, historically ''Stratford Langthorne'', is a place in the
London Borough Of Newham in
East London .
In 1847 much of what is now Stratford was open countryside. Modern Stratford was built as a 'new town' initially called "Hudson' Town" after
George Hudson the railway entrepreneur and it was the location of the
Eastern Counties Railway 's railway works. Their first locomotives, built from
1850 , were passenger
Tank Locomotive s, designed by J.V.Gooch, brother of the
GWR 's
Daniel Gooch . There was also the first recorded attempt at a
Compound Locomotive using a modified two-cylinder goods engine. The works continued to make a few new engines, eleven in
1920 for instance, but its main occupation was repairs and major overhauls. Throughout its life it was also a carriage works. It closed in 1963. From 1889 to 1965 Stratford formed part of the
County Borough Of West Ham , part of Essex until 1965.
Stratford is a major shopping centre and contains Newham's cultural quarter centred around the
Theatre Royal Stratford East and Stratford Circus.
Stratford Station and adjacent bus station is a major transport hub.
From
2007 Stratford will be the location of
Stratford International Station on the
Channel Tunnel Rail Link and in 2012 the location of the main
Olympic Park , which will contain a significant number of venues to be used in the
2012 Summer Olympics , including the
Olympic Stadium ,
Aquatics Centre , and
London Velopark . Stratford has been a focus of regeneration for some years and
As Of 2006 the seventy three hectare brownfield railway lands to the north of the town centre and station are to be redeveloped in a multi-billion pound scheme called
Stratford City which will form a new purpose-built community of 5,000 homes, offices, retail spaces, schools, public spaces, municipal and other facilities. It is hoped that this will become a major metropolitan centre for East London. Part of Stratford City will serve as the
Olympic Village .
Stratford is in the London Borough of Newham, which has the fifth highest crime rate of any borough in London and, according to government indices, Newham is also the eleventh most "deprived" district in Britain.
However, Stratford (and neighbouring Leyton) does have an excellent selection of very cheap takeaways ranging from Caribbean to Indian, Cantonese, Greek, and Thai. Food and drink are, in comparison to their other London counterparts, remarkably cheap in Stratford.
