Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – 13 Years After London 2012

When I visited Atlanta in 2018, I wrote a post Atlanta 1996 – 22 years later, visiting former sites of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. In July 2025, I did something similar, visiting the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which hosted several venues of the 2012 Olympic Summer Games in London. The Games were told to develop the East of London’s infrastructure and social structure. But did that in fact happen. I took a walk – and tell you in my Pictured Story how things are looking alike in the summer of 2025.

 

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – Location & Access

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is based in the boroughs of Stratford, Hackey Wick, Leyton and Bow. If you want to visit the place, you likely end up starting in Stratford. The station Stratford International is solely served by rail connections and the DLR, though. There are much more connections from Stratford, including the Jubilee Line, the Elizabeth Line, the Central Line and the DLR. To get to Olympic Park, you have to cross Westfield Stratford, one of the most frequently shopping malls in the United Kingdom, though.

The park is a public park. If you want to visit one of the former sights, do a tour of London Stadium or enjoy the view from the Orbit, you should check opening times and availability beforehand, though.

 

Views of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

I started my walk at Stratford International railway station. I had to think about my recent post about potential rail connections between Germany and London. Germany struggles to install one station for this special non-international trip – London’s got two of them. However, there were plans to have this station for Eurostar travel, but it in fact has never been used as such. The Olympic Village is right North of the station. Nowadays, it is a vibrant residential area with many small cafes and stores. There are also a couple of hotels in there. However, the references to the Olympic Games are limited. I solely found the Olympic Dry Cleaner shop during my walk up North.

 

Lee Valley VeloPark and Cycling Facilities

The first section of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park I visited was the Lee Valley VeloPark and adjacent facilities. The velodrome is still in use and hosted Six Days and championships after the Olympic Games. First of all, I passed the former BMX track. During the Olympic Games, it had a capacity of 6,000. The stands are no longer existing, but you can still use the track (for a fee). A surprisingly frequently used part of the park is the cycling street track, which is a one mile loop through the Olympic Park. There is also a 8km mountain biking course you can use. I felt it is stunning to see that these facilities are still in use. Mountain biking during the 2012 Games was not held here, though, but in Hadleigh in Essex.

The velodrome was a highlight of my walk. Outside of sports events, you can simply visit the place and enjoy the atmosphere inside the very special 6,000 people venue. From 10:00 to 17:00, there is also a cafe inside. During my visit, people were training in the speedy oval – something you typically don’t see too often, even as a sports fan. There are also some signs listing the 2012 Olympic medal winners in the Velodrome, how it was named during the Games, as well as cycling champions. During public times, you can only visit the Southern part of the velodrome, but that’s absolutely sufficient.

 

Hockey, Tennis, and the Olympic Rings

I took a quick detour and visited the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Center. Field hockey (the worse version of floorball…) was in fact played in a temporary arena, so that this venue is not an Olympic original. The temporary field hockey arena also featured Paralympic five-a-side and seven-a-side soccer. The tennis courts were used for wheelchair tennis at the Paralympics, though. Olympic tennis was, of course, held in Wimbledon – one of the few times grass court specialists had their time under the Olympic Rings.

Mentioning the Olympic Rings – they are also still there, close to the Lee Valley VeloPark. While most of the facilities in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park are well maintained, you need to fight yourself through some bushes to see them properly. Paths would also take you up to the hill where they are installed, but I decided against doing that.

 

Media and Broadcasting

Crossing Knight Bridge over the River Lea gives you a first view of the Olympic Stadium, which is nowadays London Stadium. However, I headed West, where the Olympic Broadcast Center and Press Center were located. Nowadays, a major part of that is the V&A East Storehouse by the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is an amazing, free entry place, which I will feature in a separate post. There is still development in this area.

A short walk South is the Copper Box. It majorly hosted Olympic Handball and Paralympic Goalball and is thus one of the venues I in fact visited in 2012. The 7,000 people venue is still in use, hosting matches in handball, basketball and netball, for example. It also hosted wheelchair rugby and badminton championships. In front of th arena, there is the mirrored RUN sculpture.

 

The Olympic Stadium

I only could pass the Olympic Stadium, now London Stadium, as there was a festival during that weekend. You can also do stadium tours there, which is on my bucket list. This made me miss the Olympic Bell unfortunately. Nowadays, the stadium is home of the men’s soccer team of West Ham United – I visited their women’s team recently at a home match at their ground in Dagenham. As you see in the pictures, the park is in general a lovely place for recreation – and many locals make use of it. The characteristic ArcelorMittal Orbit gives a lovely view of the area. I decided against a visit as the weather on that day was not the best.

Before hanging out at the shopping mall, I visited the London Aquatics Centre, which hosted swimming, synchronized swimming and diving at the 2012 Olympic Games. Water Polo was held in a separate, temporary venue. It features two 50 meter pools and a 25 meter diving pool. The seating capacity of originally 17,500 has been significantly reduced, but the pool is open to public since 2014 as well.

 

Views of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2025 – My Thoughts

Did London 2012 reach its goal and develop the area around Stratford? Definitely, it did. I was especially impressed by the high level of sustainability, using so many facilities until today. Some of them, majorly London Stadium, did have struggle to find a new home club for it. Compared to my visit in Atlanta, London felt to have done a significantly better job in making use of the Olympic Games with a longer term vision.

 

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