By Tom Degun at the Main Press Centre on the Olympic Park in London

Main Press_Centre_and_Seb_Coe_June_27June 27 - The Main Press Centre (MPC) here at the Olympic Park in Stratford has today become the first venue be opened and made fully operational by London 2012 exactly one month ahead of the start of the Olympic Games.


The giant MPC will host up to 6,000 of the world's press and photographic media during the Games.

It provides 31,000 square metres of office space across four floors for journalists and photographers as well as International Olympic Committee (IOC) and London 2012 staff.

Across the Olympics and Paralympics, the MPC will be open for 52 days.

"Like the athletes competing at London 2012, the world's writers and photographers who will be based in the MPC are at the top of their profession," said London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe (pictured above).

"We will offer them state of the art facilities so they can tell the extraordinary stories that will come out of the Games.

"This is our first venue on the Olympic Park to open for business and we are ready to welcome the world's media as they come and set up their office."

The MPC will become a "home from home" for the media with a 200 metre-long High Street located outside featuring a range of shops and services including a post office, dry cleaners, pharmacy and general store.

MPC June_27
The MPC is located adjacent to the International Broadcast Centre (IBC), where the majority of accredited broadcast journalists will be based during the Games.

Following the Games, three bidders have been shortlisted to take over the venue - UK Fashion Hub, Oxylane Group and iCITY.

UK Fashion Hub's bid promises a dedicated centre for the fashion and textile manufacturing sectors with the IBC becoming a fashion centre and the MPC finding new life as a fashion college, fashion e-tailing centre and media centre.

The bid from Oxylane Group, in partnership with Loughborough University, is a sports orientated mixed-use offer which would see the IBC offering leisure, events space, research and education opportunities and the MPC being used as office space and as a technology centre.

Finally, iCITY would use the MBC as a computing centre, research labs, post production, graphic designer and digital education with the MPC becoming an innovation and research centre with links to higher education to showcase British technology.

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October 2011: MPC and IBC must have a skilled jobs legacy warns senior London Assembly member
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