There was meant to be a new post this morning, but our internet decided not to work, as usual offering no explanation or justification for its volatile behaviour. Soon, however, I will be at the mercy of a new router because *drum roll* I am moving house on Saturday! To exciting, uncharted Leytonstone.
Because I’m about to leave Stratford after two glorious (?) years, I have been allowing myself to fully embrace the fact that I really don’t like it. It may all be down to personal prejudice, but to me it has always felt like a strange, hollowed-out place squeezed between wasteland, warehouses and the A11. Even though the lovely St John’s church should provide a sort of centre point, the high street has long since been swallowed up by the covered shopping centre, which you are forced to walk through or take the long way round. I’m not sure what it used to be like here, perhaps this is a huge improvement?
Is this strange layout and apparent lack of sensitive planning the reason that there seem to be so many angry, scary, drunk and crazy people in Stratford? I thought I was imagining it at first, but other people have commented on it too. You can go into Wetherspoons or the Goose at any time of the day or night and I guarantee you there’ll be at least a half dozen old men, all sitting separately with their pitchers of beer. They stay there all day. They don’t even seem to acknowledge each other. It’s sad, and a bit frightening.
I read this post about Stratford on Ten Inch Wheeler’s blog, and recognised a lot of my own feelings about the place. But then I read this post from The Londoneer and felt guilty, like I’d betrayed Stratford even though it was trying it’s damnedest to be likeable. Then I was looking through a Stratford photo album for another post and found pictures that reminded me that there are some beautiful buildings here.
I am mighty confused, so I’d love to hear your thoughts (yes you, the interweb!) If you know the area at all feel free to weigh in…
4 Comments
May 21, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Yes, I know what you mean. Me and housemate moved here because it was cheap, and from a purely practical point of view it’s great - there’s a supermarket, great transport on the fast (sometimes) Central line, we have a swimming pool close by and a lovely park round the corner (and I do really like the park).
But Stratford itself is completely soulless, with absolutely no character at all. You can define most places in a few words, and they bring to mind a definite ‘feel’, but Stratford is just…nothing. Think about how it feels stepping out of the station at Dalston, for example. You’re immediately hit by the atmosphere and feel of the place. But in Stratford, nothing.
It’s quite a weird thing actually now that I think about it.
May 22, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Interweb reporting…
So, it’s no secret that I don’t relish trekking out to Stratford. Now I think about it, it is rather odd there. The central bit seems not too bad - normal shopping street with pretty old church etc. - but it’s strange that that central part is somehow cut off from the outside by horrible big roads and the shopping centre. It’s weird that the tube doesn’t take you into the heart of Stratford, but rather you have to wander around in a confused manner until you work out that you have to march through the shopping centre barricade, or round the big roads, to get there.
I also once stepped in the biggest dog turd known to man there. Lovely.
To be honest, I think it’s a lot better than some outlying London digs. Have you seen Tulse Hill? Stratford is a veritable paradise in comparison. I guess it’s ok, but I wouldn’t want to live there myself…
May 25, 2008 at 8:13 am
Maybe the fact that I grew up in Lee, now famous for it’s bakery killing, means I have a poor point of reference, but I’m quite fond of Stratford.
Of course, it hardly compares to somewhere like Bloomsbury or, well, anywhere that’s actually nice, but those are unfair comparisons. Stratford is part of zone 3: it’s not *meant* to be nice. However, compared to other parts of zone 3 it does well. It’s safer, has better transport links, a wider variety of shops, a nice park, good pubs, and a well-stocked library, with a bizarrely good comic-book section, and the odd nice building.
I’ll grant you that the layout is a nightmare, but even that is likely to be fixed by the planned DLR route.
July 13, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I’m quite fond of Stratford too. It’s certainly never dull… And the crazies give me lots of amusing stories to tell my friends, like about the lone Morris dancer dancing down Romford Rd the other weekend and the people who breakdance in the shopping centre in the evenings. Still, some bits of it (West Ham Lane and Romford Rd, basically the bits near the park) are definitely nicer than others (Maryland and Pudding Mill Lane) in my opinion, and why people choose to spend £260k+ on a 1-bed flat in the Icona building does baffle me. (Buy-to-letters I guess…
BTW, the free Monday night comedy at the Theatre Royal was pretty good when I went, it would be great to get some more people with a sense of humour turning up there, since everyone else there seemed to be lacking one when I went (all 6 comedians, who were mostly pretty good, just got stared at blankly by everyone apart from me and my 2 friends…).
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