It's five years since the heart of the Olympic Park reopened as a recreational space. The northern chunk had opened in 2013, but this was the central swathe at the better-connected end of E20, creating a brand new leisure hub for East London and beyond. It's not yet fully finished, and it's not all grand, but it is a genuine legacy where other Games have delivered tumbleweed.
The chief triumph is the landscaping which wowed the public in 2012 and still delivers. Lawns, beds and broad promenades weave north along the central spine between two deep channels, the park's crack team of gardeners never too far away. At present the floral offering's mostly dandelions, this not being the best time of year to enjoy seasonal colour, but poppies are starting to make their presence felt by the central bridge and there'll be plenty for gardening-types to pick over and admire later. The wild flower meadows have long faded, though, and each successive year ratchets down QEOP's horticultural spectacle somewhat.
I remain impressed that the Park has become somewhere people actually want to go, not just because of what it once was but because of what it is now. Wandering round yesterday I passed tourists from Germany, phones poised, and Hammers fans making a pilgrimage to the club store. But I also saw family groups on the play equipment, urban yoof scooting through on hire bikes and uniformed kids clustered on riverside benches for an after-school briefing. The number of visitors picks up as the day draws on, and with school holidays imminent peak Park season is approaching. Hopefully that means the splashy fountains get turned back on soon.
Proximity to Westfield helps keep 'em coming. The current connection runs through a privately-owned office piazza, past the electric scooter hire point and the Visitor Information prefab. Pop inside for a free map or trail guide (recommended), or a copy of the massively out-of-date Park magazine plugging autumn leaf spectacle and Christmas treats. I find the Aquatics Centre unwelcoming, not being a swimmer, its public gallery portal invariably closed (unlike the Velodrome up the other end of the park where you can simply wander inside, grab a beverage and take a seat to watch the on-track action).
The reopened Carpenters Lock looks sparkling, perhaps because hardly any boats ever go through it. The Great British Garden remains beautifully planted, and my favourite swinging bench has been repaired. The apple blossom in Mandeville Place, planted to echo the Paralympic Opening Ceremony's apple-fixation, provides a rustic contrast to the blue hoardings immediately behind. The stadium's outer rim is lined with burger vans and lager kiosks carefully targeted at the unadventurous cuisine favoured by West Ham's older fans. The bright orange climbing wall still reels them in, even without regular supervision. But not everywhere's doing great.
'Please do not write on these cubes' says the notice beside the wall of rotating blocks on the main promenade, where every surface of every cube has now been scribbled on. Surplus Water Chariots, dubiously acquired for brief waterbus tours up the Park and back, have been sitting out the winter beside mute swan pedalos. And the ViewTube's given up the ghost again, its third tenants having given up the fight atChristmas, with most of their fixtures and fittings either stacked up inside or dumped out front. Poplar HARCA are currently looking for someone new to invest in this increasingly remote spot, should any of you be interested in throwing away your savings.
The Orbit hasn't been the moneyspinner planners originally hoped, even with an extra white-knuckle slide attached. I heard nobody descend, indeed I watched almost nobody go in, and those that did looked like they were using a London Pass to get in free. Tickets for this birthday weekend are only £5, by the way, but limited to 500 in total (although I doubt they'll sell out). The neighbouring Podium cafe also feels much quieter than it should, its earlier upmarket vibe now traded in for Heineken and Cornetto, and the gift shop round the back has morphed into a mostly-unused meeting room. If you truly need refreshment, again head north where the community-focused Timber Lodge exudes tons more class.
I find a good walk round the park always reaps visual rewards, especially down at the water's edge. But some of the towpaths still lead nowhere, even five years on, and a lot of the surrounding development has yet to complete. Building sites now hem the park to the west (the Sweetwater residential district plus new road network) and to the east (the East Bank cultural quarter, just started), because the whole point of the Park was always as a magnet for development. Expect fencing to go up round the South Lawn before too long for the construction of the UCL East university campus, and if you come back to QEOP in another five years time the whole place'll again look very different.
