Foster to plan £40m racecourse

The architectural company which designed London's controversial "wobbly" Millennium Bridge is to prepare a masterplan for a new £40 million racecourse for the capital.

It was announced today that Foster and Partners, headed by Lord Norman Foster, is to design the London City Racecourse on a 160-acre site at Fairlop Plain near Barkingside in East London.

The facility centres around a floodlit all-weather track which developers Wiggins hope will host 31 Thursday evening meetings each season.

It will be the first new racecourse to be built in the UK for more than 70 years, and will give race-going Londoners their first local course since the track at Alexandra Palace closed in 1970.

The development has the support of the British Horseracing Board, but considerable local opposition means the plans will go before a public inquiry in January 2001.