It's not how it used to be, but it's still worth it
I had some business in Stratford, London, this morning. I decided to get off the train one stop before - at Hackney Wick. I always enjoy the walk from there through the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to Stratford.
Every time I'm around here, I notice changes. East London is changing rapidly, and Hackney Wick is perhaps changing the fastest. Since just a couple of weeks, I noticed some newly knocked down old buildings, as well as modern towers nearing their completion.
I love the scale of the Hackney Wick overground station. It was clearly designed for high traffic, similar to other overground stations in the area like Shoreditch High Street. It's mostly solid concrete, but they've gone for pillars and lines instead of solid slabs and walls. It reduces the industrial feel somehow and allows the station to breathe.
It's not like it used to be, but there's still a lot of old school east London left in Hackney Wick - especially along the canals. I didn't actually walk along the canals today but I did spend a few minutes starring into the water and observing the floating creatures - both animate and inanimate. It was quite early in the day, and being winter also, most of the cafés/bars were closed.
The Olympic Park used to be a kind of sanctuary for me when I lived around here. Since I was here during the Olympics in 2012, I have a lot of happy memories connected to the place. For years after the Olympics were over, I used to go reminisce on one of the park benches. I particularly loved the undeveloped part of the park with overgrown bushes next to the water bodies.
The stadium now belongs to West Ham football club, but the park is still 100% open to the public to enjoy. I hope this never changes. A number of office blocks have now been erected between the park and Westfields shopping centre so there are thousands of office workers visible in the area these days. That has changed the vibe of the place a bit - it feels like a mini Canary Wharf now. I can only imagine more towers will go up in the not so distant future.
Peace and Love ✌🏿
Adé
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