Olympics Walks – Walking Tours with London Walks

THE OLYMPICS WALKS

Going for Gold in the East! – See It Before 2012

The information below sets out the particulars for The Olympics Walk in the Winter-Spring 2011-12 London Walks programme, which kicked in on Nov. 1st

The Olympics Walk takes place every Monday afternoon, every Thursday afternoon, every Saturday afternoon and every Sunday afternoon at 1.45 pm. It goes from West HamTube. (Which is, incidentally, by far the best place to start an Olympics Walk.)

Julianne (and Andy, Brian, Judy and Chris)

will light the place up for you like – well, like an Olympic Torch!

First, the blurb. (Followed by some "additional information".)

What's this? It's London Walks at its Gold Medal-winning best, that's what it is. It's the biggest sporting event in the world coming to London. It's a walk created by brilliant guides who are locals* and who know and love sport. It's the spiky white steel stadium. It's the glide and soar of the shiny aluminum Aquatic Centre. It's "the Pringle" (the Velodrome). It's Gold Medal-winning sports info and back stories and whys and wherefores. It's the Village. It's the neighbourhood. It's pastscapes and futurescapes. It's that astonishing panorama – like being out on a tether looking back at the London Milky Way. It's what that American said on the walk (you can hear him – and Julianne – here): "if you weren't on a London Walk you wouldn't know you could come in here". It's walking where the Olympic torch is coming. It's seeing it before 2012! Guided by Julianne or Andy. *That local knowledge kicked in from the get go: "West HamTube is definitely the best place to start it from."

And for a bit of "additional information":

It's another one of those London Walks trifectas – or I suppose in this case you could say, Winner's podium, uppermost step. Winner's podium, uppermost step because 1) Julianne's a top flight Blue Badge Guide; 2) she's local; and 3) it's Gold Medal Award-winning London Walks. Enuf said? No? Okay, scroll down – there's lots more about this one further down the page. And for a hear, click here!

The Olympics Walk takes place every Monday, every Thursday, every Saturday and every Sunday afternoon at 1.45 pm

And the starting block? The meeting point for all of the London Walks tours of the 2012 Games sites is just outside the exit of West HamTube.

West Ham

Tube is one of three "gateway stations" to the Olympic Park, so we'll be walking the route that lots of spectators will be walking in 2012!

And look, Julianne and co. are not going to be dishing out a hard hat and traipsing through a building site with you in tow. The walk is better than that. A whole lot better.

Better because you'll get a feel for the whole neighbourhood – past, present and future. In short, Julianne will "context" matters for you.

Stratford and East London have a long, eventful, rich history, a history that ranges back over the centuries (one of Chaucer's pilgrims – the Prioresse – learned her "Frenssh" at Stratford!). And Julianne and co. will "take you through that history", right down to the present day – and yesterday. Yesterday being what's arguably the most extraordinary industrial history in London. That "past" is still very much there. But of course it's very long in the tooth. Which is one of the reasons the area was chosen for what's going to be London's most spectacular "regeneration" in a very long time.

Long in the tooth – but, in places, gob-smacking. I'm thinking in particular of the "Gothic Cathedral". A cathedral not to God, but to the sewage of Londoners. It's worth the trip just to see it!

What else? Well, should go without saying – the walk will be a crash course in the history of the Olympics. Especially the London Olympics – 1908, 1948 and now 2012. Yup, the greatest city on earth is the only city that will have hosted the Games three times!

And howzabout some stats? To wit: 30 new bridges, half a million plants, a new park for London, 1.4m tonnes of contaminated soil cleaned.

And: 26 sports Olympics, 9.2m tickets, over 20,000 journalists, 4bn people watching world wide, 14 million meals served.

The park itself – we'll have the most wonderful view of it (and the stadium) – runs to 2.5 sq. kms. (Here's a Nov. 2011 "image update" from a New Yorker who recently went on the walk and took some happy snaps.)

Last but not least – wrap up warm (in the winter), wear sensible shoes, and maybe pack a sandwich and a bottle of water. This isn't "a Starbucks every 50 yards" territory. Which in itself is a recommendation. At least by my (David's) lights!

The walk ends at Pudding Mill Lane station.

Enjoy!