Walk Report

SSW6: Stratford to Liverpool Street, Wednesday 29th June 2022
6 walkers, 6.5 miles - leader Pete Colley
Another route out of the Olympic Park and into Victoria Park, passing its Boating Lake, English Garden, the Burdett-Coutts Drinking Fountain and the Chinese Pagoda on our way through. The magnificent London Chest Hospital was hidden behind hoardings as another landmark is converted into flats - on past the Vagina Museum to Bethnal Green and the Stairway to Heaven memorial to the 173 people who lost their lives in a tube station fire during an air raid in 1943.
Through Bethnal Green Gardens and on to Weavers Fields, into Kray territory - Vallance Road (their home), St Matthew's Church (their funerals) and the Carpenters' Arms (their mother's pub) - and over the railway lines into Allen Gardens where the smell of spray paint revealed a large number of street artists at work. A brief wriggle around the streets of Brick Lane, taking the liberty to pass the Norton Folgate Almshouses and the dominant Hawksmoor-designed Christ Church before crossing into Spitalfields Market, past the elephants (the Herd of Hope) in Spital and Bishops Squares, to reach our destination among the drinking classes of Liverpool Street.
As always, a big thank you to those who joined the walk. Looking forward to seeing you (and others) on the next instalment.
Photographs by Pete Colley

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