a rash of interest in quantifying and understanding the long-term impact of London 2012, there is no single, easy place to go to answer that question. This January, we’ve published the results of a detailed feasibility study into why a Data Observatory for UK Events is needed. 

Championing well-being  

A consistent thread throughout our funding has been a focus on wellbeing. All our grant-funded projects have experimented with measuring the wellbeing impact of their work, and we’ve funded detailed wellbeing research on arts and culture, events, volunteering, and most recently on the wellbeing impact of Eurovision 2023.  
 
We’ve taken our responsibility to understand our own impact seriously, working with external partners to evaluate our impact on participant wellbeing. We were pleased to find – for example – that average life satisfaction of participants increased from 6.4 to 7.7 out of 10, and that 61 % of the 34,000 participants in our Get Out and Get Active Programme were still active 6 months later, an impressive result given 7 in 10 of these were inactive at the start of the project.  

© Zahler Robin

Throughout all this the emphasis is on learning: how can we create an events ecosystem that is confident in its role in creating joy and lifelong memories as a primary outcome.   

Plenty of focus on the impact of London 2012 falls on the bricks and mortar, the £8.8 billion spent and the sports participation legacy – and rightly so. However, its ability to unite disparate groups and inspire people even now should not be taken lightly, something which has been mirrored in subsequent events hosted in the UK in the ten years since.

Paris will take the baton this year and will surely do a spectacular job with the event itself and the post-event. It’s our hope that they will include wellbeing measurement in their legacy work around the Olympics, Paralympics and their future events and commemorations, because the happiness that these events inspire will keep a light shining in communities, long after the flame goes out. 

The OECD Programme on global events (cultural, sports and business) helps those involved build a legacy of local development. We work with event hosts from national or local governments, the private sector, and cultural, sports or business associations to reap greater local benefits from such events.