I never thought I'd say this, but Stratford is changing from the ragged patch in the torn backside of the old trousers hanging in the dilapidated shed of the East End, into somewhere fairly ...
nice. The pace of change at the Olympic Park is stunning, and the neighbouring Westfield über-development looks almost finished. It's even going to have a John Lewis, so at least the folks from Upper Leytonstone and Wanstead won't have to spend 20 minutes on the Tube to go to Oxford Street. They'll just spend 45 minutes sat in their Audis getting into Westfield's car park. The other day in Stratford's unyieldingly grim old shopping centre I heard someone say excitedly "We're going to be the Shepherd's Bush of the East". Damned with faint praise, but there's no denying that E15 is improving. It's improving from a very low base, mind.
These blokes were painting hundreds of tiny squares onto the new Angel Lane bridge. The mural is almost finished, and looks to be some sort of half-tone image, presumably celebrating 'the spirit of the East End'. Or something. I don't know what the men in hi-viz thought of the job, but one of them was whistling the Patsy Cline tune 'Crazy'.
5 comments:
It is all terribly exciting... I remember when Stratford station was a hole in the ground.
I think your photo is great. I spent twenty minutes squinting at it to see what the 'shape' was, before deciding it was just clouds!
Clouds is it? I meant to go and have a proper look this morning but I was late.
I think if you tilt your head at 45 degrees to the right it looks like John Merrick
Well, he lived just up the road, Ted!
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