'Games Without Frontiers'

Day 84

 

Stratford - Stratford High Street - Stratford International - Sudbury Hill - Sudbury Town

 

Well, golly! This is the second week running I've managed to fit two days out into one week. I don't know what's got into me...

 

Well, I do - at least in part.

 

It's the fact that I'm so close to the end of the 'Ss' that going out today means I'll be able to complete them all by the end of next week's regular Wombling day. And that only leaves four more letters to do (nobody has yet been foolish enough to build any stations starting with the letters 'X', 'Y' or 'Z').

 

Today will also see me starting the day by ticking off my 300th station (Stratford), leaving just 67 to visit before my task is complete.

 

That's motivation for anybody to get a bit of an extra spurt on!

 

***

And what a gorgeous day to be passing such a momentous milestone! The sun is beating down as I set off this morning, and since my first location is very much an 'open-air' one, I'm looking forward to catching some rays.

 

I'll be visiting five stations in total today - but only two parts of London. For once both the three stations in Stratford and the two in Sudbury are all sensibly named, and thus listed together alphabetically.

 

Not only that, but in each location the stations are all only one stop apart from each other and on the same line, making my job easier still.

 

In the case of the Stratford stations this line is the DLR - but luckily for me, my first stop - Stratford - is also on the Central Line (among many others), so I take my seat at Ealing Broadway and settle back for the long journey from West to East.

 

Stratford

It's impossible to talk about Stratford without talking about the 2012 Olympic Games - for the very good reason that almost everything you see from the moment you arrive at Stratford  Station was built (or redeveloped) specifically for that event.

The area round Stratford Station is now called 'Stratford City' and includes the Olympic Park (which I'll be visiting shortly), the huge Westfield Shopping Centre next door, and indeed the station itself. This is served by the Central Line, the Jubilee Line, The DLR, the Overground and the National Rail network, and is one of the busiest stations in London,

When, in 2005, London was announced as the host for the 2012 Olympics, work began almost immediately to transform what had previously been an area pretty much in decline into the sort of place that could form the centre of such a prestigious international event. And five years after the Games, the area still has that 'fresh out of the box' feel.

I walk through the Westfield Shopping Centre - almost an entire town in itself - to get to the Olympic Park.

Westfield Stratford City

While I'm the first to extol the virtues and pleasures of a good old-fashioned High Street, with its independent cafés, its butchers, its bakers, its manufacturers of wax-based illumination and so on - there is definitely something to be said for these self-contained cathedrals of commercialism, especially if (like me) you can visit them during the quieter weekdays when everyone else is busy at work.

Inside the

'We're over here!'

It takes me some time to follow the various signs pointing me in the direction of the Olympic Park, not least because I keep being given tantalizing glimpses of it between the buildings of the shopping centre.



One structure in particular stands out, for obvious reasons - and that's the 'Orbit Tower', though the signs seem to be continually leading me away from it, rather than towards it.




However, my patience is at last rewarded, and I enter the vast Olympic Park.

The Aquatics Centre and Orbit Tower

The first building I see is the flowing, wave-like edifice that is the Aquatics Centre.

Aquatics Centre

The centre contains both the swimming and diving pools and originally had a spectator capacity of 17,500 - though these were housed in temporary seating 'wings' attached to either side of the central structure. Following their removal after the games, the centre can now only hold between 2,800 and 3,800 spectators.

Beyond the Aquatics Centre is the main Olympic Stadium - now home to West Ham Football Club.

Olympic Stadium

'Orbit Tower'

Since there are no events being held here at the moment, and since it's such a gloriously sunny day, I'm content to wander around the park without entering any of the buildings - with just one exception.

I have pre-booked a ticket to visit the top of the 'Orbit Tower', which is not a sporting venue, but a sculpture-cum-viewing platform designed by renowned architect Anish Kapoor.

The tower was built to be a permanent 'legacy' of the Olympic Games, and - much like the Millennium-celebrating O2 Dome and London Eye - was initially the subject of some ridicule and much criticism.

However, again like both of those buildings, the Orbit Tower seems eventually to have been accepted as being 'not quite so bad after all', and now has a regular flow of visitors - especially since the addition of a 178m long spiral slide around the outside of the structure.

Tower - with slide visible to the right of the picture

I've not opted to pay the additional amount to use the slide - I'm more interested in the view from the top of the tower, than in how quickly I can get back down to the bottom of it - but from the screams and laughter I hear emanating from its various curves, I'm sure it's great fun.

Sadly, no doubt in the perennial interests of 'Health and Safety', almost every decent view from the two observation platforms is either through grubby Perspex windows or obscured by the thick metal mesh which surrounds the tower - providing an effective barrier to both accident and photography.

Here though are a few shots to tempt you to visit yourself.

Aquatics Centre

Fountains at the base of the tower -
very popular on a day as hot as this!

Going down...

Having returned to the base of the tower, I wander back through the Park and through Westfield to catch the DLR south to the next station - Stratford High Street.

***
With the Olympic Games having focused the regeneration of Stratford around the main Stratford Station, and with Westfield holding everything you could possibly want in terms of Shops and Restaurants, the High Street, and the station named after it, seem rather lack-lustre in comparison.

Stratford High Street

In fact, the area now known as 'Stratford City' is so large, and its buildings so tall and shiny, that standing on the High Street I have the sense of what it must have felt like to be a medieval peasant - forever outside the impregnable city walls.

 High Street

With nothing to see on the High Street, I head back into the station and take the DLR two stops north to Stratford International.

***
Despite its grandiloquent name, this is another station which rather pales beside its bustling neighbour, one stop to the south.

Stratford International

In fact it's really two stations - the DLR station at which I arrive is actually across the road from the mainline station, and it's the latter which is really why people come here.

And this station could legitimately be convicted under the Trades Description Act, since no 'International' trains actually stop there. The name comes from the fact that it is connected, via the 'High Speed 1' route, to both St. Pancras International and Ebbsfleet International - the first two stations on the Eurostar route - though you have to change trains if you actually want to visit the continent.

It's also only a stone's throw from the northern entrance to the Westfield Shopping Centre - with nothing very much in any other direction - so again there's a distinct sense that all the interesting stuff is just beyond those walls...

So that's it for Stratford - time to head way back west (and a little way north) to my next destination.

***
Sudbury Hill is the first of the two stations in Sudbury, but both it and its neighbour Sudbury Town share much in common.

Sudbury Hill

Both were originally opened in 1903, as part of the District Line extension from Ealing Common to South Harrow, but rebuilt in the early 1930s in preparation for the transfer to the Piccadilly Line.

The new stations were also both built to designs by Charles Holden, and are very similar in appearance - the familiar brick cube with tall windows.

Finally, both are either on, or within a short distance of, a main road with a parade of convenient, if unexciting, shops.

Greenford Road

In the case of Sudbury Hill, the parade of shops is on Greenford Road, and the station itself is right on the border between Harrow (to the north) and North Greenford (to the South). Sudbury Hill is an area, rather than a road, and is part of the Harrow HA1 postcode.

Unfortunately, there's very little to see or do here - a Health and Fitness Centre lies just behind the station, and there is student accommodation in a former office block to the south. But for the most part the area is residential, and I soon head back into the station.

I notice, while waiting for the train south, a small plaque on the platform wall giving a brief history of the station. I've seen a few of these on my travels, and always stop for a read - though I'm sure most people pass by obliviously.

Potted History

And so on to the final station of the day.

***
And - as previously mentioned - Sudbury Town is pretty much the same as Sudbury Hill.

Sudbury Town

The parade of shops is at the end of a short street, rather than next to the station, but in all other respects it is very similar.

Harrow Road

Which makes this banner fluttering overhead somewhat over-confident.

I'm all for a bit of pride in one's community, and of course the banner may refer to the whole of Sudbury rather than to this particular bit of it - which is, as you've already seen, almost the twin of Sudbury Hill.

But having seen a very large chunk of London by now, and visited nearly every area and district there is to see, I can confidently assert that Sudbury is very far from being 'unique' - at least in terms of general appearance.


Not that this is a criticism as such - people want and need the same things wherever they live, so of course different places will look and feel very similar.

And Sudbury Town has the additional attraction of a park just across the road from the shops, which - this being the prelude to a Bank Holiday Weekend - is currently largely taken over by a Fun Fair.

I head past the fair, into the open space beyond, and enjoy a few minutes sat by a tree in the sunshine.

Barham Park

It's been a day of two halves really - Stratford is vibrant and bustling (at least around the Olympic Park) and feels like it's on the up. Sudbury, with its fairly humdrum shops and houses, feels a little tired in comparison.

On the other hand - both have been very 'easy' in terms of my journey, so I'm happy with my day's work, and looking forward to finishing off the 'Ss' next time out.