Olympic Torch Relay London

China recieved the Olympic flame from Greece yesterday in a ceremony in Athens. It will travel to Beijing for a welcoming ceremony in Tiananmen Square before leaving to visit 21 cities on six continents, one of them being London. The flame will arrive in London next Sunday, 6 April, and be taken on a Torch Relay from Wembley Stadium through 10 London boroughs to the O2 Arena in Greenwich.

80 torchbearers have been invited to take turns carrying the flame including former British Olympic champions, non-Olympic sportsmen and well known celebrities. The Torch Relay will start at Wembley Stadium at 10.30am heading down the Harow Road to Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill, then on along Oxford Street, pass the British Museum, back to Chinatown and down through Trafalgar Square before it criss-crosses the River Thames four times passing the Southbank Centre, Somerset House, St Paul’s Cathedral, City Hall and Tower Bridge, up through Whitechapel to Stratford where London’s main Olympic site will be and finally back down to the O2, arriving around 6pm. At all of these venues they’ll be entertainment and special performances to welcome the flame.

If the weather’s fine there should be a big turnout of people to watch the relay go by, but I imagine the orangizers never envisaged the situation in Tibet blowing up as it has and this event offering pro-Tibet protesters a golden oppurtunity to get their message across and try to embarass the Chinese in front of the world’s media. The route winds through central London for miles giving plenty of chances to jump out and get on camera, should be an interesting day.