“This year’s VIP hospitality will be bigger than ever”

Ben Craddock, Senior Event Experience Manager at London Marathon Events and Finish Director of the TCS London Marathon, provides insight into the infrastructure challenges in this interview with stadiaworld.

The TCS London Marathon is one of the seven Abbott World Marathon Majors and, according to the organisers, the most popular marathon in the world. Each year, more than 50,000 runners take to the streets of the British capital, finishing on The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace – one of the most iconic locations in global sport. Behind this spectacle lies a complex temporary infrastructure operation: from the triple-start system in Greenwich Park to the state-of-the-art finish gantry, hospitality structures, and fan zones, all built within a 48-hour window once the roads close.

Ben Craddock
Ben Craddock Image: London Marathon
stadiaworld: The London Marathon operates a triple-start system in Greenwich Park and finishes on The Mall – what are the main challenges of building temporary infrastructure at these iconic locations?
Craddock: Building temporary structures for an event the size of the TCS London Marathon in a city as busy and large as London will always come with challenges. One of the biggest of these is timeframes. We have limited time to build often quite complex structures at both the Start, but particularly at our Finish which is on one of the most recognisable locations on the planet, The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace. Because of this notable location, we need to also ...