On the Slow Train
“Sitting where I am, this may seem a peculiar claim, since apart from the odd tuft of ragwort and rosebay willowherb growing between the tracks of Stratford station’s Platform 11, I am in the midst of a concrete-and-glass futuropolis. Over there is the vast bulk of the new 80,000-seat stadium for London’s 2012 Olympics; behind us are the rising towers of the Olympic village. Not far away, rearing out of the morning mist, are the towers of Canary Wharf, dominated by César Pelli’s No. 1 Canada Square – the tallest building in the land. Clustered around are its Manhattan-style neighbours, including Norman Foster’s HSBC tower, not quite so proud since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, whose HQ stands empty nearby. But with the Olympics in prospect, grimy old Stratford is in bullish mood. There is the growl of earth movers everywhere as new blocks of flats sprout up in what was once the bleakest part of the old industrial East End.
Yet as our little three-coach train rattles down under the G...reat Eastern main line and veers westwards past the new Stratford International station on the fast line to Paris, we are entering a different world.MoreLess
Yet as our little three-coach train rattles down under the G...reat Eastern main line and veers westwards past the new Stratford International station on the fast line to Paris, we are entering a different world.MoreLess
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