Meridian Cuttings - Spring 2022

Across our planning desk passes a steady stream of proposals for new developments along the canals; on the Regents Canal mostly residential blocks squeezed onto former industrial sites and further east, in and around the Stratford Olympic Park, whole new residential areas are springing up with waterside parks, walkways, shops and cafes.

Now and then something a bit different will pop up. Here’s one: The Diver, at Dane’s Yard, off Stratford High Street. It was originally designed for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad in a project with local schoolchildren and seeks now to come home to the Stratford Olympic Park after 10 years.

Diver is an animated LED installation depicting a small figure diving from the top of a 5 storey building, down into the water with a splash!

It will be an addition to a line of artworks stretching along the waterways from The Olympic Park to North Greenwich.

A feature called The Line.

Well worth the walk for those of us who love to be near the water. As you pass south from the Olympic Park you’ll see the huge scale of the developments emerging, and all the way to the River Lea and beyond.

There’s a section of Bow Creek where you have to leave the riverside; there are plans to get the path through, but for the time being, turn off at Cody Dock and take the DLR on to Royal Victoria.

Full information is online at: the-line.org