Long-time London resident and avid museum and theatre-goer. I started this blog in 2014, and got serious about it in 2020 when I realised how much I missed arts and culture during lockdowns. I go to a lot more events than anyone would think is sensible, and love sharing my thoughts in the forms of reviews, the occasional thought piece, and travel recommendations when I leave my London HQ.
An illustrated walk along the rivers and canals which intersect in London’s Olympic Park. A beautiful sunny day is the perfect chance to explore this ever-changing landscape.
Guess who is our guide for this river-themed walk? Yes, it’s Gilly Cameron-Cooper’s Walking London’s Waterways. This walk is entitled ‘Old Rivers for New: Bow Back Rivers and Olympic Legacy.’
A Modern Olympic Park Incorporating Historic Waterways
As I was on this walk, I was trying to think of the last time I was at the Olympic Park at Stratford (Stratford London, not Stratford-upon-Avon). And I think it might have been during the Olympics. That was a wonderful time in London – the sun was shining; everyone was happy and optimistic; and after much effort I had tickets to a couple of events so could join in the fun. I’ve been to a couple of Olympic parks elsewhere, and it’s easy for them to end up as white elephants (I’m thinking Seoul for example) – big spaces that are under-utilised and quickly become run down. What is positive about the London 2012 Olympics is that they planned for long-term use of the Olympic park site. It probably wasn’t 100% effective, but the park itself is certainly a well-used community asset.
Something which keeps Stratford interesting is that it is still changing. There were years of development leading up to 2012, and as you will see there is still a lot of construction and change today. The next phase will see a cultural quarter development, including a branch of the V&A. The development of the Stratford area was not without controversy. It required the relocation/dislocation of existing uses of the space, and has changed the nature of local communities. As we have seen on our Docklands walks, however, pretty much all neighbourhoods in the formerly heavily-industrialised East End have seen huge change in recent decades; gentrification, conversion of warehouses into expensive flats, with a few examples of community projects which have held out against capitalist forces.
A Walk of Two Halves
The area covered by today’s walk is no different. The walk falls into two sections. The first is a loop around the Olympic Park itself. We are largely isolated from any sense of a local community during this section – this is about highly-managed natural environments, and infrastructure built for large-scale movements of people. The second section goes down the River Lea, and back up to Stratford via various other rivers and canals which we will see in due course. This section is more ‘lived-in’, with industry and trade much more in evidence.
At 9.3km, this is one of the longer walks we have done from Cameron-Cooper’s book. It was a fantastic way to stretch my legs, and I also appreciated seeing such different ways in which spaces can evolve as their usage changes. It’s a reminder that London, like its rivers, never stands still.
Olympic Park – Waterworks River
Our walk officially starts from Stratford Station. Stratford shopping centre was a bit of a weird ghost town during lockdown, open only to food delivery drivers. Instead of traversing it, I walked from my home in Wapping; a longer journey but a lot more scenic. This meant I approached via the former Olympic Stadium (now home to West Ham United) and Anish Kapoor’s AcelorMittal Orbit. We pick the walk up at the first sight it mentions, the Aquatic Centre (seen in the second image with curved roof).Another view of the Aquatic Centre. We are meant to be able to go down the steps in front of the Centre and alongside the Waterworks River, but as you can see this is not currently possible. In fact I spent the first part of my walk slightly lost, as things were just different enough from when the book was published in 2016 to disorient me. Granted I don’t really have a sense of direction, but still…Here is the reason for us getting a bit lost and approaching the Waterworks River from the other side: the construction of East Bank. East Bank will be “a new powerhouse for innovation, creativity and learning,” with outposts of the BBC and Sadler’s Wells as well as the V&A which I already mentioned. I wonder how the popularity of outposts of major cultural institutions will fare after Covid? The Waterworks River with its enticing swan boats is named for a water company who turned a tidal tributary of the Lea into a channel to feed a reservoir here at Stratford.
Olympic Park – Carpenters Road Lock to Waterglades
I wasn’t really meant to go down this side of Carpenters Lock but got lost again. It was a scenic detour in any case. Carpenters Road Lock is a 1930s flood defence for the River Lea. The gleaming metal footbridges and other modern infrastructure attest to the highly-engineered people movement of the Olympics – getting people to and from all the venues without bottlenecks or holdups. Nonetheless Carpenters Road Lock is a nice peaceful spot to stop and learn about canals and canal restoration.Crossing a couple of roads on the way to the northern part of the Olympic Park, London Way is the epitome of the type of space that, like an airport, exists outside of time and geography. It has a job – to move people from point A to point B, and it does it. It doesn’t pretend to do this with much character or charm.After crossing the no-man’s-land of London Way, we get back onto solid ground. Off to one side of the River Lea are these wetlands, the Waterglades. They may look natural, but are actually man-made; they are a way to sustainably recycle water that is collected on the rooftops of nearby buildings (the former Olympic Village), and turn it into clean water for gardening and toilet flushing. As well as this eco-friendly angle, there are habitats to encourage birds, bugs and other wildlife, and a great variety of trees and other plants. In terms of today’s walk, it felt like the most biodiverse environment, and a great spot to sit and do some birdwatching.
Olympic Park – River Lea
And now we head for the River Lea via this slightly odd sculpture made from a red telephone box.The River Lea was looking lovely on this fine, sunny day, although the new growth of reeds for the year was yet to arrive. The Lea originates near Luton, and flows all the way to the Thames. It was a navigable river and important for trade for many centuries – the name may derive from a Celtic word so the river’s long-standing importance is in little doubt. A 1590 poem, A Tale of Two Swannes, takes place along the Lea. And we will see some of the uses of the river in industry a little later on.Our walk today takes us about 15 minutes up the Lea, and 15 minutes back down the other side. This end of the Olympic Park was not the main event of 2012. Granted, the Velodrome is here, but otherwise it was mainly things like the Olympic Village and Broadcasting Centre. Even today, it’s a lot quieter than where we started our walk.
Goodbye To The Olympic Park For Now
Back over London Way, and into the main section of the Olympic Park. These steps take us down to Carpenters Road Lock on the opposite side to where we were earlier. East Bank is on the left, and the AcelorMittal Orbit on the right.Just before leaving the Olympic Park we come across this Great British Garden. I don’t think early Spring was its best season, but there is a commendable amount of thought which has gone into it.And here we rejoin, not quite the River Lea, but the Lee Navigation (both Lea and Lee are acceptable spellings for the river). The Lee Navigation is the ‘canalized’ section of the river – what we have seen so far was the original River Lea. The bottom image shows Old Ford Lock. There was another Old Ford Lock which we saw on this walk from Bethnal Green to Limehouse – with ‘Ford’ deriving from any place you cross a river it’s no wonder it’s fairly common.
The River Lea
I’m going to admit I’m confused about this – is this the River Lea or Lee Navigation? The canal boats would suggest this is still a canalized stretch, but the book says River Lea. It’s anyone’s guess. In any case I quite like this section. It’s not overly manicured, and the community living here seems well-established. And even if I’m not sure what I’m walking beside, at least I can’t get lost when there’s only one path!Some more images of the Lea/Lee as we approach Bow. As you can see, some water-side industry still survives in this part of London.And on the far side of Bow Road we come across this very sparse-looking section. They are remodelling the wall to make things look a bit nicer; in the meantime it’s a good place to display a stopping point for the Three Mills History Walk. The walk is relatively compact but looks interesting, it’s been mentally added to my list for a later outing!
Three Mills Island
I’m sure you remember this spot. This is Three Mills. I was lucky enough to do a tour of one of the mills during Open House weekend last year. I love the Three Mills area – it’s this great historic throwback in the middle of major roads and new developments around Bow. A place out of time. Many more than three mills once stood here. They used the tidal Lea by letting water pass into ponds on the far side, shutting the gates, and using the pressure of the ebbing tide to drive the mills.Despite the name, Three Mills Island has two mills. In the top image House Mill is on the left, and Clock Mill is on the right. House Mill is the one we saw during Open House, and remains the largest tidal mill in the world. The mills have processed a lot of different products; flour, gunpowder and grain for gin among them. These photos are taken near high tide, and you can see how close this comes to flooding the mills.Just behind the mills is a film and television studio which has been home, among other things, to the UK version of Big Brother.When we came here last summer, I didn’t realise that Three Mills Island extended to this green beyond the mills. There isn’t much shade on a sunny day, but it’s a nice open space. The middle image shows Abbey Mills Pumping Station (a Victorian ‘cathedral of sewage’) cut off at left. The modern treatment plant is in the centre, and Three Mills Lock on the right.And finally at Three Mills Island we have this memorial. It replaces an earlier cross, erected in memory of those who died ‘in the course of their work’ on the waterways. This included being “overcome by foul air.”
Back to the Olympic Park
The far end of Three Mills Green is the intersection between Prescott Channel (top) and Three Mills Wall River (bottom). There was a fairly recent plan to bring more goods into the Stratford area via these waterways. But it didn’t really work and it remains nice and quiet.We will now follow the Three Mills Wall River back towards Bow. There were once osier beds here (ie. canes for the basket-making industry). But after the 1844 Pollution Act moved a lot of industry out of central London, this area became incredibly polluted. It’s only really with the Olympic regeneration programme that there were efforts to fully address this.I believe this is the Bow Back River. But I got a little lost again around this point (the Olympic Park has that effect on me), so it could equally be the Waterworks River again.Back we head to the Aquatic Centre and Stratford Station beyond it. Note in the first image the little patch of allotments, seemingly stranded in no-man’s-land. A holdout from whatever was cleared to make way for the Olympic redevelopment? Or is it to do with the landscaping of the park itself? Either way, I was struck today by the vast changes to this landscape. Both in the run-up to 2012, and in the time since Cameron-Cooper’s was writing. It takes an Olympics-sized event to move things around so fundamentally. But nonetheless the rivers and canals continue to flow, unperturbed (or improved) by the changes around them. Maybe a lesson in zen for us all.
Never miss a post again! Sign up below for the Salterton Arts Review newsletter, delivered weekly:
Travelers' Map is loading... If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.
