Stratford Station: Your Gateway to East London, the Olympic Park & Westfield
Ask most visitors to name London’s great transport hubs and they’ll say King’s Cross, Waterloo, maybe Paddington. Almost nobody says Stratford — and yet this is one of the busiest stations in Britain, a place where the Central and Jubilee lines meet the Elizabeth line, the DLR, the Overground and national rail services to Essex and beyond. If you’re looking for things to do in Stratford, London, the honest answer is: more than almost anywhere else in the east of the city, and it’s all within a fifteen-minute walk of the ticket barriers.
Stratford is where the 2012 Olympics happened, and unlike many host cities, London actually did something with the site afterwards. The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is now a genuine destination in its own right — home to world-class swimming, the UK’s tallest sculpture, a stadium you can tour, and, as of April 2026, a brand-new V&A museum. Add Europe’s largest urban shopping centre next door and a rapidly evolving cultural quarter called East Bank, and you have a station area that rewards a full day, not a quick change of trains.
Here’s how to make the most of it, station-first.
Getting to Stratford: The Best-Connected Station in East London
Stratford sits in Zones 2/3 (you’re charged the cheaper boundary fare, which makes it excellent value from central London). You can arrive by:
- Central line — direct from Oxford Circus, Bank and Liverpool Street; about 15 minutes from the City. (See our complete Central line guide for what’s at every stop along the way.)
- Jubilee line — from Westminster, London Bridge and Canary Wharf; the whole eastern stretch of the line is step-free.
- Elizabeth line — the fast, air-conditioned option from Paddington, Bond Street and Liverpool Street, and the easiest route if you’re coming straight from Heathrow. (New to the purple line? Coming soon our Elizabeth Line Explained guide first.)
- DLR and Overground — handy for Greenwich, Hackney and Canary Wharf connections.
A practical note: Stratford and Stratford International are two different stations, about a ten-minute walk apart through Westfield. Unless you’re catching a high-speed train to Kent, you want plain Stratford. The station is fully step-free from street to platform on most lines, making it one of the most accessible interchanges on the network.
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park: The Main Event
Exit the station on the Westfield side, walk through the shopping centre (or around it), and the Olympic Park opens up in front of you — 560 acres of parkland, waterways, wildflower meadows and world-class sporting venues.
The Arcelor Mittal Orbit is the twisting red tower you can see from the station. It’s the UK’s tallest sculpture, and the viewing platform gives you a panorama from Canary Wharf to the City. The real draw, though, is the slide — the world’s longest and tallest tunnel slide corkscrews down the outside of the structure in about 40 seconds. Book tickets in advance; slots sell out at weekends.
The London Aquatics Centre, Zaha Hadid’s wave-roofed masterpiece, is arguably the most beautiful building in the park — and you can actually swim in the Olympic pools for the price of a normal leisure-centre session. Few visitors realise this. Bring a swimsuit and you can say you’ve done lengths in the same water as Olympic champions.
London Stadium, now home to West Ham United, runs behind-the-scenes tours on non-match days covering the tunnel, the dressing rooms and the pitchside. On match days, the atmosphere around the park is worth experiencing even without a ticket.
ABBA Voyage performs in its purpose-built arena a short walk across the park at Pudding Mill Lane (one DLR stop, or a pleasant 15-minute stroll). It remains one of the hardest-to-explain, easiest-to-love shows in London — book well ahead.
East Bank: London’s Newest Cultural Quarter
The stretch of the park closest to Stratford station has quietly become one of the most exciting cultural addresses in the country. East Bank now includes:
- V&A East Museum — opened 18 April 2026, this five-storey outpost of the Victoria & Albert Museum is the newest major museum in London. Its two permanent Why We Make galleries are free to enter, with paid landmark exhibitions on the third floor (the opener, The Music is Black: A British Story, is superb). Open daily, with late openings Thursdays and Saturdays.
- V&A East Storehouse — a short walk further at Here East, this is the V&A’s working archive thrown open to the public: over 250,000 objects on visible storage, free entry, and an “Order an Object” service that lets you request almost anything from the collection for a personal viewing. It’s unlike any museum experience in London.
- Sadler’s Wells East — the dance powerhouse’s east London home, with an eclectic programme and affordable tickets.
- BBC Music Studios and UCL East — completing a quarter that’s been compared to a modern-day South Bank.
If you visit Stratford and skip East Bank, you’ve missed the point of what this neighbourhood has become.
Westfield Stratford City: Shop, Eat, Shelter From the Rain
You can’t talk about Stratford without Westfield — one of the largest urban shopping centres in Europe, and effectively an extension of the station itself. Beyond the 250+ shops, it’s genuinely useful to visitors: a huge food hall, a cinema, All Star Lanes bowling, and enough covered space to rescue any rainy-day itinerary. The rooftop has a surprisingly pleasant garden area most shoppers never find.
Our honest take: Westfield is a facility, not a destination. Use it for lunch, logistics and last-minute shopping — then get back out into the park.
Beyond the Park: Old Stratford and Hackney Wick
For a flavour of the East London that predates the Olympics, cross to the other side of the station. Stratford’s old town centre around the Broadway has the Theatre Royal Stratford East — one of London’s great producing theatres, where Joan Littlewood revolutionised British drama — and a street market that’s been running far longer than any regeneration masterplan.
Walk (or take the Overground one stop) to Hackney Wick, on the park’s western edge, and you’ll find canalside breweries, street art on every surface, and some of the best casual food in East London. Crate Brewery’s pizza-and-pint combo beside the canal is the classic finish to an Olympic Park day. (This pairs perfectly with our East London Weekend by Tube itinerary.)
A Suggested Half-Day at Stratford
- 10:00 — Arrive via the Elizabeth or Central line; coffee in Westfield on the way through.
- 10:30 — V&A East Museum (free galleries; allow 90 minutes).
- 12:15 — Walk north through the park to Here East; lunch on the canalside terrace.
- 13:30 — V&A East Storehouse.
- 15:00 — ArcelorMittal Orbit viewing platform — or the slide, if you’ve booked.
- 16:00 — Wander south through the wetlands and wildflower planting to Pudding Mill Lane.
- Evening option — ABBA Voyage, a show at Sadler’s Wells East, or pints at Hackney Wick.
Where to Stay Near Stratford Station
Stratford has become a smart base for visitors: Zone 2/3 prices with Zone 1 connections, and the Elizabeth line puts you 20 minutes from the West End. The Stratford Hotel (in the Manhattan Loft Gardens tower) is the design-led option with skyline views; the Westfield cluster includes reliable mid-range chains (Premier Inn, Moxy, Holiday Inn) at consistently better rates than central London.
Practical Tips Before You Go
- Fares: Stratford’s Zone 2/3 boundary status means journeys from Zone 1 are charged at the Zone 1–2 rate — one of the network’s little bargains. (See our complete Tube Zones & Fares guide.)
- Step-free access: Excellent throughout the station and the park — this is one of the best areas in London for wheelchair users and buggies.
- Match days: West Ham home games transform the area. Check the fixture list if you want a quiet park — or embrace it if you don’t.
- Time needed: Half a day minimum; a full day if you’re doing both V&A sites and the Orbit.
Stratford is what happens when a city keeps its Olympic promises. It isn’t the London of postcards — it’s better than that: a working, evolving, genuinely exciting piece of the city that most visitors still haven’t caught up with. Get off the Central line and see it before everyone else does.
