Head to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for an easy, inspiring stroll through a network of biodiverse habitats from curated gardens to wilder wetlands and meadows.
Since opening for the 2012 Olympic Games, the park now includes 102 acres of managed green space around the River Lea and its canals including nearly 6,000 trees, over 120,000 flowers and plants, 6.5km of waterways, and designated landscaping for birds, bats, pollinators, and other insects.
For self-directed walks there’s an online series of mapped routes such as the nature-led Parkland and Wildlife Trail (described below). Or sign up for a 90-minute guided tour with a Park Volunteer Champion.
Looking for more walks in London?
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Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park walk
2.8 miles / 4.5km | 1.5 hours | easy | 58m ascent
1. Start
Enter the park via the main entrance on Westfield Avenue and through Endeavour Square – location of the park’s main information point and landscape designer Tom Massey’s ‘mobile’ orchard of fruit trees –turning left at the end of the London Aquatic and crossing Thornton Bridge to reach Anish Kapoor’s monumental looping sculpture, the Arcelormittal Orbit.
2. London Stadium
Explore the strip of land between Waterworks River and the London Stadium including the ecologically zoned 2012 Gardens designed by Professors James Hitchmough and Nigel Dunnett, featuring 70,000 plants from 250 different species with a focus on durability, increasing biodiversity, and attracting pollinators. See flocks of goldfinches in the North America and Europe gardens.
3. Great British Gardens
Cross City Mill River at Bridge 1 to follow Champions Place around the northern arc of the stadium, crossing the River Lea at Bridge 3 to reach the Great British Gardens. Created by landscape architect Sarah Price, this bronze, silver, and gold themed garden includes existing canal-side sycamore trees, fiery-toned planting, a symbolic oak tree, bird hotels, and one of the park’s four frog ponds.
4. Mandeville Place
Wander north through the fruit orchard at Mandeville Place to access the area around Carpenter’s Road Lock where drifts of seasonal, pollinator-friendly planting include Californian poppies, irises, oxeye daisies, knapweed, and devil’s bit scabious. Staying west-side of the river, head under the bridge to enter the north section of the park and its meandering waterways and wetlands.
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5. River Lea
Ducks, coots, reed bunting, kingfishers, herons, cormorants, smooth newts, and damselflies are just some of the wildlife found around the River Lea and its system of wetlands, grasslands, and reed beds. Pick a pathway and follow the twists and turns through layers of wildness with information boards situated throughout detailing species such as bullrushes and honey-rich lady’s bedstraw.
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6. Olympic Rings
Crossing over the river just before Hopkin’s Fields, enjoy a picnic by the Olympic Rings, pampas grass and wildflowers in Alfred’s Fields, grab a cuppa or bite to eat in the Timber Lodge, or take the kids to the wooden-structured Tumbling Bay playground, nestled between coniferous trees, evergreen shrubs, and grasses.
7. East Bank
Look out for creature-sheltering ‘hibernacula’ wood piles in the wetland bowl ponds, kestrels flying in the sky above, and bat sensors monitoring nocturnal activity. Then head south to finish the walk along the newly built East Bank, a unique collaboration between leading cultural institutions such as V&A East, Sadler’s Wells East, London College of Fashion, BBC Music Studios, and UCL.
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park map
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park walking route and map
Useful information
Starting point
There’s paid parking at Westfield or Stratford International Car Parks, or arrive via Elizabeth or Central Lines, London Overground, DLR, local buses, or national rail networks. The park has good step-free access, hard-standing surfaces, regular seating, and accessible Blue Badge Car Parking.
Terrain
Flat with the odd low hill.
Map
OS 177 East London Billericay & Gravesend
Eat/drink/stay
Eat at the Greek-inspired Taverna in the Park or The Breakfast Club at Here East Canalside. Head to Barge East, or Hackney Bridge for drinks. Parkside hotels include low-fi but arty Snoozebox. Or put your feet up at The Gantry or The Stratford, both with rooftop bars.
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