The Source

Martyrs Memorial

Stratford New Town · 0.1 miles

A 19th-century monument in Stratford New Town marks the site where a group of eleven men and two women were executed for their Protestant convictions during the Marian persecutions of 1556. The stone column stands in St John’s churchyard on Stratford Broadway and was raised in 1879 to honour those who suffered at the hands of the authorities. Designed by J T Newman, the structure comprises an ornate hexagonal shaft topped by a twelve-sided spire that reaches approximately 65 feet. One face bears a terra-cotta relief panel that reproduces an illustration from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, while the remaining sides list the names of the thirteen individuals, together with Elizabeth Warne, Stephen Harwood, Hugh Laverock, John Apprice, Patrick Packingham and the Reverend Thomas Rose, whose fates were linked to the same period of religious turmoil. The memorial was financed through public subscription, the appeal being chaired by Rev William Jay Bolton, Vicar of Stratford. Its unveiling on 2 August 1879 was conducted under the auspices of the Earl of Shaftesbury, whose address reflected the anti-Catholic sentiment of the time. Contemporary commentary in The Graphic criticised the polarising tone of the speech. The monument is recorded on the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II listed structure, with Historic England confirming its protected status. Visitors can view the memorial within the churchyard, where the surrounding setting remains unchanged since its erection.

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

East Wick · 0.6 miles

A legacy of the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park offers a mix of sporting venues and public green space. The site spans parts of Stratford, Bow, Leyton and Hackney Wick in east London, straddling the boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest. Royal Mail allocated the postcode E20 to the park and the adjacent Stratford City development, and the nearest town recorded in OpenStreetMap is East Wick. Construction was completed in 2012, the year the Games were held. Originally called the Olympic Park during the event, it was later renamed to honour the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, although it is not an official Royal Park. After the Games, part of the area reopened in July 2013 and the majority, including the Aquatics Centre, VeloPark and the ArcelorMittal Orbit, reopened in April 2014. Key facilities include the London Stadium, the former Olympic stadium now used for athletics and concerts, the London Aquatics Centre with its distinctive roof, the Copper Box arena and the Lee Valley VeloPark. The ArcelorMittal Orbit, a steel observation tower, forms the park’s most prominent piece of public art. The former athletes’ village has been converted into the East Village, providing around 3,600 apartments adjacent to Stratford City. Additional amenities comprise the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre, the London Olympics Media Centre, northern parklands and reinstated allotments. Management of the legacy is overseen by the independent charity The Legacy List, established in 2011 to develop art, education and skill-building projects. Plans announced in 2012 for a national Olympic Museum beside the Orbit were later shelved in July 2013. The park was designed by the EDAW Consortium with input from Arup, WS Atkins and landscape architects, and its lighting scheme was created by Speirs + Major. It is described as one of the largest urban parks created in Western Europe for more than 150 years, with restored wetland habitats and native planting.

Olympic Bell

Fish Island · 0.6 miles

A striking feature of the Olympic Park is the Olympic Bell, a bronze monument commissioned for the 2012 London Olympic Games and now displayed near the former stadium. Cast in 2012, the bell measures about 2 metres in height with a 3.34-metre diameter and weighs roughly 23 tonnes, making it the second-heaviest bell in Europe after Cologne’s Petersglocke and the largest harmonically tuned bell worldwide. Its main pitch is the note B, and the surface bears the inscription “London 2012” together with a line from *The Tempest*: “Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises”, plus the Whitechapel Bell Foundry’s name and coat of arms. The casting process involved the Whitechapel Bell Foundry’s design work, subcontracting the actual pour to Royal Eijsbouts in the Netherlands, and contributions from twenty companies across three countries. After being tested in the stadium at midnight on 1 June 2012, the bell was positioned for the opening ceremony, later moved to make space for the cauldron, and stored within the park until its re-erection on a support structure outside the stadium in May 2016. Although the bell was featured symbolically during the opening ceremony—Bradley Wiggins “ringed” it mechanically and it sounded at key musical moments—it is not currently rung, as authorities consider the sound could disturb nearby residents. The monument remains a permanent memorial within the Olympic Park, accessible to visitors exploring the site.

Old Ford Island

Fish Island · 1.2 miles

Old Ford Island is a nature reserve within the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the London Borough of Newham.

Mabley Green

Hackney · 1.2 miles

Spanning 35.5 acres (144,000 m²), Mabley Green lies on the eastern edge of the London Borough of Hackney, bordered by Homerton, Clapton Park and Hackney Wick. The land formed part of the historic Hackney Marshes that once stretched across both sides of the Lee Navigation. In 1915 a section was allocated for the National Projectile Factory; after the First World War, the area was laid out as a recreation ground in 1922. The park sits alongside the A12 and is linked to neighbouring districts by the Red Path, a shared pedestrian and cycle route. Visitors can make use of an all-weather football pitch, an outdoor gym and basketball hoops, all of which have contributed to the site receiving a Green Flag Award. A distinctive 60-tonne rock, quarried in Cornwall and installed in 2008, serves both as a public sculpture and a bouldering challenge with several climbing routes. The park’s community activity during the COVID-19 pandemic was recorded in the 2022 photo-journalism book *Mabley Green Class of ‘21*. A 2021 film by Alice May Williams highlighted the centenary of the Football Association’s ban on women’s football, recalling a “Munitionettes” team that played here during the factory era. Mabley Green is managed by Hackney Council, with opening times displayed on the council’s listing. The User Group that looks after the park has proposed converting the site into the UK’s first edible park, suggesting the planting of fruit and nut trees and bushes for public use, and is also consulting on the addition of another all-weather football pitch.

Hackney Marshes

Lea Bridge · 1.9 miles

Covering roughly 136 hectares of protected common, Hackney Marshes stretches along the western bank of the River Lea in the Lower Lea Valley. The open space lies between the Old River Lea and the Hackney Cut, an artificial navigation channel dug around 1770, and is bounded to the south by the A12. Although the nearest settlement is Lea Bridge, the marshes fall within the London Borough of Hackney, which is responsible for their upkeep and public access. Originally a true marsh fed by regular river flooding, the area provided seasonal pasture long before permanent habitation was possible. Roman engineers constructed a stone causeway across the wetland, evidence of which was recovered alongside Roman coins. Throughout the early medieval period the river marked the border between the Saxon kingdoms of Essex and Middlesex and later formed part of the Danelaw frontier; legend records that King Alfred stranded a Viking fleet here in 895. Ownership passed from the Knights Templar, who operated mills at Temple Mills, to the Knights Hospitaller and eventually to the Crown after the Reformation. In the late 18th century the Hackney Cut reshaped the western edge, and a nature reserve now occupies the former Middlesex Filter-beds island. The London County Council purchased the common in 1890, opened it to the public in 1893 and dedicated it the following year, preserving it from urban development. Subsequent uses have included the National Projectile Factory (1915), later the Mabley Green recreation ground, and the Kingsmead Estate (1937). A camping site known as Tent City operated at the northern end near Cow Bridge until the 1990s. Today the marshes host sports fields and the remaining historic bridge that once served the White House Inn.