In the late fifties and early sixties, on our way to Norfolk with our parents along the old A11, Stratford would always seem the first stage of the countryside! How it's changed since then!

0:17 Those banners with "Work" printed on them in large, stark letters are rather grim, like something out of John Carpenter's brilliant sci-fi satire "They Live"!

There was an area close to the Lea that we called Bully Fen. It was an army training ground I believe. As kids in the 60s we used to get in there to explore and play amongst the trenches and pillboxes. The Eastway Cycle Track swept that away, and the cycle track has in turn been recycled. Everything seemed permanent and fixed when we were kids, but time takes us all downstream, and I now see how quickly the city sheds its skin.

@brianjrichman

Жыл бұрын

Indeed so! I was both happy to see some of the awful parts of the area swept away but also sad to see the new buildings that are not only lacking but will be slums in 20 years time and need to be swept away AGAIN.

@Geffo555

Жыл бұрын

@@brianjrichman True. I have no illusions about the area, I saw it all first hand. Carpenters Road was a mess of Victorian warehouses and filthy yards. The canal was covered in an oily film. But the new development just seems characterless and cold. Industrial grime has been replaced with utilitarian concrete. Perhaps I just resent my manor and memories being erased.

@brianjrichman

Жыл бұрын

@@Geffo555 I used to know a lady who worked in a transport company on Marsh Lane and my first wife was her cousin. All that locality has gone now... That's both good and bad, but the end result is "Meh".

@worlds1qwopfan93

Жыл бұрын

@@brianjrichman Which parts of the Olympic park do you think will be slums in the next decade then?

@brianjrichman

Жыл бұрын

@@worlds1qwopfan93 I wrote 20 years, that's TWO decades away (2045 or so). Many/most of the residential developments, which are boxes stacked on top of boxes with every other one having a brightly coloured front to the balcony are what I am considering. My daughter (who USED to live within sight of the Olympic Park and ended up moving elsewhere) toured one of the show flats there and quickly realised that that not only were they very expensive but poor quality. What she saw was designed to stand up for 30 years or so and then be pulled down. Actually, the developers don't care what happens to these "dwellings" in that sort of timescale. We appear to have learnt very few of the lessons from the failed tower blocks of the 1950s and 1960s that littered east London.

I always loved that area ... from doing squat parties on the old Carpenters Rd to Living on a boat on the River Lea.. So different now...

I can happily brag that my dad worked on the aquatic centre roof and as a child was taken into my dads bosses office and helped to choose the final design for the roof!

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

that's a great story ells bells

I’m a West Ham fan who lives in Scotland. I don’t like stadium but love the park. I came down to Hackney Wick for a ticketed fan event for the Euro final with my son and daughter. We had a lovely walk around the park around mid day. The stadium was cordoned off as it was being converted for Baseball..as you do! Thanks for the video. Interesting and fascinating developments.

Back in the 90s i regularly delivered in Stratford LIFT, London International Freight Terminal, 5 years driving around London everyday in a truck got you ready for just about any eventuality!

@jonathancole833

Жыл бұрын

i well remember LIFT in the 90s. Hard to believe then that the Olympics would one day be held there!

I live in west London and visited the Olympic Park for the first time last Thursday. I went to an area called the Wetlands. I was sitting on a bench by the river Lea, and I remember thinking to myself; I wonder if John Rogers is going to walk past?

Back in the early 2000s, I used to walk there from the Stratford computer fair because I had a friend who liked the dodgy market that was held there every Sunday. I'm convinced they built the Olympic Park on that site to rid the town of the market.

@lackmaker5

Жыл бұрын

Surely the only reason to bid for the Olympics was to get rid of the "dodgy market"

@TheAlienInterview

Жыл бұрын

@@lackmaker5 It was on the site of the old greyhound track. It was huge and mainly sold pirated discs (rude films and computer software). I'm surprised it lasted for as long as it did. Shortly before it closed down, a journalist bought an old compact camera from one of the stalls and used it to photograph the market. His photos were published in a book about that part of Stratford. I always thought it looked like a third world country, so I was glad they built the Olympic Park & Village over it.

The old Eastway track was much bigger than the new 1 mile outdoor road circuit so they also gave us Hogg Hill out past Redbridge which is an excellent circuit. They also gave us a smallish mountain bike track. Only the BMX and the velodrome were used for the Olympics. By reducing the size of the new circuit, they freed up land for development to help fund the velodrome etc. It’s Chobham manor, not Chobham Farm. What used to be there is a long and interesting story too.

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for that info Jeff

Remember doing my Knowledge Of London .. getting from Hackney Wick to Stratford high street Carpenters road in 2007 it was all back street garages and lockups.. Changed so much in that area,quickly as well when they began work on it.

I happen to live in one of the two big tower blocks that are pointed out in this video, and one aspect in which they’re better than many of the other developments in the East Village area is it’s mostly bicycle parking underneath, not car parking, so the impact of the higher density on traffic/noise in the surroundings is much less than the number of homes would suggest. Affordability is not great, however.

@unchattytwit

Жыл бұрын

Yes, it's a new city but not a city for everyone.

The Olympic Park has become a very nice area. I often go for walks through it, and also cycle through it on my way home on days when I'm in the office, adds a fair distance to my commute, but it's nice to do. I first came across the Blossom Garden while out for a walk last autumn. Totally the wrong time of year for blossom of course, but I made a point of going there in the spring when it was all in bloom.

Ah yes, I used to say that the last time I felt a sense of national pride was the London Olympics. I’ve forgotten what it felt like now though, so I say nothing.

Super shooting this brillaint video in low sunlight🌄 I am one of the few (wrong) people who like what the Olympic Village has become in the last five years. Drinking out front of Mother Kelly's on July evenings, as families/doggo walkers stroll along Victory Parade makes E20 feel holidayish... and where do you get the all-year round festival energy you get on thr Hackney W. side (13:49)? i've an idea for your new release: set up a stall on Norwich station concourse, and give away a free torch, a Danko Night Stick (as used in futuristic series “The X Files” - maybe have demonstration model tied to a chair, with a skipping rope? Warn commuters: "Catch the train to London, stopping at: Rejection. Disappointment. Back-stabbing Central and Stratford International for the Back End of Houston."

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

that's an amazing promo idea Alex - particularly now I have a connection to Norwich

Wherever that may be, go east John, I love the walks in lonely east !

Great to see you back in the East - you're one of the great voices documenting change and develop

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

thanks so much Baxter

I live in East Village so always interesting to hear thoughts on the area (mine are definitely mixed too!) One risk to the native plants which you could see in the video is the pink-flowered Himalayan Balsam that grows on the edge of waterways. The landscape team do occasional culls as it's so invasive and hardy it shuts out other plants. Also disappointing that, like everywhere in London, the affordable housing around the park is constantly reduced. Very little affordable rent and shared ownership places like mine have since been sold at market rate, so they were 'affordable' only the once.

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

thanks for that insight Julian - always good to hear from residents. The affordability question was one of my criticisms as such a large amount of public money was spent on the scheme the percentages should have been much higher in all of the 5 neighbourhoods

So much to offer in a relatively small area 😊

It’s growing into itself xxx

Nice to see that the olympic area is being put to good use. The natural planting is lovely.

Carnico was just at the end of Carpenters road and I used to go past it every day on my way to work for many years . Are used to work at Bergers formerly Jensons & Nicholsons down in carpenters Road near the railway bridge . My dad also work there from about 1951

I really should go and visit those gardens. I remember the summer leading up to the games and I appeared on Russian TV because they were concerned about the very dry summer. The Russian government was preparing to send water tankers to keep the gardens alive but just in time before opening, it rained and gardeners rejoiced.

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

That’s a bizarre story Sean in the current context- I wonder what was really behind it

@seanjamescameron

Жыл бұрын

@@JohnRogersWalks I tried to find the video last year but it’s gone from KZread. All I have is what I filmed. Yes very bizarre.

I can see where Mr Rogers is coming from. The development is like Milton Keynes in a park.

I walked round there two years ago on a horticultural training course and I saw walkways going off in different places along the waterways.. I returned with my camera a few days later and done a video through to Hackney Wick and ended up along the canal boat moorings... Amazing place with all the graffiti art and people enjoying the water.. Thanks again John for taking us along with you... ATB Chris.

I was born in Leytonstone just after the war and lived there until I was 25. Oh how Stratford has changed. When I was a kid my mum worked at Clarnico’s sweet factory in Carpenters Road and later for Lesley’s in Hackney Wick. Anyone remember them? I live in Gloucestershire now but raced my bike on the old Eastway track in the eighties.

West Ham are massive everywhere we go 🏆

So still the river Lea. All that life in and around and under the water yet not a move. Veledrome looms like a giant earth ship. So cool. This was wonderful.

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

Thanks so much Leslie

Wonderful view of the Lea. And the Stratford waterfront? The names of places slip by so quickly .. peaceful place. Thanks for the walk.

Wow, the area is changing so quickly! My London A-Z is from 1999 and that's how I remember the Hackney Wick area 😆

I didn't even know that V&A building existed! I'm going to have a walk around here I think. Thanks for a great vid and some inspiration. 👍🏻

Thanks John. Been waiting for your "Sunday update" lol. Glad to see the area is being put to use and people are enjoying it.

I'm not a big fan of the tower blocks visually, but it must be remembered that we're in a housing crisis, and I think that building more, denser housing is preferable to not enough. The lesser of two evils, I guess. Ideally I'd prefer medium density, 4-6 storey blocks all over zones 2-3, but that's not very likely to happen any time soon, given how much of this area is low density, terraced housing in fragmented ownership. Given massive scale sites like the Olympic park are very rare, once-in-a-generation opportunities they carry a lot of weight on their shoulders and have to please a lot of people.

@janebaker966

Жыл бұрын

Only the people that need the housing can't afford it. Even the "affordable". To whom?

I love your use of music in this one; well done

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

thanks Michael

I didn't expect to find this very interesting, but, it's one of your best! Thanks John.

As a West Ham supporter not based in London I loved the fact we moved there. Was a good bold move and seems to be the right one. I enjoy visiting

i'm so glad that you didn't reveal the next walk - and this is from someone who doesn't like surprises 😊

used to live in hackney in the 60's and 70's i should rerurn to take a gander with my kids, looks a tad different

Great film as ever John, and glad someone is documenting the rapid changes happening on the park. One point to clarify - there are actually TWO aspects of the V&A coming to the park. The V&A East is the brand new building and set of galleries you feature as part of East Bank, formerly dubbed 'Olympicopolis' by the former right honourable member of parliament for Uxbridge. The second site, and less well known, is the V&A Storehouse which will fill the southern end of Here East in the north west corner of the park. The storehouse is currently located in Blythe House, next to the V&A in West Kensington, but the recent sale of that facility requires it to move. It houses the national collection, and the new state-of-the-art space at Here East will afford much more access to the general public of these national treasures. These two sites combined will attract millions more visitors to the Olympic Park.

It great to see so many families and people using and enjoying the vast open spaces . I honestly thought it would fall out of favour after the Olympics ..

I don’t particularly like the tower blocks, either, but it is nice to see how the area has matured since your last video. And how people and families are settling in and making it home. I’ve been to London five times and have never gone to that area, but that will change in November during my next trip. And this one will be special as I finally have a family member coming with me - my eldest nephew - he lives and works in Houston. I’ll be honest, as you were coming up with a way of describing that area of non-describable development, my first thought was part of Dallas, but you said Houston and I laughed out loud. I’m originally from Houston but now live between Dallas and Fort Worth, and I agree with you, that area you showed could be in any US city, but Houston was the absolute correct choice. So funny. Thanks for another great video. I can’t wait to see the area for myself soon.

So after 40+ years living in the area it finally clicked! Leabridge Road is named after a Bridge over the river Lea! Thanks John for bring the Area into meaning. I knew that area very well , remember the brand new Greyhound Dog racing stadium that was a rival to Walthamstow Dogs? Both consigned to history. The Hackney Dog Stadium cost around 10 Million and lasted about 5 years.

@steveosborne2297

Жыл бұрын

Don’t forget Hackney Speedway

Im one of those people who got ethnically & economically cleansed from London , Ive not been back for 10 years , I do miss it very much but what I see on your journey round this park I see nothing that I can identify with in 2023... Im 56 & do know who the Weeknd are haha... great video , thanks for sharing with us .

I lived in Houston, Texas for thirty years and I concur with your observation that some of the scenes around the London Olympic Park area look similar to that city. Thanks for sharing your walk.

Very interesting video as always John. My job is relocating to Stratford next year, so I'll hopefully have the chance to explore the park in more detail.

oooo looking forward to this, I've grown up with this development

Love the area although I've never visited. Lots of use of the stadiums and the athletes' village. I like especially that the lawns are not manicured but are now wild flower meadows. Excellent John thank you.

The London Blossom Garden is indeed truly beautiful. I think the future of this area lies in multi purposing of the Olympic buildings.. I mean, you could have fantastic theatre in the round in the velodrome, f'rinstance. Thank you for this great video John, and all the best with the self publishing! 🌟👍

Very nice walk. I like the V & A building..it looks like a piece of half folded origami. The native landscaping is something of which to be proud.

love this video as I spend a lot of time there as a west ham fan. May have its faults but I think the area has a lot to offer..

wonderful.

Well done, John, another fine vlog. As an Orient fan, I do feel a sense of sorrow for West Ham fans. Fancy leaving the hallowed turf of Upton Park for the athletics track that is London Stadium!! Hopefully, when (if) the O’s reach the dizzy heights of the Championship, we stay at Brisbane Rd.

@RS-B5ZV

11 ай бұрын

Very true 😢

Great Video. I'm Your Fan.

Like now, watch tomorrow 🤗👍

Looking forward to the book, cheers John

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

cheers Andy

Some interesting developments amongst the splendid parkland, but also some depressing ones: most notably some of the uninspiring new housing developments, which simply reproduce the kind of identikit high rise/low rise developments springing-up elsewhere in London. Could not the architects have taken inspiration from some of the innovative Olympic designs?

Loved this, John - not only adding to that valuable record of London's changing face, as you rightly put it but also adding to the wonderful variety of what you do. 🙏🏻 Thank you.

We need more London videos please

nice one JR

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

thanks redjacc

Great Video John ,( as always 👍) im not sure if the " Tower Blocks" are new , but what an eyesore 😢. Spoils the whole skyline. ( in my view) 👍👍

Thanks John, i really enjoyed this one. It makes me want to visit London again.

Ah! I recall Clarnico too, similar to Fry’s Mint Cream I seem to remember.

Thanks for another cracking trip around London very interesting 🧐

Thanks for the video👍

Very interesting, John! Cheers!

Great video again John!

loved this John I'm over west London and ashamed to say never been over there once. will make it a august day out with my daughter. thanks as always

I really miss Eastway. I wish I was fit enough to enjoy the new track and the velodrome; well, I still enjoy them these days as my daughter often trains and races there. But I miss the old track and I'm going to try to find What Have You Done Today to watch, thank you

Personally I think the tower blocks have totally ruined the area. Low level homes would've been much more pleasing with less crowding than the high density living which seems to be dominating the area.

@jennykarling862

Жыл бұрын

I agree too. Same as Walthamstow.

@ccjelley2390

Жыл бұрын

@@ianclark9198 /To the point. The "liberal" elite make me puke.

From my point of view in my own city and it seems in your city as well, it's a nostalgia for the experiences we had where we grew up or at least spent formative years. The nostalgia is like a mourning, based on the rapidity of the change and the thoughtless erasing of the past and knowing that it is unlike we regular folk will soon not be able to afford to live in those places. Coffee shops, although we may enjoy them, are not the landmarks we grew up with that spoke to the individual character of the cities. What you said about them all looking the same is such a huge issue for me.

@RubbishGimpy

Жыл бұрын

I feel like this about London area upgrades and redevelopments. Stratford, the Olympic Park was a deindustrialised, rundown, deprived and neglected shithole. It needed this development but its like a gentrified new town where Stratford old towners have little in relation to it.

@w00df0rd

Жыл бұрын

I suppose what youre saying is: "you dont want another Chris Evans on your hands".

Hard to Believe when i worked on the Railway in 1970 till the 80s most of this was Railway Land so Changed Now

Everything is subjective, including being subjective I find, if I'm not too subjective!

Lovely bit of work as ever Mr Rogers; so informative and conveyed in such a gentle endearing fashion, interspersed with that mellifluous musical production. All power to your elbow - forward unto Zion. John Moser

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

many thanks indeed John

I cycle the route you took daily and can see how it's closing in on a yearly basis, I think the project isn't due to be completed until 2034 which will see double the expansion of what it is at present if all goes ahead and to plan.

As a West Ham fan, I still miss Upton Park

Can,t wait for book!

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

thanks Amanda

Bless Stratford International on the map you had having the Eurostar logo next to it, that must be a really old map!

Thanks John interesting coverage of Olympic area looks rather a not so busy place as it was but development going on I’m wash man of origin so not liked high rise homes

the olympic hockey arena was a temporary facility for the olympics and was removed when the games were finished and moved to its current permanent home

Nice one John, gud vid...

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Ralph

Great video again. A walk up Yardley Hill would be good, in Chingford.

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

Hi Jenny - Yardley Hill is in a couple of videos kzread.info/dash/bejne/aJ-VuLGim9zNj9Y.html And this one kzread.info/dash/bejne/pKuKpquvlMm2gpc.html

John, great video so far (as always) I've had to stop a bit in to comment that the map you're interrogating from 3 and half minutes or so strikes me as odd because the sport pictograms on it seem to be taken straight from the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and they're not the official 2012 London Olympic pictograms. The giveaway is the boomerang-styled legs for all the icons. Considering the timing of the announcement being post Athens 2004 one wonders who authored the map and why they used these logos...but probably helps to answer why the venues are in the wrong spots.

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

Many thanks for that Alex - intriguing. I don’t think it could date from much before 2010

I'm not going to lie, I HATE what they done/doing to it. It was a wonderful place just after the Olympics. East Wick, the art's area and HERE EAST, converted Olympic village all great developments but everything else is a inconsistent free-for-all mess. The phase 3 (in)development destroyed over 70 trees to build the proposed propertise. The big green behind the ArcelorMittal Orbit joke now sits UCL East which is almost as imposing as Battersea Power......Mall, plus its 2 massive student accomodation towers. I have counted around 30 newly built high rise apartment blocks in and around Stratford since the Olympics. Its a state. Only the River Lea and Hackney Marshes will be left. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

@worlds1qwopfan93

Жыл бұрын

There's a housing crisis - where else should people live? We need more homes in London.

@RubbishGimpy

Жыл бұрын

@@worlds1qwopfan93 Its not about housing. A lot of new builds in the Olympic Park are not housing. The London housing crisis is just that. Most are not for the poor/low income, there's not enough space and homes cost too much (500k). The crisis isn't just the lack of homes, its attainability too.

As a blade ide say the iron would choose Upton john

Thanks again John in Chicago

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

Cheers John

At the time I heard that this area had the largest number of allotments and Gypsy sites in London, that where then bulldozed for the Olympics. I just tried to check this on Google, but the only article that came up was Clay Lane site, where folk were given £2,200 in compensation. Whoopty woo.

I've spent a lot of time over the last few years watching hockey at Lee Valley. It's strange to see it empty on the other side of the footbridge without the flags, the noise and the people. I wonder why it was "moved" from where the velodrome is now?

Ha ! The Weekend is an awesome singer. You've probably heard of him since this vid was made.

City skylines most everywhere look like other city skylines most everywhere else. Even architects (Frank Gehry being one exception) all follow the structural "fashion trend" of their day. Question for you, John: what would commercial architecture need to look like to "look like London"? I'm guessing that the only way for a skyline to be identifiably London would be to require that the next additions must continue to trigger unofficial names like "The Hatchet," "The Gourd" and "The Jelly Mould." 😄

I work at Ford's and I've been to here east as fords has some buildings. I've walked along by the river to the, now west ham ground.

💚💛❤️Interesting to see what has become/becoming of the park since Olympics... Remember when it was just earth/soil building site when I used to get train back and forth to Greenwich✌🏾JR...🐓N15🇲🇺

I'll have to pay another visit

you should have gone to white post lane part on the regents canal or entrance to Olympic park its very very busy so many people on both sides of the canal i mean hundreds if not close to a thousand. wk ends

John, you should do an annual walk here to show the changes

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

I think you're right George

Could those two towers possibly be the student accommodation building(s?) that you can see going into St Pancras at Stratford International station?

@worlds1qwopfan93

Жыл бұрын

No, the student accommodation is the big ugly red pyramid building. The towers are owned by Get Living, a build-to-rent company partly owned by the Qatari investment board.

I enjoyed the video tremendously! No less, because we are staying near the Olympic park in October and intend to walk around! Is there somewhere to preorder your new book?

Another thoroughly enjoyable stroll John, thank you as always. During the 2012 olympics the word legacy was banded about on a regular basis, so how do you feel that has panned out? Also, are all of these new homes going to be affordable for the people of east London?

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

Thanks @Slycockney. In summary I don't think the legacy in any way matches the amount of public money invested in the scheme. There's a very low amount of social housing and affordable housing. Selling the leases to the sovereign investment fund of Qatar doesn't sit well either. We should have got an awful lot more for our £9bn

Should do one on the Kingsway tramway tunnel.

@JohnRogersWalks

Жыл бұрын

Here you go Francis kzread.info/dash/bejne/aYGnsNZwqKm4Zdo.html

We're both Londoners, \janet comes from North Woolwich and I am from Ruislip which is outer edge suburbia but with lots of interesting places. We live close to the HS2 Portal so everything is changing'. We love your films, please tell us how to get your new book, cheers Peter O'Brien.

new cyclemaster will be amazing sir