25km Wanstead Flats
Wanstead Flats
Ride Overview
This is a mini adventure - a ‘Grass and Grit’ ride for Londoners - without the hassle of leaving the city. The fun to be had is worth crossing London for. The vast (for London) Wanstead Flats and surrounding areas is where you can ride on real gravel trails, through woods and across the wide heaths of the East. Ride for a couple of hours, away from traffic and noisome streets and finish in a pub or a decent eatery before returning home. The route has all the hallmarks of adventure; history if you want it, fabulous modern architecture, but above all the freedom to ride on dusty paths through woods, scrub and across the plains. Sit with a coffee and marvel at the iconic buildings of the QE Olympic park, then flick and fling the bike on the gravel, tear across the grass and enjoy an ice cream beside a lake commissioned by one of the richest men in the world at the time, before finishing in one of the many pubs or eateries in Hackney Wick whether it be on a barge, or on a terrace of a brewery pizza and drinking beer, or in a yard enjoying Mexican fire food.
(Route Revised January 2023 and again May 2026. Guided Ride Route June 2026)
START/FINISH: Stratford station. DISTANCE: 25km. TOTAL ASCENT: 139m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: Cycle paths, wide canal and river paths, gravel trails and quiet back roads. MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: Stratford (Overground, Underground, Elizabeth Line, Mainline) RECOMMENDED FOOD AND DRINK STOPS: Maryland: Cart and Horses, Hackney Wick: Lucia’s , Crate Brewery , Barge East LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: River Lea Cycle Route, Rivers Rom and Beam, National Cycle Route 1
Ride notes
At Stratford station, take the Westfield exit. The route heads on a traffic-free cycle path to the Olympic Park. One of London’s many success stories and an international leader in how to manage post Games, the park is a brilliant place. It is still dedicated to sport, health and fitness. Iconic stadia still looking as good a decade and a half later as they did for those memorable games. Sir Anish Kapoor’s ArcelorMittal Orbit, Zaha Hadid’s Aquatic Centre, the Velo Park and Nigel Dunnet’s gardens. Drift around at any time of year and you’ll see local people in all manner of dress and skin colour enjoying the facilities (play areas, yoga and contemplation, dancing, river walks, cafés), but it is in late summer when the park is particularly wonderful. The gardens which border the paths and soften the landscape are in full bloom and as attractive as they ever were.
ArcelorMittal Orbit
Many will remember this area’s pre-Olympics days when this part of London was almost a no-go area. Certainly the River Lee was considered to be one of Europe’s most polluted rivers and the businesses lining the river seemed as dirty and depressed as any place could be. The threat of violence was never far away. Contrast that with today - trendy eateries bordering the canalised river, people in jazzy kit and hair styles, joggers, boat people, and kids playing games in the woods. Trees line the banks. The river boat people fettle, groovy tunes emanate from cabins, tomatoes and marigolds grow in the houseboat’s roofs, whiffs of coal smoke, wafts of dope too. The path is smooth and asphalted. It’s a gentle ‘pedal and drift sort of path’.
Leaving the Lee cross Hackney Marshes. The vast swathe of grass and goalposts is the spiritual home of Sunday league football, with 82 football pitches. The city’s towers, grey and anonymous, are an appropriate distance away on the horizon. Then ride beside the Lea. (The Lea tends to refer to the river, the Lee to its canalised cousin). The river’s richly green vegetation, the reeds and luscious trees dipping into the water, appear to be more tropical African in landscape than London river. I half expect the ‘African Queen’ to sail around the corner with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn at the helm. Briefly you return to the Olympic Park, ride past the ‘Pringle’ (The Lea Valley Velodrome)and ride towards the historic east London neighbourhoods of Maryland and West Ham. Victorian and post war terraces, diverse communities, and deep roots stretching back to Old English marshland settlements.
The Lee Valley Velopark
After a short ride through Maryland - the origin of the district’s name remains a happy mystery - you arrive on Wanstead Flats. Before you is a vast open space, the horizon untroubled by skyscrapers. Grass and stands of trees and innumerable gravel paths. Unlike the far stuffier and less noble heaths of London (hopeless Hampstead and woeful Wimbledon), cycling is tolerated. That said some of the paths which the route uses are not official cycle paths. Please avoid adding to the ‘let’s ban the cyclists’ movements by slowing down for walkers - and thanking them as you pass - saying ‘hi’ to their dogs no matter how out of control they may be. Be content to dawdle where there’s pedestrian traffic and admire the scenery. There are plenty of places where there’s open and wide gravel paths, where you can burn off some pent-up energy. You ride, in a droughty summer, across the African savannah amongst the giraffes and elephants depending on how rich your imagination and conjuring powers are.
The lake and the remains of a temple, which, along with the Stable Block (now the clubhouse for the local golf course) were part of the huge estate of Wanstead. Sir Josiah Child, Governor of the East India Company, the richest and most powerful private company ever to appear on earth (until Google and Meta arrived) commissioned a great Palladian mansion which rivalled Blenheim and Holkham Hall. However, an heiress of Wanstead married a profligate nephew of the Duke of Wellington (he of Waterloo fame). The inheritance was spent and the house sold to cover debts. It was torn down and the stone taken away to be re-used elsewhere.
Wanstead Park
London’s arterial roads put in a brief appearance (you ride on shared paths, not the roads) before you dive into more deep greenery. The river Rom is a much neglected river which, if Mayor Khan has his way, will soon be tidied up. For now, it is a veritable oasis of rich green rushes, willows and edgeland plants. The gravel path is well kept and a joy to ride on. You bend this way and that, before riding on a less well maintained path which is squeezed beside the huge Manor Park Cemetery and the railway. Avoiding the beer cans, bags and odd assorted pieces of clothing, you return to Wanstead Flats for a final burst of gravelling.
Those who love the band Iron Maiden, may want to stop at the Cart and Horses (a hundred metres off the route, follow signs to Maryland station), where the band began. The pub is a local institution and one-of-a-kind destination. Recently tidied up into something verging on the respectable, it is a fun and often noisy place to hang out.
The route officially ends at Stratford Station, beside the big red engine, but should you wish to extend your day out, quench your thirst and fill your belly, head back into the QE Olympic Park, cross the river into Hackney Wick, and there choose which eatery and/or brewery is going to take your custom. Recommended choices include, Lucia’s , Crate Brewery , Barge East .
Every route on this website has been carefully researched as well as ridden. However situations on the ground can change quickly. If you know of changes to this route, or cafes, pubs and the like which you think other cyclists need to know about, feel free to share your thoughts below.
If you enjoyed this guide, why not subscribe to the website so as not to miss other inspirational routes?
wheremywheelsgo.uk is a Feedspot UK Cycling top website