Work to dismantle stands has already begun at the Aquatic Centre

They said they felt like the Griswold family in the comedy film National Lampoon’s Vacation in which they endured a calamitous journey across America to the Walley World fun park, only to discover a note at the entrance saying, “Closed for repairs”. Visitors to the empty Olympic Park in east London last week said Lord Coe’s Locog had missed a trick by failing to keep it open to tourists who had been wowed by spectacular television scenes over the summer. Having expected to walk around the Park reliving the cheers of London 2012, they were met instead by the sound of builders’ drills dismantling memory-packed stadiums. The Aquatics Centre, which hosted fabulous victories for Paralympics golden girl Ellie Simmonds only three weeks ago, is now a forlorn sight as work begins removing its temporary grandstands.

Its name is already being erased from the external walls, lending a ghostly feel of memories vanishing into thin air. Cynthia de Jong, who jetted in from California last week with husband Edward, said: “It’s so, so sad. Visiting the Park was the one thing we wanted to do here. “It was all people were talking about on the plane coming over. We just wanted to look around but the gates are shut. It was like Chevy Chase and Walley World. “There are probably planes full of tourists coming over from the US hoping to see the Park.

“The organisers have messed up. But the Games were just amazing; we were glued to them.” Outside the Park, the famous London 2012 gift shop in Stratford’s huge Westfield mall will begin its last week of trading today. Goods are being “reduced to clear” by 50 per cent, as groups of excited schoolchildren grab their last souvenirs. And where queues once weaved through three floors for a spot in the John Lewis department store’s Olympic Park viewing gallery, last week there was barely a soul.