We make no apologies: this issue of the New London Quarterly has an unashamedly Olympian flavour. But it is one focused on legacy, rather than Games-time use, and the East Village by Delancey and Qatari Diar will form a major part of that: a major contribution to London’s housing needs, presented in our project review article.

We talk to one of the scheme’s prime movers, Delancey’s Stuart Corbyn, and discover that some of the long-term design and management principles espoused and used by the great estates will be on show here too. Olympic borough Hackney shows what is going on in the area – catalysed by the Games – in our letter from the boroughs piece, alongside a similar missive from Merton, home to the tennis tournament at Wimbledon, which also hosted it last time London staged the Games in 1908. And we ask our viewpoint panel how best we can serve the capital, building on the Games’ regenerational momentum.

The Olympics will again quite rightly be a major subject of interest down on the French Riviera as the NLQ, London stand and thousands of developers, investors and agents up sticks for a week to take part in MIPIM. We interview one of them, CBRE’s Adam Hetherington, on the state of the market, and British Land’s Adrian Penfold about ways forward from his eponymous review. The other topic to set MIPIM tongues wagging in a London context will be the London mayoral elections. London Communications Agency’s Robert Gordon Clark takes a look at what he bills as Boris v Ken 2, the sequel. And there is plenty more besides – a Sounding Board session looking at what lies in store this year, across a number of sectors; sector briefings including an extended piece on student accommodation, and a look at Westminster in our opportunity London feature, another borough being newly animated by its historic venues for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

We are just on the verge of the biggest event London has staged, certainly since the World Cup in 1966. With London 2012, however, the legacy going forward will be that much stronger than just defeating the Germans in extra time, in black and white. ‘They think it’s all over,’ TV commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme famously said 46 years ago as the ball crossed the line and people ran onto the pitch. It isn’t all over, this time. Enjoy the issue.

David Taylor, Editor