Stop 2 - Waterworks River

Make sure your volume is on: "Waypoint 2 - History"

Show transcript

Standing where you are now looking across Waterworks River it’s hard to imagine what it would have been like here at the height of the industrial era.

On the other side of the river you would have seen a paint factory. In fact the building housing the machinery and packaging stretched all the way along the far side of river to your left. And before that in the 1800’s it was the site of an engineering plant. As you look to your right and the site of today’s modern London Aquatics Centre a different kind of liquid was stored here. It was home to the Lea Valley distillery makers of gin and other spirits.

We are right in the centre of what was known as Smelly Stratford and it deserved the title because many of the noxious industries, meat processing, tanning, chemical production and glue came here from central London to the marshes that were largely empty and unpopulated.
And then there was the smell of smoke, from factory chimneys and steam trains. In fact Stratford was home to one of Britain’s largest railway engineering works employing over 5000 men.

Now turn around and imagine rows of commuter trains. This was the site of Thornton Fields a British Rail siding that filled this small island between Waterworks River and City Mill River where we are going to go now.

To find the next waypoint, walk towards the London Stadium, but this time turn right before the bridge and go down the gentle slope towards City Mill River until you arrive at the orange climbing wall.