Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 10/07/2026 23:13:00

Built for the 2012 Summer Olympics at a cost of 44 million pounds, this 7,500-capacity multi-sport arena in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park hosted handball, modern pentathlon fencing, and Paralympic goalball during the Games before reopening as a community and events venue in 2013. The design by Make Architects incorporates recycled copper cladding on the exterior that gives the building its name and weathers to a distinctive verdigris patina over time. The arena's environmental credentials were a central design principle: light pipes channel natural daylight into the interior, rainwater harvesting reduces mains water consumption by 40 percent, and a naturally ventilated concourse reduces mechanical cooling requirements. These features contributed to the building achieving a BREEAM Excellent sustainability rating, unusual for a venue of this scale. Since the Games, the Copper Box has become home to the London Lions basketball team, London GD Handball Club, and London Pulse netball. It also hosts esports tournaments, concerts, boxing events, graduation ceremonies, and corporate conferences. The retractable seating system allows the main floor to be cleared to provide 2,712 square metres of flat event space for exhibitions and trade shows. The arena operates within the wider Olympic Park legacy alongside the London Stadium, the Aquatics Centre, and the Velodrome. It is accessible from Stratford station, served by the Jubilee line, Central line, Elizabeth line, DLR, and London Overground, making it one of the best-connected venues in east London. Community access was a key requirement of the Olympic legacy plan. The arena operates daily public sessions for badminton, basketball, netball, table tennis, and fitness classes, managed by Greenwich Leisure Limited under the Better brand. The building's thermal mass and natural ventilation system reduce energy consumption by approximately 30 percent compared to a conventionally air-conditioned arena of equivalent size. Naming rights have remained with the London Legacy Development Corporation rather than being sold commercially, preserving the Copper Box identity established during the Games.