From almost any front door in Stratford, grass is a couple of minutes' walk away. Dozens of green spaces are within a kilometre. Water is a few minutes further on. The shops run into the hundreds and the pubs barely reach twenty. Stratford is greener than the towers suggest and spends its evenings shopping more than drinking.
The nearest public green space is about 115 metres from the average home, and around 46 green spaces are within a kilometre. Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is the biggest. It was built for the 2012 Games, and Stratford kept it afterwards. West Ham Park serves the southern side, near West Ham, and Wanstead Flats, Hackney Marsh and Leyton Marshes are all among the neighbouring open spaces.
Water is close as well. The nearest river, canal or other water is about 360 metres from the average home, with around 54 stretches of water within a kilometre. The River Lea and its old branches, the Channelsea among them, run through the western side towards Mill Meads and Three Mills. Those channels are why Stratford was a crossing point before it became anything else.
The National Cycle Network is further away, about 1,850 metres from the average postcode, and only about 1% of postcodes are close to a route. Cyclists are more likely to use the riverside paths and the park than the national network.
Stratford's 581 shops, 19 pubs and 27 restaurants show what its high street is for. Shopping dominates, and nights out are a small part of the mix. Two shopping centres face each other across the station. Westfield Stratford City opened in 2011, and the older Stratford Centre stands on the island formed by the 1960s one-way system.
Across Newham, fine-particle air pollution averaged about 10 micrograms per cubic metre in 2024.
Stratford has two characters. One is the old town of St John's Church, the Gurney obelisk and the Town Hall balcony West Ham United used for their trophy celebrations. The other is the newer town of the Olympic Park, the London Aquatics Centre, the Copper Box and the university campuses that arrived in 2023. Maryland, to the east, and West Ham, to the south, are more residential and further from the crowds.
Private gardens are smaller. Stratford has about 15,100 square metres of private garden per 1,000 residents, a modest figure for a place where most homes are flats. If outdoor space matters, ask whether a flat comes with a balcony, a share of a courtyard or nothing at all, because the public parks are doing much of the work private gardens do elsewhere.
The council tax and business rates list counts about 1,700 rateable premises in Stratford. The two biggest groups are 573 shops and 553 offices. These figures count premises on the valuation list, which can include units that are empty or between tenants.
The Food Standards Agency has rated 391 food premises in Stratford. About 48% have the top score of five and about 12% are at the low end of the scale. The difference is wide enough that it pays to check a takeaway's hygiene rating before ordering.
No protected landscape overlaps Stratford. There is no area of outstanding natural beauty, no site of special scientific interest and no ancient woodland. The green space here is mostly parkland that was built or kept on purpose, and almost none of it is old countryside.
The surroundings are one of Stratford's real strengths, with a park, the river and dozens of green spaces within a short walk of almost every home.