Former Student Storyteller and recent Master’s graduate Bathsheba Lockwood Brook spends a day out exploring in and around the UCL East Campus.
When I say "Stratford," the responses tend to range from "Shakespeare?" to "oh yeah, with the Westfield shopping centre," to which I reply , the other one, and yes, unfortunately. If you, like me, come out in hives after spending about five minutes anywhere near Westfield, you’re in luck - UCL East campus has much more to offer. I’ll admit, up until now, I’ve primarily been a Bloomsbury fan, so UCL East is a whole new world for me. Fortunately, my friend lives in Stratford and offered to show me round.
UCL East Campus
My first priority was a coffee; there’s no shortage of places around campus that’ll quench your americano/cortado/matcha cravings. The Marshgate Café at UCL East is hardly a hidden gem, but worth it purely for the robot waiters. The first time I saw these guys I turned into a five-year-old, and embarrassed myself in front of about twenty engineers by squealing loud enough for the whole café to hear. Every time I visit, I’m transported into a blissful memory of what I imagined the 2020s might be like when I was in primary school - less inflation, more hoverboards please.
While you’re on campus, it’s definitely worth checking out the new Words Matter exhibition in the first-floor galleries, which explores UCL’s complicated history of eugenics through a curated programme of work from spoken and written word artists. If you’re around on a Wednesday evening, the UCL East Community Cinema has screenings every week, which are free to attend and open to everyone.
Fish Island
If you’re after somewhere slightly further off the beaten track, Tuck Shop , just off Wyke Road on Fish Island, offers a wide selection of coffee and the best kimchi toastie I’ve ever had.
Tuck Shop describes itself as a "gourmet grocers" but it’s really somewhere between a café, health food store, and off-license; they sell more umami themed products than you ever knew existed, along with a dizzying range of craft beer and wine. It’s not cheap, but it’s an ideal place for gift-buying as the festive season approaches; I’m planning a return visit once I get my next pay check to grab a bottle of their coffee liqueur. Brie Yourself and the Ethical Bean Company are also honourable mentions, all’about a ten-to-fifteen-minute walk from the Marshgate building.
Another Fish Island favourite, and possibly my own top pick for best ’hidden gem,’ is the London Centre for Book Arts (LCBA). Part bookshop, part working studio, it’s a community-run organisation, platforming artists working in print and self-publishing. Their shop stocks prints and paper crafts which are made on site, along with titles from niche and independent publishers. The LCBA also run introductory printing workshops, which are sold out until the New Year, but look well worth the wait. In the meantime, you can grab yourself a DIY lino-printing kit from the shop if you’re feeling crafty.At this point, the sun was vaguely hinting it might appear from behind the clouds, so I headed towards the River Lea, to make the most of the weather while it lasted.
Having grown up in the countryside, one of the things I often miss in London is the wildlife (my friends keep telling me the tube rats don’t count). Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is home to over 500 different species of birds, as well as otters, eels, and a healthy population of bats. Some of these residents tend to be more camera-shy than others, but we did spot a raft of coots bickering by the canalboats, and a lone cygnet who took an ontological interest in the swan pedalos.If you’re in the mood for a hit of 2012 nostalgia, the Olympic Rings are as good a spot as any I know. Standing on a hill with views over the whole park and the West Ham Stadium, the rings are surprisingly secluded; apart from a couple of dog walkers passing through, we were the only people there. Possibly it was the grey weather, or the fact that it was so deserted, but I was left with an odd feeling I was visiting an ex-Soviet monument or an abandoned shrine.
If you’re feeling inspired by the traces of former Olympic glory, the open-air Aerocycle Gym , beside the stadium, is free for public use - and constructed from over 2,500 recycled aerosol cans, so you can enjoy a sustainable workout! You can also have a go at scrambling on the Queen Elizabeth Climbing Wall , which overlooks the river and has routes friendly enough for anyone to try, or book a session at the London Marathon Community Track for only £3.50.
If you feel more at home on the dance floor than in the stadium, Sadler’s Wells is the perfect place to get your exercise with a cultural flavour. They’re running free East Lates on Friday October 24 and November 7, offering food, drinks, and an open dance floor. Lunchtime dance classes are also on offer, catering to a range of styles from Hip Hop and Funk, to Caribbean Soca. As if this wasn’t enough, Sadlers’ regular The Floor is Yours sessions open the dance floor to all-comers.By this point I was exhausted from thinking about all this exercise. Brew Street Café, in the north of the Olympic Park, just before you reach the Velodrome, is a perfect spot to relax and re-charge (literally, in my case; by the time I got there my phone was on 10%.) If you’re looking for a place that’s slightly removed from the bustle of campus life, it’s a good spot to hole up for a few hours of quiet working or just to people-watch.
Hackney Wick
We still had one thing left on our UCL East bucket list. If you haven’t been to the V&A East Storehouse , the closest comparison I can think of is that scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the camera pans out to reveal box after box, stacked on top of each other for what seems like miles, each containing some priceless hidden treasure. As a kid I wanted more than anything to see what was inside those boxes; the genius of the Storehouse is that it lets you do exactly that.
As we walked in, the assistant waved hello and gave us a brief intro to the museum, which basically boiled down to "please look but don’t touch." I didn’t know whether to be offended; I haven’t had to be told not to touch the items since I was about five, but as soon as we got inside the collections hall, it became clear why they had to say this. Everything at the Storehouse is tantalisingly accessible; there’s no glass between you and the collections, and the shelves give the impression more of an antique shop than a museum. The displays are thrown together in a bricolage-style jumble; a Medieval church boss sits beside a TV set from the 1950s, while on the floor above they’ve lifted an entire ceiling wholesale from a 15th century palace in Torrijos.
The space is so impressive it took a few minutes of silent gawping to get over the visual overwhelm and start exploring. I was surprised to find that I didn’t miss the usual labelling and explanation you’d expect from a museum trip. It was relaxing to examine the objects out of context, and I enjoyed the absence of narrativisation. The presentation felt in a sense more democratising, with no impression that any of the objects were privileged based on value or provenance (although they did have a fun section dedicated to fakes and forgeries).By the time we left it had begun to get dark; we wandered back towards the river in search of a pint. Between Fish Island and Hackney Wick, it’s an absolute hotspot for nightlife, including several of the barges and canalboats which moonlight as floating bars (the Cocktail Barge looked especially tempting.) We ended up at CRATE Brewery & Pizzeria , an old factory turned micro-brewery with a wharf converted into a beer garden.
We eventually made our way to Hackney Wick, passing by Colour Factory, which I’d recommend to anyone looking for the perfect combination of good and grimy on a night out. They’ve got a pretty strong line-up for Halloween, so if you haven’t got plans yet, definitely check it out.
For my fellow Westfield-haters, there’s more out there than bubble tea and Build-a-bear. The East Bank development has genuinely got something for everyone, whether you’re living in One Pool Street , or just fancy a day out. Personally speaking, I’m a total convert - I’m already planning my next trip.
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