I came across an Olympic lane in the nearside today. There was no sign to say whether it was one of the ones that cycles were allowed in, but I vaguely remembered reading that it was the offside ones they didn’t want us in. ...
I think pretty much all of the Games Lanes which are on the nearside, allow cyclists in them. As far as I know, the only ones which don't, are in locations where cyclist are forbidden entirely (ie a handful of the seriously major roads, where you probably wouldn't want to cycle, even if it was legal).
I nearly came unstuck, in a flattened kind of way, yesterday.
Going west to east under the Woolwich flyover roundabout which is traffic light controlled, I had a green light.
What I wasn't expecting was the traffic across my path to have had their red light black bagged, and their stop line painted out and converted to a 'give way' line which they were happily ignoring.
No warning of this on approach to the roundabout (which already has one ghost bike attached to the railings).
That sounds extremely odd, probably dangerous, and quite possible illegal. From your description it sounds like they've converted a light controlled junction into a mixture of light control, and "give way", which is insanely stupid if that's the case, and aside from the dangers to cyclists, is also asking for a motor vehicle to motor vehicle collision as well.
I'm very glad to hear you didn't manage to add to the Ghost Bike entourage.