Hackney Wick & the Olympic Park
Post-industrial canalside to a park designed by a thousand consultants, for better and worse. Walked and written by the editor. https://walkwalk.org/london/walks/hackney-wick-olympic-park

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.

2. White Post Lane bridge
Stand on it. Look east. Everything you see was a gasworks twenty years ago.

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.

4. London Stadium
The 2012 athletics bowl, now West Ham. From the outside, after a downpour, it almost looks like it belongs.

5. Timber Lodge Cafe
Good tea, better toilets, a cross-generational crowd. The park's genuine heart, such as it has one.

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.

Hackney Wick & the Olympic Park