Restoring and beautifying London's most prestigious homes with love for almost 100 years.




Friday 27 July 2012

Games on!

The wait is over.

The Olympics- and after that the Paralympics- are with us, and in just over 5 hours time we will witness what is promised to be one of the opening ceremonies that will go down in history for its warmth, spectacle, humour, emotion and inclusivity.

We've been getting excited as we see London, a city we love with all our hearts, gearing up to host the world's greatest sporting event. 

It's been seven years since we won the bid to host the Games, and in that time London has worked its socks off to build, to beautify, and to welcome the World for this amazing event.

Every Londoner has played their part, but we'd like to thank the volunteer 'Gamesmakers' to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude. Without them and our emergency services, the Games would not have been possible.

Parts of East London have seen a regeneration that was both long overdue and carefully planned so as to leave no 'white elephants'- every Olympic building and structure will pass into full use, from the stadium to the athlete's village. 

Bastows have done their bit too, working hard to beautify our city and make visitors welcome. But this is not about us- this is about the city and its people.

London, we are so impossibly proud of you, and we know you will enchant, delight, amuse and bemuse Olympics and Paralympics visitors. They are our honoured guests, and we owe it to them- and ourselves- to show them the spirit of London and the hospitality and care we'd like to experience on our own travels.

The Olympics values are respect, excellence and friendship.

The Paralympic Values are courage, determination, inspiration and equality.

Let's live by those during the Games- who knows, they may become a habit we find we like. 

Enjoy the opening ceremony- we are confident that it's going to astonish and amaze, and make us prouder than we've felt in many years.