Right, one Masters degree later I’m going to pick up this East London thread and tie it in some beautiful new knots. I’ve been living in Stratford for 18 months or so now, and I feel I should dispell a bit of the bad rep that it has. Yes, it has it’s skanky bits. Yes, it feels like you’re in Essex. Yes, it has no bookshop. But it’s not all bad.

Transport

Firstly, it’s not in darkest Peru as many have been led to believe, it’s actually in zone 3 and – get this – 20 mins on the Central line from Tottenham Court Road. It’s also 20 mins from London Bridge on the Jubilee, 15 mins from Camden and Islington on the Overground. There’s also the DLR, so you can get down to Greenwich and Canary Wharf and West India Quay in a few minutes too (more about these delightful places later…)

Culture

When we first moved here we read a leaflet describing the Theatre Square as Stratford’s ‘cultural quarter’ – how we laughed! But again, there are a couple of high points. The Theatre Royal has some interesting shows, and has helped launch a few comedy careers including Jocelyn Jee Esien. There’s also Stratford Circus, which has had a few intriguing acts on, including poet John Hegley, comedian Rich Hall, as well as Constance Briscoe talking about one of her books. Above Pizza Express is the Stratford Picturehouse Cinema, which, unlike other arty Picturehouse Cinemas, offers a steady diet of mainstream films and very little else. Our theory is that the cinema management were forced to bow to the taste of the people in Stratford to make ends meet. Stratford Library is pretty cool. To start with, it’s a library, not an ‘Idea Store’ which is amazing given the amount of regeneration going on all around it (seriously, you can’t walk for a 100 metres without encountering some public art round here) and there is a huge kids section which is – drum roll please – separated from the main library. Hurrah! See, it is possible to encourage a love of reading in younglings without ruining it for everyone else. Also the library is connected to a pleasant independent cafe called Cafe Mondo which does tasty coffee and pasta and has hilariously rude Polish staff. It’s not that they don’t care, they actually seem to hate you.

Shopping

I’m running out of steam now. There is a great big shopping centre full of sportswear and nasty clothes clearly made by a Chinese orphan for 2p a day. Um. There is an impressive Poundstretcher. There’s a Wilkinson’s. Lots of estate agents. Uh…