An Alternative Olympic Tour

The Olympic games, a modern future of London’s east end. Except these great structures stand in isolation to the communities that surround them. Albeit fantastic examples of British architecture, they say little about the place they inhabit. While there’s no doubting the Olympic park is spectacular, to get a real taste of London’s east end you have to step out of the confines of the barbed wire fences and into the surrounding boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Hackney. Here you will find the real face of London’s culture and diversity. Take our tour of the areas that surround the Olympic park and discover why this part of the UK’s capital has so much more to offer than sporting grandeur.We start our tour on the Lea Bridge road, just outside the Princess or Wales pub. Here we can see the old and the new of Hackney – the Victorian pub, flanked by a hastily built block of flats, keen to capitalise on London holiday rentals market, in time for the games. Continue along the adjacent River Lea and cross the bridge and you’ll find a gateway to a secluded new-age stone circle. Erected in 1994, the the circle was made out of materials from the Lea’s industrial past. A past further exemplified by the Victorian structures along the filter beds just up ahead.Continue on and you’ll reach the iconic Hackney Marshes. Home to London’s grass-roots Sunday League football. The marshes boast over a hundred games each Sunday and are one of the area’s true sporting legacies. A further stroll up the canal and you’ll reach what once was the old Matchbox factory, manufacture of the iconic toy cars, now a construction site for a trendy new apartment block – ready to cash in on the booming demand for holiday apartments in London.Navigate your way further down the Lea and the Stadium suddenly looms large over the tranquility of the canal. Here you are flanked by the Olympic park’s media centre, but also by the local artist centre of Hackney Wick. Continue further down the waterway and you’ll reach the derelict set of the 90’s early-morning television show, The Big Breakfast. A sharp left and you’re back in the modernist spender of the Olympic village, where our tour ends. It’s not so much the wonderful design of the stadia in this part of London which makes it so interesting, but the surrounding area that validates it. If you plan to attend the games this August, get the most out of our experience and be sure to engage with the wonderful culture that exists just outside the electric fence.

View the original article here