Skip to navigation

Tubewalker: The Tube, on Foot

Central Line: Liverpool Street to Leytonstone

Bishopsgate
Bishopsgate

It seems to me that it never rains in east London; every time I've stepped east of Liverpool Street, the sun has come out and stayed out to the point of sunburned noses and tantalising visions of ice cold pints of beer at the end of the day. This might be one reason why I've enjoyed every single day walking through this lesser known part of London, but I think the real reason I've been enjoying east London so much is because I didn't expect to. I'm ashamed to say that I believed the hype and thought that Tower Hamlets, Newham and Waltham Forest would be grim; meanwhile people (mainly from west London) kept advising me to hide my camera when in the east, and not to look as if I was carrying anything too valuable.

Liverpool Street to Bethnal Green

Bishops Square
Bishops Square

It doesn't take long to get away from Liverpool Street and the bright lights of the City; indeed, it still surprises me just how close the ultra-modern glass skyscrapers of London are to the down-to-earth backstreets of the East End, but from Bishopsgate, the edge of the City is only a short walk down Brushfield Street. On the way you pass Old Spitalfields Market, just after a pleasant plaza called Bishops Square where city shirts exchange loud laughter over coffee; this plaza used to be the western two-thirds of the original market, which was founded in 1682 by Charles II, but it's now home to an impressive Norman Foster-designed office block. The eastern third of the market, which is housed in buildings dating from 1887, is protected with listed status and survived the developers' plans, and it is now a burgeoning market that's particularly popular at the weekend.

East End terraces on Fournier Street
East End terraces on Fournier Street
The Old Truman Brewery
The Old Truman Brewery
Arnold Circus
Arnold Circus
Bethnal Green Road
Bethnal Green Road
Image from Liverpool Street to Leytonstone
The Museum of Childhood
The Museum of Childhood
A stairwell leading down to Bethnal Green station
A stairwell leading down to Bethnal Green station

Bethnal Green to Mile End

Modern flats on the Regent's Canal
Modern flats on the Regent's Canal

The same story continues along Roman Road: delightful Victorian architecture rubs shoulders with drab and faded 20th century social housing, until quality modern architecture takes over as the location changes from urban to desirable. One of the most notable buildings along this stretch of road is the London Buddhist Centre, housed in a large red brick mansion house on the corner with Globe Road. Behind it are some pretty terraces and for a while the road is a string of interesting shops with attractively plain two-storey terraces perched above, but the massive Greenlands Estate to the south of the road is not a pretty place (though, to be fair, not all of the blocks have been equally beaten with the ugly stick, and as estates go, I've seen worse).

A lily in Mile End Park
A lily in Mile End Park
Mile End Park
Mile End Park

BEWARE

GEORGE GALLOWAY IS THE NEXT HITLER

The view south from the Green Bridge
The view south from the Green Bridge

Although the park is cut in two by the busy Mile End Road, that doesn't mean the park has to end, because the designers have built the ingenious Green Bridge across to the other side, making Mile End Park one long, continuous strip of green all the way from tip to tail. The Green Bridge is planted with grass all the way over (apart from the wide walking lanes), which is how it got its name; it was originally lined with birch trees, but they appear to have died and the grass is all that remains. The structure of the Green Bridge itself is, surprisingly, bright yellow (which is why the locals know it as the Banana Bridge) and in this hot, dry summer the grass is more yellow than green, but even if its name doesn't make a lot of sense at the moment, it sure beats having to cross the chaos of Mile End Road.

Mile End to Stratford

A Grade II*-listed drinking fountain in Victoria Park
A Grade II*-listed drinking fountain in Victoria Park

It's a bit of a boring road hike from the station up Grove Road, though there are some good buildings along the way, interspersed as always with modern high-rise estates that only help to accentuate the good architecture. The modern developments and less attractive high rises on the other side of the canal are clearly visible as Mile End Park doesn't obscure the view, and there's even a canal view of our own towards the top of the road. This is the Hertford Union Canal, which merges into the Regent's Canal just to the west of here, linking it up with the Lee Navigation on the other end of Victoria Park, near Hackney Wick.

Image from Liverpool Street to Leytonstone
The view from the Greenway
The view from the Greenway
The junction of the Lee Navigation and the River Lea
The junction of the Lee Navigation and the River Lea
The groovy twisted-steel clock outside Stratford station
The groovy twisted-steel clock outside Stratford station

Stratford to Leyton

A modern residential block overlooking the Olympic Park
A modern residential block overlooking the Olympic Park

I perhaps should have picked a more interesting route from Stratford to Leyton, but the east-west side streets of northern Stratford and southern Leyton don't lend themselves terribly well to north-south walking, and I thought it might be interesting instead to walk along the edge of the Olympic park, in case I got a sneaky peak of what's going on inside. I shouldn't have bothered, because the whole stretch from Stratford to High Road Leyton is one big industrial estate, and not a very interesting one at that. Looking down the side streets, Leyton appears to be made up of row upon row of terraces, but all I got was the odd glance here and there, so don't quote me on that. I'm sure it's a lot prettier and a darn sight more interesting than Angel Lane and Leyton Road, whatever the reality.

High Road Leyton
High Road Leyton

Leyton to Leytonstone

A statue in St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery
A statue in St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery

On the way from Leyton to Leytonstone, I thought I'd walk through St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery, and I'm glad I did, as it's incredible. Originally opened in 1868, the western half of the cemetery is completely crammed with graves and monuments, so much so that at times the graves seem to be pushing against each other like commuters at rush hour. It's a bit less crowded to the east, but it's also less interesting, as that's where the more modern graves live, and these days you don't get many grand statues or mausolea. I'd originally planned to walk straight through the cemetery, taking the eastern exit into Hollydown Way, but the gate was locked so I had to walk all the way back again... not that I minded, as this is a particularly fine graveyard for nosing about.

Pretty terraced houses in Leytonstone
Pretty terraced houses in Leytonstone