Olympic and Victoria Parks Walk

A warm sunny morning, Saturday 11th July, and we’re meeting at Stratford station at the slightly earlier time of 10.30 due to: (a) the hot weather, (b) tonight’s quiz having been brought forward an hour due to a certain football competition (well, that worked out well didn’t it, what is it with England and semi-finals!) and (c) the Wimbledon ladies’ tennis final.

Anyway, nine of us met up at the station entrance and we headed off through Westfield towards the Olympic Park. We crossed the bridge over the River Lea and turned right down the slope just before the football stadium to reach Carpenter’s Lock, where there was an information board. We crossed over the river and then walked along the river to the Great British Garden, which was designed by various gardeners, for the Olympics.

Rejoining the road, we then took a riverside path to Old Ford Lock, where we spotted a terrapin basking on a stone. We then headed north along the Lee Navigation and crossed the waterway before turning to walk along the Hertford Union Canal, which runs between the Lea and the Grand Union Canal. It’s a very short canal but does have three locks and there’s also a link to the country’s first railway murder.

Upon reaching the Grand Union Canal, we walked along it for a brief while to the next lock, where we left the canal for the delights of Victoria Park, walking alongside West Lake, before turning right by the sunken gardens and an avenue of trees which provided a suitable shaded area for lunch.

Having refuelled, we continued along the driveway to Grove Road, where a couple of people departed, whilst we continued back through the park, past East Lake and the model boating lake, before heading back to the Hertford Union Canal, rejoining it at the top lock and then retracing our steps to the Lee Navigation.

From here we continued on Carpenters Road, to a road bridge where we turned right up a slope and headed back to Westfield with the River Lea now below us to our left side, before crossing over the bridge from paragraph 2 above (which is what I’ll now call the bridge, until I get feed up with it’s stupid new name!) and heading back into the joys! of the Westfield shopping centre, where some of us headed to the café in a large well known department store for a refreshing drink and cake.

The walk had been just over 5 miles long, mostly by rivers and canals or shaded areas of the park. Well done to those who braved the heat and 6 of us completed the full walk. A very enjoyable waterside jaunt.

Trev (Pathfinder) Eley, 17th July 2026