Stratford, London
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Template:Infobox London place Stratford, historically Stratford Langthorne, is a place in the London Borough of Newham in East London.
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History
In 1847 much of what is now Stratford was open countryside. Modern Stratford was built as a 'new town' initially called "Hudson' Town" after George Hudson the railway entrepreneur and it was the location of the Eastern Counties Railway's railway works. Their first locomotives, built from 1850, were passenger tank locomotives, designed by J.V.Gooch, brother of the GWR's Daniel Gooch. There was also the first recorded attempt at a Compound locomotive using a modified two-cylinder goods engine. The works continued to make a few new engines, eleven in 1920 for instance, but its main occupation was repairs and major overhauls. Throughout its life it was also a carriage works. It closed in 1963. From 1889 to 1965 Stratford formed part of the County Borough of West Ham, part of Essex until 1965.
Today
Stratford is a major shopping centre and contains Newham's cultural quarter centred around the Theatre Royal Stratford East and Stratford Circus. Stratford station and adjacent bus station is a major transport hub.
Future
From 2007 Stratford will be the location of Stratford International station on the Channel Tunnel rail link and in 2012 the location of the main Olympic Park, which will contain a significant number of venues to be used in the 2012 Summer Olympics, including the Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre, and London Velopark. Stratford has been a focus of regeneration for some years and as of 2006 the seventy three hectare brownfield railway lands to the north of the town centre and station are to be redeveloped in a multi-billion pound scheme called Stratford City which will form a new purpose-built community of 5,000 homes, offices, retail spaces, schools, public spaces, municipal and other facilities. It is hoped that this will become a major metropolitan centre for East London. Part of Stratford City will serve as the Olympic Village.
Stratford is in the London Borough of Newham, which has the fifth highest crime rate of any borough in London and, according to government indices, Newham is also the eleventh most "deprived" district in Britain. <p>However, Stratford (and neighbouring Leyton) does have an excellent selection of very cheap takeaways ranging from Caribbean to Indian, Cantonese, Greek, and Thai. Food and drink are, in comparison to their other London counterparts, remarkably cheap in Stratford. <p>
Places of interest
Transport
Nearest places
Nearest tube and railway stations
- Stratford station: tube, rail and DLR, as well as being a local bus hub
- Stratford International station (under construction)
- Maryland railway station