A historic reminder of the capital’s sporting past has been reclaimed after a plaque commemorating the 1948 Olympics was restored at Wembley.
The plaque on Olympic Way, known to generations of football fans as Wembley Way, was initially installed 75 years ago to mark the post-war games and has been repaired and unveiled alongside a modern equivalent marking in the redevelopment of the area around the national stadium for the postponed 2020 Euro tournament
Julian Tollast, head of planning and design at Wembley Park, said building work in 1993 had left the original plaque “sidelined” but recent landscaping work gave it “a more fitting setting”.
He said: “Few areas of London have such a deep-seated sporting history as Wembley. We are thrilled to be able to unveil the restored 1948 commemorative plaque and the new plaque.”
The original plaque was unveiled on July 6 1948 before the start of what was known as the Austerity Olympics.
Athletes were given the same rations as men in industries such as mining and most were put up in Army camps that had been built for the war.
The 1948 ceremony had been led by transport minister Alf Barnes, a docker’s son from the East End whose brother Billy played for West Ham and had scored the winning goal for Sheffield United in the 1902 FA Cup Final.
