page_title: 1948 Summer Olympics
section_title: Venues
hierarchical_section_title: 1948 Summer Olympics / Venues
caption_attribution_description: Description: Central Office of Information's copy of the official poster advertising the 1948 London Olympics. Date: 1948 Our Catalogue Reference: INF 13/224 This image is from the collections of The National Archives. Its design is a copyright of the International Olympic Committee. For high quality reproductions of any item from our collection please contact our image library.
context_page_description: The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in London, United Kingdom from 29 July to 14 August 1948.
  Following a twelve-year hiatus caused by the outbreak of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics held since the 1936 Games in Berlin. The 1940 Olympic Games had been scheduled for Tokyo, and then for Helsinki; the 1944 Olympic Games had been provisionally planned for London. This was the second occasion that London had hosted the Olympic Games, having previously hosted them in 1908, forty years earlier. The Olympics would again return to London 64 years later in 2012, making London the first city to have hosted the games three times, and the only such city until Paris and Los Angeles host their third games in 2024 and 2028, respectively. The 1948 Olympic Games were the first of two summer Olympic Games held under the IOC presidency of Sigfrid Edström.
  The event came to be known as the Austerity Games, because of the difficult economic climate and rationing imposed in the aftermath of World War II.
context_section_description: No new venues were built for the Games. A cinder track was laid inside Empire Stadium and all other venues were adapted. For the first time at the Olympics swimming events were held undercover, at the 8000 capacity Empire Pool. As the pool was longer than the standard Olympic length of 50 metres a platform was constructed across the pool which both shortened it and housed officials. In 2010 one of the last remaining venues from the Games, the Herne Hill Velodrome where cycling events were staged, was saved when a new 15-year lease was agreed meaning that repairs could take place. Campaigners and users of the track had feared that it would be forced to close as it was in desperate need of refurbishment.
  Wembley Empire Exhibition Grounds
  Empire Stadium – opening and closing ceremonies, athletics, equestrian (jumping), football finals, field hockey finals
  Empire Pool – boxing, diving, swimming, water polo
  Palace of Engineering – fencing
  Other venues
  Empress Hall, Earl's Court – boxing preliminaries, wrestling, weightlifting, gymnastics
  Harringay Arena, Harringay – basketball & wrestling
  Royal Regatta Course, Henley-on-Thames – canoeing, rowing
  Herne Hill Velodrome, Herne Hill – track cycling
  Windsor Great Park – cycling road race
  Central Stadium, Military Headquarters, Aldershot – equestrian (jumping), modern pentathlon (riding, fencing, swimming)
  Tweseldown Racecourse – equestrian (dressage, eventing)
  Arsenal Stadium, Highbury – football preliminaries
  Selhurst Park – football preliminaries
  Craven Cottage, Fulham – football preliminaries
  Ilford – football preliminaries
  Griffin Park, Brentford – football preliminaries
  Champion Hill, Dulwich – football preliminaries
  Green Pond Road Stadium, Walthamstow – football preliminaries
  White Hart Lane, Tottenham – football preliminaries
  Lyons' Sports Club, Sudbury – field hockey preliminaries
  Guinness Sports Club, Park Royal – field hockey preliminaries
  Polytechnic Sports Ground, Chiswick – field hockey preliminaries
  National Rifle Association Ranges, Bisley – shooting, modern pentathlon (shooting)
  Finchley Lido, Finchley – water polo preliminaries
  English Channel, Torbay – yachting
  Fratton Park, Portsmouth – football preliminaries
  Goldstone Ground, Brighton – football preliminaries
  Royal Military Academy – modern pentathlon (running)
caption: Poster promoting the 1948 Olympics
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