Stratford

-Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Westfield Stratford City mall, Stratford Station, London Stadium, Olympics Stadium, London Aquatic Centre, Manhattan Loft Gardens, Orbit Tower, ArcelorMittal Orbit, Stratford Centre

Stratford is a town in East London, part of the Newham borough. Stratford is known for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the Olympic village and the Olympics sports areas that were used during the 2012 Summer Olympics. The Olympics completely changed the area, that is one of London's most modern ones. It is also known as one of London's skyscraper clusters. Manhattan Loft Gardens from 2019 is the tallest (42 floors, 143m). Stratford Halo, Stratosphere Tower, Stratford Eye and Sky View Tower are other skyscrapers in Straford. Stratford is also a very mult-cultural area.

Westfield Stratford City, UK:s 4th largest and London's 2nd largest shopping mall, is also situated there. It has a retail area of 175,000 m2 on 3 floors. It has 350 stores and restaurants. Anchor stores are John Lewis, Waitrose and Marks&Spencer. Stratford Station is a very modern and quite large railway station next to the mall. Stratford Town Centre is another indoor mall. Outside is the bus station with its colourful installations.

ArcelorMittal Orbit, or the Orbit Tower, is a special 115m tall observation tower and sculpture, UK:s largest piece of art. It was built as a symbol for the 2012 Olympics in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The Orbit Tower has the world's largest and longest tunnel slide, 178m, where you will be thrown down through the tunnels in a high speed!

The Olympic Stadium is known called the London Stadium, with now West Ham United as main tenants. The stadium was completed in 2011 and built for the Olympics. It has a seat capacity of 66,000 people. The opening and closing ceremonies were held here. London Aquatic Centre is a futuristic indoor arena for water sports, it was built in 2011 for the 2012 Olympics and designed by Zaha Hadid.

I visited Stratford only once, on the last day in 2022, for a couple of hours only, before taking the bus to Stanstead Airport.

Stratford from The Shard 1 Stratford from The Shard 2 Stratford 04 Stratford 18 ArcelorMittal Orbit 6 Manhattan Loft Gardens, Statford 1 Manhattan Loft Gardens, Statford 2 Manhattan Loft Gardens, Statford 3 Manhattan Loft Gardens Stratford Station 1 Stratford Station 2 Stratford Station 3 Stratford Station 4 Stratford Station 5 Stratford Station Westfield Stratford City 01 Westfield Stratford City 02 Westfield Stratford City 03 Westfield Stratford City 04 Westfield Stratford City 05 Westfield Stratford City 06 Westfield Stratford City 07 Westfield Stratford City 08 Westfield Stratford City 09 Westfield Stratford City 10 Westfield Stratford City 11 Stratford 05 Stratford 07 - Stratosphere Tower and Unix Tower Stratford 09 Stratford 10 - Stratford Centre Stratford 11 Stratford 12 Stratford 13 Stratford 15 Stratford 16 Stratford 17 Stratford 20 Stratford 21 Stratford 25 Stratford 26 - Stratford Eye Stratford 38 Stratford 39 Stratford 40 Stratford 41 Stratford 53 Stratford 56 Stratford 61 ArcelorMittal Orbit 2 ArcelorMittal Orbit 3 ArcelorMittal Orbit 4 ArcelorMittal Orbit 5 Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 1 Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 2 - London Aquatic Centre Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 3 - London Aquatic Centre. Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 4 - Aquatic Centre., Orbit Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 5 - London Olympic Stadium Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 6 - London Olympic Stadium Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 7 Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 8 Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 9 ArcelorMittal Orbit, Olympic Statium Docklands skyline from Statford 1 Docklands skyline from Statford 2