London’s East End “is persistently seen as other – as mysterious and threatening, as an orphan child prompting pity, as something unknowable which must therefore be tamed by stereotypes. It has lent itself to exploitation on a large scale, from the high-walled and ferociously defended docks, to Fortress Wapping, as the base of Rupert Murdoch’s News International was once called. Grand gestures are repeatedly imposed from outside, whose aims are at once charitable and controlling.” Will the 2012 Olympics be any different?