London’s power of attraction, its capacity to act at a distance, both on the imagination of its own inhabitants and on those it draws in as immigrants or visitors, took on a special significance with the advent of the Olympics. The theme of London as ‘the world in a city’ was central to the successful 2012 bid. The capital was defined for the purpose as a unique mix of ethnic diversity, enterprise culture, and civic pride, represented by East London, the bid’s main focus. For so long the city’s poor relation, but now the prime location of Olympic hopes, people from east end of London discovered to their surprise that their cultures, previously regarded as bearing all the hallmarks of multiple loss, disadvantage and difference, were now a unique selling point as symbols of community cohesion and platforms of aspiration for hosting the games.