What To Expect When Olympia, London’s Cultural Landmark, Opens In 2025

Everyday there’s a new story on how AI isn’t just disrupting the creative industry but decimating it. There are those, however, who firmly believe in the power of human creativity and want to champion it. One of them is Lloyd Lee, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Yoo Capital, the firm behind the redevelopment of Olympia London.

For the uninitiated, Olympia is a landmark exhibition and events center in West London that at its peak hosted 200 events a year. Established in 1886, it was the setting for the first Ideal Home Show in 1908, welcomed performances by Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd in 1967 and served as the venue for Vivienne Westwood’s first-ever fashion runway show in 1981. It has witnessed many historic creative moments and aims to be a “world-leading arts, events, entertainment and experiential district” upon completion.

Currently under a £1.3 billion redevelopment, the new and improved Olympia still has creativity at its heart. Its mission is even more important at a time when the arts, entertainment and cultural sectors are suffering major setbacks. When Olympia reopens at the end of 2025, it will unveil London’s first new theater in 50 years, a 4,000-capacity live music venue, over 30 different hospitality spaces and more—a tangible win for creatives far and wide.

“We absolutely believe that Olympia’s primary grain of DNA is showcase. It is, has been and always will be a global showcase for talent, culture, entertainment, innovation, technology and everything in between. The key is that we believe Olympia is and will be redefining what a global showcase is and can be,” says Lee.

A new socioeconomic report by consultancy firm Volterra says “Olympia will generate over £600 million in GVA annually—its new music hall and theater alone will contribute £18 million annually to London’s cultural sector.” They estimate that this will draw 10 million annual visitors to the UK capital, and also contribute over £640 million to destinations outside London.

Curious to learn more about the next chapter of the Olympia story? We speak to Lee for a behind-the-scenes look at the second life of this historic cultural venue.

How did you first come across the opportunity to redevelop Olympia?

We’ve always had a very strong vision of what we’re trying to achieve, but we are also incredibly research-based, and these two things inform how and why we invest. Back in 2015 when the first rumblings of Brexit appeared, we read volumes of data to inform our decision-making process. Our conclusion was to invest into real estate with a strong operational mindset. We began looking for projects where we could control and create the best environment for people to work, learn, live and play, in an international capital like London.

We also knew that Brexit would cause turbulence that would provide us with the opportunity to buy assets when few others would. In the summer of 2016, we shook hands with the former owners of Olympia, with the support of investors, and completed a deal that released a non-core asset from their portfolio. This allowed us to acquire this historic landmark that needed to be rejuvenated and required significant reinvestment.

As with so many of our deals, it started with a Friday breakfast meeting, which is when the idea popped up. The following day, we headed to Olympia and saw 14-acres of freehold land with the remarkable grand Victorian halls. We sent the offer letter three weeks later.

London is home to a trove of high-value redevelopment projects that feature adaptive reuse, conservation and preservation. What sets Olympia apart?

Co-authorship. We believe our role is to lead with a dynamic vision, working in true co-authorship with some of the most talented names in their respective sectors. At Olympia, we are blessed to have fantastic partners in theater, live music entertainment, restaurants, hotels, events and exhibitions, and education.

Even in our office spaces, we see ourselves as partners with our office tenants and we want Olympia to support their success. When people come to work in our spaces at Olympia, we want them to be inspired to do their very best work, and so our pledge to our partners is that we’ll ensure their people love coming to work. We joke that whether they like their job or not is up to them!

Olympia is etched in history. Why is it important for a city like London to ensure a destination like Olympia lives on?

Our public spaces will be programmed by some of the most inventive and creative teams in experiential streetscapes. Everywhere you look, we want visitors to see and experience new ideas, art, music and innovation. All showcased by someone who has come to Olympia to tell the world who they are and what they do.

And we don’t just want this story to be told at Olympia, but also through Olympia. We’re looking for our destination to amplify all the fantastic things to see and do here through our own channels.

London has a 2,000-year history and yet it remains one of the most exciting cities in the world. This is because it never stops moving, it always reinvents itself, and part of this is ensuring that its historical assets keep adapting to the times we live in. Olympia was cutting-edge when it opened almost 140 years ago, and it will now be ready for the next generations to enjoy.

How did you and your team choose the partners and the players that will bring Olympia to life?

We chose partners who combined a real fire for excellence and a distinctive identity, with a desire to contribute to Olympia’s story, to truly be part of it so we could tell a new chapter together. It is this combination of excellence, originality and commitment that has been a theme across Olympia throughout its history, and we believe that our partners are true to that heritage.

All of them are the very best in their fields: The project is being co-designed by Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC—both global architecture practices who have worked on projects such as Borough Yards and Google’s new London HQ.

On the entertainment side, AEG Presents will be operating the new 4,000-capacity music venue, while Trafalgar Entertainment will run the theater, which is the largest to be built in London in nearly half a century.

On the hospitality front, citizenM and Hyatt will be operating our two hotels, while Incipio and D3 Collective—two very well established UK hospitality companies—will be behind a number of restaurant and bar concepts. Our boutique gym will be managed by 1Rebel, and our school by Wetherby Pembridge, while our event spaces will carry on being run by the Olympia Events team, now part of Legends, who have looked after these fantastic spaces for many years.

Finally, we are also very proud to support The BRIT School through a bursary program, as well as numerous other good causes via our partnership with EARNT and our charitable fund. What all of these people and organizations have in common is the desire to create something truly unique together. There won’t be two places like Olympia.

Why do you think it’s important to invest in cultural initiatives at this day and age when many get their entertainment online?

If there is one stream of important data we studied, it was the proliferation of digital entertainment. We formed a contracyclical thesis that live moments and in-person experiences—exactly those you cannot get on digital media—would have to up their game. We knew that when they did, people would crave going out, being with other people, experiencing something that is only possible there and then, in the moment.

Reflecting now, five years since Covid began, we have seen those exact dynamics play out. We are continuing to invest into those areas because we believe that the performing arts and live entertainment are hugely important to the human experience. We see Olympia as a microcosm of London, and it’s London’s culture and entertainment offering that makes it such a great place to live, work and visit.

But despite this, the UK’s creative industries continue to face significant challenges, including the closure of key cultural institutions and a decline in the nighttime economy. Our ambition for Olympia is to be a catalyst—not just the cultural industries but the tourism sector as well.

How would you personally measure the success of Olympia?

We believed in this project from the very beginning and the new findings by Volterra—over £600 million in gross value added and 7,000 new jobs—confirm what we always knew: Olympia has an unmatched potential.

Yoo Capital’s mission is to be both fiscally and socially responsible. For Olympia, this means re-emerging as this global showcase for culture, innovation, art and entertainment. It will look after and inspire the next generations of young talent because that too is what global showcases should do.

As the largest commercial neighbor in the community, we need to lead the way as responsible corporate citizens in how we engage with local residents, schools and nonprofits. We need to be open and transparent in our communications and interactions; we also need to generate returns to our investors so that they see the true risk-reward benefit of investing this way and continue to invest more this way going forward, creating a positive cycle.

Describe the ideal scene you’d like to see on an ordinary day in Olympia when it opens.

What I envision as an ordinary day at Olympia would be a day that brings all these things together: a cutting-edge business conference drawing leading minds from all over the world, a local family sharing a meal in one of our restaurants, some of our office employees enjoying drinks after work, a group of friends from abroad checking in at one of our hotels and getting ready to head to the theater, a young musician busking on Olympia Way. It’s the whole of London, in one place.

Lastly, what kind of events would you love Olympia to host in the near future?

The Oscars! I hear their 100th anniversary is coming up.

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