3.3 From Old Ford to the QEOP!

Our walk today from Old odd school to the QE Olympic Park was full of art and inspiration. With the school so close to the Hertford Union Canal we quickly left the busy streets and dropped down onto the more peaceful canal, which took us along the tree lined southern edge of Victoria Park into Hackney Wick. We had left school just after lunch and had discussed briefly the per pose of our trip. We talked about how we would be on the look out for great spaces to put our own art trail objects, fearfully noticing how different spaces make us feel and thinking about how these would lend themselves to certain artistic responses. We also thought about how how we would get to the park and what sort of activities we might do there once we arrived at our destination.

Our canal route took us past lots of locks, where the often narrow towpath dropped steeply down under bridges where we had to squeeze carefully around corners. It took us under noisy roads and opened up with grassy areas where we found weeping willow trees and brightly coloured graffiti laden buildings, full of faces and characters. We also passed lots of interesting looking house boats! We really enjoyed looking at the reflections in the water, where we saw upside down buildings, trees and birds. Eventually, where the canal meets the Lee Navigation, we climbed back up on to the road at the White Building, which some of us know from previous school trips. Here we found more artwork, this time large murals high above us.

We continued walking east, along newly configured roads as we entered the site of the 2012 Olympic Games. We then turned off the road and again, climbing upwards, we entered the QEOP near to the main stadium. Here we found huge spaces and lots of very new looking plants. We took the path down towards the Orbit - our final destination and as we got closer it seemed to grow in front of us, appearing very very tall once we reached its base.

We stopped at the park for a little while to play in the play ground, enjoying running up and down the steep mounds and climbing on the walls and frames. We and a quick snack and drink, and some of us made drawings and notes based on what we found there and how it felt. After a little while we decided to head back. We retraced our steps, but this time, facing the other direction we found new things to see. We noticed lots of posters and more artwork, and were able to detour briefly through Victoria Park before crossing over the canal and back to school just making it back for home time!