Dalstr one

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 100.00% of reviewers

A pleasant, safe and fairly direct London route cutting through some lovely green space. Note that this route won’t always be possible after dusk as Victoria Park gets closed at night time. It’s fairly straight forward to route yourself around it though.

A great route, dodging rainclouds from the super-shiny world of Stratford and Westfield, through the still-very-neat Olympic park with Anish Kapoor's Orbit tower, over East London canals and touching on Fish Island. Then a triple-whammy of very nice parks - Victoria, Well St Common, and London Fields - and then you're almost there, in lovely grubby Dalston. A good stride!
One bit of road closed due to a development, but easy enough to see how to go round. Reckon the Olympic part bit would feel a bit abandoned at night, and the parks would be closed, so just one for daylight hours.
I lived in East London for years, and so this was all a proper memory lane walk, including regrets (why didn't I buy a warehouse over here back when they were ten a penny?) and some shuddering at all the unfettered gentrification, memories of seeing handball at the Olympics at the last minute, having been all cynical and disinterested up until then. Also living on a boat and brief time on the towpath. Celebrated with a pint at one of the many old pubs in the residential streets around Dalston and was late for dinner.

The route was flat and mostly through parks. Quite easy to navigate.

This is a fairly direct and green route between Dalston and Stratford. The route takes you through London Fields and Victoria Park which are easy to navigate and beautiful to walk through. The approach to Stratford takes you along the canal and then through the Olympic Park and stadia.

Lot's of opportunities for food and refreshments along the way too.

The route out of Dalston takes some quiet traffic calmed back streets too which reduces your exposure to air pollution.

There was a small diversion crossing the canal out of the Olympic Park as a road is closed due to building works. It's pretty obvious which way to go though.

This is a good route mostly off road or through quiet streets - the Olympic Park, Victoria Park, Well Street Common and London Fields make much of the walk extremely pleasant. (You should note that Victoria Park is only open dawn to dusk)
The section of Well Street used is a main thoroughfare out of London so frequently very busy with traffic so I would suggest a detour to avoid it: travelling from Stratford - after Well Street Common and Church Crescent I would turn right into Terrace Road, left into Elsdale Street, left into Loddiges Road and across Mare Street into London Lane. Going right by the Pub On The Park and taking the first footpath left through the park to rejoin the route at Richmond Road.
(much of the stretch of Dalston Lane could also be avoided by using Forest Road and Beechwood Road instead of Wilton Way).

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