post-industrialcanal

Hackney Wick & the Olympic Park

Post-industrial canalside to a park designed by a thousand consultants, for better and worse.

Distance

4.5 km

Time

~ 80 min

Start

Hackney Wick Overground

End

Stratford

Best at

afternoon

Right now

28°C· Clear

12 nearby transit lines disrupted — Waterloo & City, District.

Open in Maps for turn-by-turn, or take it offline as GPX.

Hackney Wick was warehouses and a canal ten years ago. Now it's warehouses, a canal, and a very considered public park sitting next to a football stadium. The walk across that seam is one of the more interesting short walks you can do in London, partly because the seam is still so visible.

Start at the Overground and go straight to Crate. Buy nothing; just stand in the yard and look around. From the bridge at White Post Lane you can see every stage of the regeneration at once: abandoned industrial, luxury-flat, warehouse-converted, brand-new-build.

Walk south along the canal and you're in the Olympic Park. It's flat, lightly over-landscaped, and at weekends full of families doing the cable-car loop. The Orbit is the most photographed piece of public art in Europe that nobody talks about. Keep going past the stadium and end at Timber Lodge for tea.

If you want to rinse the bittersweet feeling off, Stratford Westfield is five minutes further. Welcome back.

The route

On the map.

A soft dashed line, numbered stops. It’s a suggestion, not a turn-by-turn.

Elevation

↑ 49 m·↓ 50 m·3–14 m ASL

Stops along the way

Things to notice.

01
1
Crate Brewery yard
The original Hackney Wick regeneration anchor. Still a good pizza, still a good view of the canal, still full of people under thirty-five.
01
Crate Brewery yard
The original Hackney Wick regeneration anchor. Still a good pizza, still a good view of the canal, still full of people under thirty-five.
02
2
White Post Lane bridge
Stand on it. Look east. Everything you see was a gasworks twenty years ago.
02
White Post Lane bridge
Stand on it. Look east. Everything you see was a gasworks twenty years ago.
03
3
ArcelorMittal Orbit
The red twisted thing. You don't need to go up it. You just need to acknowledge that it exists and is, in fact, a slide.
03
ArcelorMittal Orbit
The red twisted thing. You don't need to go up it. You just need to acknowledge that it exists and is, in fact, a slide.
04
4
London Stadium
The 2012 athletics bowl, now West Ham. From the outside, after a downpour, it almost looks like it belongs.
04
London Stadium
The 2012 athletics bowl, now West Ham. From the outside, after a downpour, it almost looks like it belongs.
05
5
Timber Lodge Cafe
Good tea, better toilets, a cross-generational crowd. The park's genuine heart, such as it has one.
05
Timber Lodge Cafe
Good tea, better toilets, a cross-generational crowd. The park's genuine heart, such as it has one.
06
6
Stratford Westfield
End here. It's jarring on purpose; the walk is about the seam between two versions of London. You can also just get on the Central line.
06
Stratford Westfield
End here. It's jarring on purpose; the walk is about the seam between two versions of London. You can also just get on the Central line.

Hackney Wick & the Olympic Park

On the map.

Things to notice.

Crate Brewery yard

Crate Brewery yard

White Post Lane bridge

White Post Lane bridge

ArcelorMittal Orbit

ArcelorMittal Orbit

London Stadium

London Stadium

Timber Lodge Cafe

Timber Lodge Cafe

Stratford Westfield

Stratford Westfield

Two more, on similar days.

Stratford: the Olympic Park and Queen Elizabeth Park

Whitechapel to Limehouse Basin