Olympic Park walking tour
Stratford East London
Friday 22 September 2023
Book here to be guided around this iconic site by Alistair Bayford, with a lunch break on Barge East.
Alistair Bayford is a chartered member of the Landscape Institute and trained at Writtle College and the University of Greenwich. Whilst park manager in 2015 Alistair hosted an MPG visit to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Alistair has since moved on to be business development director for Maylim, a public realm contractor. His career has included designing two gold medal winning gardens for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
The original brown-field site was transformed into the 2012 gardens and now has plants of 250 species with formal and informal plantings divided into four climatic regions: Europe, North America, Asia and the southern hemisphere. Later additions are the Pleasure Gardens in the South Park which feature prairie-style planting designed by Piet Oudolf, the Mandeville Orchards and more recently the cultural quarter of the East Bank with the newly planted public spaces encouraging biodiversity and a connection of the arts to nature.
The tour will start at 11am and include a two-course lunch at Barge East – a 120-year-old Dutch barge with a canal-side garden from which much of the seasonally focussed menu is sourced. The tour will continue after lunch for a further hour or so.
Whilst the park is largely flat you should expect to be on your feet for a couple of hours at a time so please take this into consideration.
The cost of the event is £36 to include lunch. Please note you need to make payment on booking to secure your place. If you have any questions about the day please email Denise Lewis.