In 2005 London won the Olympic bid, this saw Stratford pushed to the forefront of London’s regeneration through the construction of The Olympic park and the various landmarks it holds. Now owned and used by West Ham football club the park played a key role in not only London’s regeneration of the East but urban exploring history as well. It was a Youtube video from this exploration which was the first time London urban exploring went viral.
Circa 2016:
Young and dumb is an understatement when it comes to this exploration, having bailed on a nearby explore due to an early fear of free climbing we set our eyes on the main prize, the stadium. The video didn’t show how the group entered so we put it upon ourselves to work this out and before we knew it we stood in the higher stands in awe. I quickly took out my camera and snapped a shot, at this time I had no idea what I was doing, using flash in the already lit up stadium is something I’ll always look back on and laugh about. Thankfully I managed to save one photo, unfortunately it is of my friends signature pose – him in his boxers.
Adrenaline pumping, we took a moment to grab a drink of water from our bags, this was when we noticed that we had company. Down below on the pitch stood several security guards, nervously we lay behind the stairs up in the higher stands and waited. We had absolutely no idea what was happening but their lack of urgency kept us calm, we decided to hide hoping they would leave soon. Due to a rip in my trousers (acquired in the failed previous mission – more below) this became a long cold wait. After 2 hours the pitch finally cleared, and we instantly made a run for it.
We escaped fleeing the park we ran back to the station still confused about who we had seen on the pitch. Subsequent Youtube videos by other explorers demonstrated the intensity of the security at the location, with security monitoring cameras 24/7. We decided that the guards we spotted were most likely just patrolling and had not seen us, as there was no way to hide for two hours stationary.
A few years later...
After re-visiting the Orbit a tourist attraction/ monument less then 100 metres away from the stadium (this is the failed explore mentioned above). I began to feel incomplete overlooking the football stadium below, however this was merely a hope and a dream, or was it?
Fast forwards a few years and upon passing the stadium I noticed the route was still accessible minus a few climbing tweaks (they clearly knew about our previous method). Having not reached the roof of the stadium I decided a return was needed. I recruited a different friend (no more boxer shots, sorry) and we made a night of it. We infiltrated and wasted no time reaching the roof, it was a dream come true. We shot for a while wary of the pitch security, constantly scanning the pitch below looking for them. However it turned out that this time it would be the security who patrol the general park that we had to be aware of.
Eventually we chose to leave, and we managed to get out as smooth as butter, in a matter of minutes. We maintained a jog until we left the park, and we began to laugh, we were shocked by how easy the night was yet how monuments the occasion was. It was only months after the exploration when re-editing some photos did, I notice a weird figure in frame, in frame for a few photos.
