When the Olympics arrive in town, organising officials are going to try to persuade you to arrive at the stadium via West Ham station. Don't listen to them. They need to spread the spectator load over across many stations as possible, so well-connected West Ham's a major part of the 2012 transport plan. According to some wildly optimistic forecast, as many as 18% of spectators are expected to enter the park this way. But gullible attendees expecting a nice short stroll to the Olympic Park are in for an unpleasant surprise. It's more than a mile from West Ham station to the Olympic Stadium, and the intervening walk is via a whiffy Victorian sewer. Don't say I didn't warn you.
There's not a lot that 2012 bosses can do to move West Ham nearer to the stadium, but they are busy attempting to make the intervening walk as pleasant as possible. The path follows the Greenway, the northeastern outfall of London's 150-year-old sewage system, which is already cunningly disguised by having a big broad footpath on top. Not the loveliest of footpaths, admittedly, more a rough tarmac strip with a featureless edging of bland grass. But a pleasant enough way of getting from Ato B (especially if B is Bow or Beckton), and an ideal cycling route with fine views across surrounding Newham. Functional certainly, but world-class definitely not.
So an upgrade is called for. The plans are to lay two adjacent parallel paths with differing surfaces, one for bikes and one for pedestrians. Materials recycled from building on the site of the Olympic Park will be used, such as bricks, manhole covers, bollards and granite cobbles. Think of these paths as doubling up as some sort of industrial heritage collage. Try not to think of them as the crushed remnants of former businesses destined to be forever trampled underfoot. Whatever, they'll only take up about half of the Greenway's width, leaving plenty of space on either side for transplanted environmental greenspace. We're promised plenty of wildflower meadows along the way, as well as pockets of maple, hawthorn and hazel. It may not be quite so endearingly bland as the current surface, but it should give trudging Olympic spectators something rather lovelier to look at.
And the upgrade is already underway. All along the Greenway from Stratford High Street to West Ham, half of the sewertop carriageway has been fenced off and contractors are busy removing the grass and other vegetation. Some of the plants will be harder to remove than others. Printed signs attached to orange netting reveal several clusters of Japanese knotweed along the railings, and there's also a big clump of offensive giant hogweed close to the sewage pumping station. Best they're removed before they strangle any future planting, and before any Japanese tourists pass by in 2012 with a disapproving look. There's quite a lot of stripping still to go, and then presumably the other half of the carriageway will have to receive the same treatment.
It seems strange seeing workmen and portakabins on the Greenway, so long a forgotten backwater track used by not many to get nowhere special. And it's a shame to see the path's previous infrastructure uprooted and discarded in an undignified heap [photo]. The Greenway's signposts used to be chunky vandalproof ironwork with all the names carved out in holey lettering. This wouldn't have passed muster in any design competition, but it was bold and resilient, and above all very green. Maybe they'll carve up all the old signs and benches and then recycle recognisable chunks amongst the new footpath, but somehow I doubt it. At least the replacement signs appear to have a bit of character about them too, whenever they finally appear.
Nobody would be spending any money on the Greenway were it not for the Olympics and the need to funnel spectators securely to and from distant transport links. Indeed, anybody living down at the Plaistow or Beckton end of the Greenway will see no difference whatsoever for the foreseeable future because that's not an Olympic priority. But I'm hopeful that the end result from West Ham northwards will be rather lovelier, not least because it'll considerably enhance my regular walk from home to BestMate's house.
Just don't any of you lot make an inadvertent visit to the upgraded scenic Greenway during the 2012 Games, else you'll face a surprisingly lengthy walk to get from the station to the perimeter of the Park. The wild flowers will be pretty, but the trudge to your security friskdown may be interminable. Remember to travel to the Olympics via Stratford, never via West Ham. You'll thank me for that piece of advice one day.
Olympic update
When the Olympics arrive in town, organising officials are going to try to persuade you to arrive at the stadium via West Ham station. Don't listen to them. They need to spread the spectator load over across many stations as possible, so well-connected West Ham's a major part of the 2012 transport plan. According to some wildly optimistic forecast, as many as 18% of spectators are expected to enter the park this way. But gullible attendees expecting a nice short stroll to the Olympic Park are in for an unpleasant surprise. It's more than a mile from West Ham station to the Olympic Stadium, and the intervening walk is via a whiffy Victorian sewer. Don't say I didn't warn you.
So an upgrade is called for. The plans are to lay two adjacent parallel paths with differing surfaces, one for bikes and one for pedestrians. Materials recycled from building on the site of the Olympic Park will be used, such as bricks, manhole covers, bollards and granite cobbles. Think of these paths as doubling up as some sort of industrial heritage collage. Try not to think of them as the crushed remnants of former businesses destined to be forever trampled underfoot. Whatever, they'll only take up about half of the Greenway's width, leaving plenty of space on either side for transplanted environmental greenspace. We're promised plenty of wildflower meadows along the way, as well as pockets of maple, hawthorn and hazel. It may not be quite so endearingly bland as the current surface, but it should give trudging Olympic spectators something rather lovelier to look at.
It seems strange seeing workmen and portakabins on the Greenway, so long a forgotten backwater track used by not many to get nowhere special. And it's a shame to see the path's previous infrastructure uprooted and discarded in an undignified heap [photo]. The Greenway's signposts used to be chunky vandalproof ironwork with all the names carved out in holey lettering. This wouldn't have passed muster in any design competition, but it was bold and resilient, and above all very green. Maybe they'll carve up all the old signs and benches and then recycle recognisable chunks amongst the new footpath, but somehow I doubt it. At least the replacement signs appear to have a bit of character about them too, whenever they finally appear.
