Todays walk, led by Jean-Paul from our sister group, the Berkshire Weekend Walkers, was slightly different from our more typical countryside based walks in that we were visiting the site of the Olympic and Paralympic games that were hosted by London in 2012. For me, as someone who basked in the glory having successfully attaining many tickets for the events, it was a walk not too be missed; both to see how work was going on to redevelop the site as well as relive some fond memories.
The group met outside Stratford tube station for an 11am start. For many of us, it meant quite an early start as it was quite a trek to get from the heart of Berkshire to the east side of London. Stratford tube station is one of those which had more than one exit which was could cause some confusion. It did but no real alarms as we were only delayed by ten minutes before setting off. There were fourteen of us on today’s walk which was made up of four members from the Weekend Walkers, six from our group and a few other people from other local walking groups.
It was not long before we had the park itself. No queues, no search teams, we could amble in as we pleased. Immediately before us we could see the Olympic Stadium but the cranes inside tell-tale sign that work is being done to reduce capacity and to convert it to an arena to be the home of a local football team. We soon walked past the Orbit which was built as a lasting legacy of the Games and is a good viewing platform from which to see the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in its entirety.
Progress on the walk was slower than usual as we took in closer look at not only the venues that remain (swimming pool, Copper Box, Velodrome and the stadium itself) but also some of the exhibits on display around the site, most notably the seven bus sculptures that have been installed on the site. These were part of Transport for London and London Transport Museum’s “Year of the Bus” celebrating the iconic London Routemaster. A number of these sculptures can be found elsewhere across London.
The walk continued with me often trying to provide running commentary of how the site looked like in 2012. It was difficult to imagine and both myself and Jean-Paul were struggling to identify where the hockey pitch used to reside. We reckoned it now resembles a large green patch of grassland now. I was also surprised to see the number of roads that have been added that was completely changed the dynamic of the site. A couple of times I called out “What’s that road doing there”.
Soon, we had left the site although we would be returning later. A short section that including crossing a busy road took us to Hackney Marshes, which is an area of grassland on the western bank of the River Lea.
The area is quite well known in the sporting world as the “home” of Sunday League football with apparently over 80 football pitches marked out. We found ourselves a quite spot and sat and had our sandwiches in some woodland. We did walk passed a couple of possibly students at two separate locations who were setting up some different coloured ballons on string and subsequently taking photos of them. I didn’t stop to think to ask what they were doing.
We strode on at more our regular pace compared to when we on the Olympic site. At one point, many people in the group took advantage of some local amenities that were conveniently located before we continued on a footpath that hugged the River Lea. It wasn’t long before we were making our return journey to the Olympic park, this time taking us past the Velodrome where the UK had such great success in the games. We stopped to take a closer look and saw that a few people where making use of the facility and cycling around the track. We didn’t go in so moved on, passing more bus sculptures en route. We were stopped in our tracks at one point as our planned route was blocked off due the redevelopment work. A quick discussion and we soon worked out an alternative plan and without much of a diversion we were off again. Not long after, we arrived at the walks conclusion.
. We said farewell to a few people while those that remained stayed for a drink at a rather congested pub in Stratford, which had an excellent view of the stadium. Drink done, the next plan was to head to Leicester Square where the planned late afternoon social was to begin. At this point, we said cheerio to a few more people and soon we down to just the five of us. We were fortunate to find a pub in which we were able to find seats although at £4.70 a pint not the cheapest. Discussions were had as to how we would feed ourselves and considering our location we headed to China Town for a Chinese and managed to get a table before peak time began. Once we had stuffed ourself on Chinese, we headed back to Paddington and find another, slightly cheaper, hostelry to entertain ourselves. Located just five minutes walk from Paddington train station, it was convenient for those that needed to get away. Again, our luck was in and we managed to find ourselves a table to sit round, albeit outside. With numbers dwindling further the final pint was had by just two of us so we supped these inside in the cosy warmth.
All in all it was a very enjoyable day. A slower paced walk than usual but fantastic opportunity to re-live some great memories of summer 2012. Thanks again to Jean Paul and the Berkshire Weekend Walkers for inviting us along.