John Boyd-Carpenter, MP for Kingston-upon-Thames, proposed using the Kingston Gate Camp to help alleviate the local post-war housing shortage but Minister of Works, Charles Key, was opposed, preferring that the site be eventually returned to its former parkland use. Key's department refurbished and repurposed the camp as an Olympic Village for the 1948 Summer Olympics. The Olympic Village was opened by Lord Burghley with Key making the announcement, in July 1948. After the Olympics, the camp was used by units of the Royal Corps of Signals then by the Women's Royal Army Corps following their formation in 1949 as successor to the wartime ATS. Although it had been hoped to clear the camp during the 1950s, it remained in military use and was used to house service families repatriated following the Suez Crisis in 1956. It was not until 1965 that the camp was eventually demolished and reintegrated into the park during the following year.