A collection of 6 stories
Inside the Fence: Olympic London
These walks return to the Lower Lea Valley between 2012 and 2016, following waterways and paths as the Olympic landscape is fenced, remade and gradually opened to everyday use. Three Mills, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Stratford provide the landmarks. Gates, diversions and encounters at the edges of the park become part of the account.
The sequence begins in the weeks before the Games, passes through the interval between the Olympics and Paralympics, and continues with visits to London’s newest suburb and the reopened park. The later walks reconsider some of the early objections. New paths and unexpected pleasure sit alongside memories of the valley’s roughness, industrial remains and pockets of wilderness. The collection ends with The Circuit Reconnected, returning to a route first walked in 2012.
4 of 6 stories mapped
In this collection
The Calm Before The Storm - A Last Pre-Olympic Walk
Just now, the whole world seems to be on pause. Events are grinding to a halt to accommodate the twin national patriotic rallying points of the Diamond Jubilee, and more disruptively the 2012 Olympiad.
Several Bridges Too Far: The Storm Begins to Break
Dear reader, I lied to you. Not deliberately. I swore myself off London until after the Games. I didn't want to endure the crowds, the indignity of queuing for trains, the ever increasing paranoia…
From Hackney Wick to Leyton - An Intra-Games Walk
After the widely acclaimed and nominally successful staging of the Olympic Games, London has returned to a sort of strangely pensive calm. Everyone senses the Paralympics will bring a little of the…
Circling The Newest Suburb
With only the loosest of plans we're heading east again. Having an Essex bolthole is proving hugely advantageous, but I'm out of practice at the advance booking game, and with Wimbledon reaching its…
After the Storm Breaks: Inside The Fence
It's been a while since I got to travel to London - and certainly it's a long time since I found myself alone there. In fact, it's become so usual to be part of a pair, visiting and revisiting…
The Circuit Reconnected
Growing up in the relatively rural westcountry, there have been few enough occasions where I could open an entry here with a Ballardian broadside. But today I woke up on the tenth floor of the Premier Inn which towers over Westfield.