Limehouse – My London+

Olympic Rings

It was quite a cloudy and windy start to the day with the prospect of rain, so wearing my waterproof I set off, though a small detour was in order first. St Anne’s Church opened that day (Thursday), and I wanted to see inside before I went off to the station.

Limehouse Basin with Canary Wharf in the background

Our Lady Immaculate & St Frederick.

Before reaching my destination church, I found this one and then promptly couldn’t find St Anne’s, even though I’d walked there the day before!

I guess this is Fred!

As it happened I wasn’t far from the church, and further along the road I came in by a different entrance to the one I’d used before. The daffodils were looking lovely in the gardens.

20230322_143208 — St Anne’s Church, Limehouse

After visiting the church, I walked back to Limehouse DLR and caught the train to Poplar where I changed to another DLR line to take me Stratford for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (see map on link). A lot has changed since I was last here in 2012. Back then, we were a heave of excited Olympic enthusiasts. I came here with one of my sons and his friends, who was staying with us, to watch hockey. We came twice, both times for hockey, as it was all I could get tickets for. I remember going online when as soon as the website opened (getting up early for this unique moment in history) and tearing my hair out as event after event was sold out, and then the website crashed! Finally, we got our hockey tickets and tickets for a football match at Wembley. Phew! The excitement of being here then was up there with the best things in life. We were here on Super Saturday, which was wonderful. We could see on the big screen what was going on with Mo Farah, even though we weren’t in the main stadium. It was my biggest disappointment that I couldn’t get tickets inside the stadium for athletics, as I’ve loved watching them on TV since I was a teenager. But at least we were here to soak up the atmosphere. Back home I watched everything, even things I wouldn’t normally watch! I was in London the day the Olympic torch came through along the South Bank, and I was in Kingston to watch both the Olympic torch relay and the Olympic cycling road race! I think you could say, I was well into it!

20230323_104903 — Passing through Westfield on the way to the park

So to be here again brought back memories of that first time walking across the bridge from Westfield’s Shopping Centre and getting my first sight of the Olympic Stadium, now West Ham United Football Stadium. It was much quieter, this day and work was still going on the East Bank, but the gardens were beautiful and there were plenty of places to stop for a hot drink or snack.

20230323_105840 — Crossing the bridge with the former Olympic Stadium ahead

20230323_110535 — Another view of the stadium

20230323_111238 — Work is still going on in the next building phase of East Bank. Here is a new V&A, a building for the BBC and Sadler’s Wells.

20230323_113006 — Under a bridge over the River Lea is some rather nice art by this lady.

20230323_113343 — Orbital. No, I’ve not been down it!

20230323_115106 — The further away from the main area you get, the more wild it seems. I love this part of the park.

20230323_115347 — London Blossom Garden is a new addition since Covid to remember those who died during the pandemic.

20230323_122421 — The Velo Park where all the cycling took place

It was a lovely day out at the Olympic Park, reliving old memories and seeing new things. I had a cup of tea in a cafe run not-for-profit. Everything is ploughed into helping homeless people and training for jobs. Very community based.

I arrived back at my accommodation just in time that afternoon, as the rain began and carried on all night! But I was in the dry, except when I had to skip across the gardens to the chapel for the concert in the evening. (see previous post)

The final part of this trip will be posted on Easter Monday. Have a lovely Easter everyone. See you next week. Thank you for reading.

20230323_105814 — River Lea which runs through the park

This will be an occasional series of places I have visited that particularly stand out for me. They also fill in when I haven’t anything else to post (shush!). We start off at Barnes Wetland Centre in south west London. I’ve been here twice and still love it. I admit I can only recognise a handful of birds, but that doesn’t stop me enjoying it. There are otters and fish, frogs and all sorts of other creatures. For the kids there is pond dipping. Around the site there are hides with guides to birds where you can sit and look over the lakes. There is a cafe with outside seating and it is just a nice place to spend a day. I find it amazing that this is London!

P1020235 — Sir Peter Scott who set up the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust

For my next trip, we head into London itself to visit Charles Dickens Museum. This is a beautiful house and has a great cafe, also with outdoor seating in an enclosed garden (sadly the day I was there the weather wasn’t good enough to sit outside). The rooms in the house are interesting and beautifully decorated. Charles Dickens is a fascinating man. On the one hand, he stood up for the poor, bringing them to light through his stories, as well as campaigning with some of the well-known campaigners of his time to make things better for the poor. On the other hand, he was cruel to his wife, disowned her and tried to turn his children against her. A very complex character.

Charles Dicken's House — Charles Dickens Museum, 48-49 Doughty Street, WC1

Lastly, this week we visit Limehouse and a glimpse of one walk I took early one year when there was ice on the river and ducks were sliding around on it! I stayed in a retreat house, The Royal Foundation of St Katherine on a B&B basis to explore parts of Limehouse Cut and Regent’s Canal. Before the days when I had Google Maps and carrying just a poor physical map, I did get myself lost at one point. Thank goodness for walkers much better prepared than me!

If you are interested in walking in this area, here is a walk, part of which I walked, but I headed in a different direction. This walk is closer to mine. If you look at the map, you can see that I headed towards Three Mills Island and the Olympic Park along Limehouse Cut. I then headed towards Victoria Park and the Regent’s Canal, before heading back. A good circular walk for around six miles.

2017-01-21 11.02.42 — West Ham Football Club, Olympic Park

2017-01-21 10.36.27 — Three Mills Island

And that wraps things up for this week. I hope you’ve enjoyed this whistle-stop journey through parts of London you may not know.

Tag: Limehouse

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford

Whistle-stop tours of some of my favourite places in London