Date: Sunday 10th March 2024, 1pm

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to Bow Creek Ecology Park

Burgundy stemmed cornus planting with Orbit behind, March 2024

Up first… We explored the parks and canyons bookending Bow Creek, from Stratford to Canning Town. It’s already twelve years since the Olympic Games came to Stratford in East London and the whole lower River Lea was cleaned up, reshaped and rebuilt for the sporting citizen. From the modern high rise apartments to the low rise cottages of West Ham, let’s check it out.

Route

Olympic section

• Glasshouse Gardens
• Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park including Arcelor Mittal Orbit
• Pudding Mill Allotments
• Greenway Stratford
• Abbey Lane Park with a super-fast slide!
• Three Mills Green where we met Ranger Sam

West Ham section

• Prescott Channel
• Long Wall by Channelsea (supported by Surge.coop)
• Memorial Recreation Ground
• Hermit Road Recreation Ground
• Star Lane Park
• Malmesbury Road Park
• Bow Creek Ecology Park
• Lookout Riverside Open Space and Botanic Square

Meeting place: Stratford Station, south side by foot of stairs to Westfield
Date & time: Sunday March 10th 2024, 1 pm
Distance: about 5 miles
End point: Lighthouse Gallery, City Island, Lyell Street
Maps: Google map, Komoot map – click to view

Sunset over Memorial Recreation Ground with Canary Wharf beyond

Many points of interest on or near this walk are described interactively in https://the-line.org/map/

There is also the Leaway, an intended route devised in 2016 which follows the river more closely.

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Gallery

Cormorants on River Lea looking north near Three Mills Lock, with Olympic Torch tower and ArcelorMittal Orbit by Sir Anish Kapoor beyond

ArcelorMittal Orbit at the Lea Valley Olympic Park

ArcelorMittal is a steel company, and owner Lakshmi Mittal put up some of the money, and the steel. The design was chosen by then Mayor of London Boris Johnson, though perhaps he only endorsed the decision. See Guardian article & video.

Three Mills Green

We were joined by Sam, one of the Lea Valley Rangers, who gave us an insight into the work and achievements at Three Mills.

Here’s how accessible the walk is – Abbey Lane Park. Slide down from the Greenway (aka Northern Outfall Sewer)

Hammers: Memorial to 38 souls who lost their lives when a wave was thrown up by a ship launching into the Thames.

An Arizona Cyprus Cupressus arizonica I think, in flower in Hermit Road Recreation Ground.

Newham Council has just planted a host of trees in Hermit Road Rec – Golden Delicious apples, an alternating avenue of oak and red leaf maple, and also (this photo above) a number of giant sequoias and dawn redwoods. Talk about thinking ahead, these trees will be giants in 300 years’ time!

This is how Hermit Road park could look in future! – photo taken at Scone Palace in Scotland whose redwoods were planted 150 years ago.

A recent review of Sequoiadendron Giganteum says there are more giant sequoias in Britain than in California!

Reed bank on the River Lea at Bow Creek, behind and above – City Island built by Ballymore. We’ll see their work again when we reach Nine Elms.

London City Island Bridge, Canning Town

Bow Creek and the Ecology Park seen from Hope Street on Leamouth Peninsula with Avalon Point building behind. Dec 2023

Botanic Square, City Island, Dec 2023, with powder coated artwork by Rana Begum Catching Colour

Botanic Square, scots pine and flowering cherry

Map

Maps: Google map, Komoot map – click to view

Photos by Jane

Photos by Gina

This Walk

Sunday 10th March 2024 Olympic Park to Bow Creek

Walks Coming Up

Sunday 14th April 2024 Mayfair to Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill

Sunday 12th May 2024 Highbury Fields to Finsbury Park

Sunday 9th June 2024 Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens to Battersea Park

We are looking for people who want to join the walk and use it as a framework or platform for their art or interest. Maybe that’s photography, wildflower painting, tree identification, bird watching, architecture, geography field study, land management, or whatever.

The walk is likely to form an excellent foundation for students and practitioners of a number of disciplines.

So far we have Gail Astbury as artist-in-residence. www.gailastbury.com

Join our mailing list to register your interest.

Another route

Previously the shape and continuity of a Spiral was used to carve a path across the city, moving forward linearly, circularly, expansively from place to place until “the whole” of London was covered.

Park to Park is not so ambitious in design, any path can be trodden in any direction so long as it connects one open space to another.

Layout of a number of walks across London – green 2024, blue 2025, pink 2026 and yellow 2027

Some parts of London are more blessed than others with parks and open spaces. London has gotten greener in recent years; street tree planting and guerrilla gardens right in the busiest parts of our city show that many small and large places could be reclaimed as parkland, bringing pleasure and refreshment to everyone who passes by.