For 60km route of 2012 Olympic and Paralympic venues with parks and waterways, see Jubilee Greenway. For Greenway landscape feature, see Greenway (landscape).
The western half of the Greenway embankment is roughly at house eaves height giving a view over the surrounding flat area (see gallery pictures). Between Stratford High Street and Beckton the route is flat. There is a renewed tarmac surface along its full length, with grass kept short on either side and bushes/trees on the embankment sides. The tarmac area is the width of a narrow two way road allowing easy passing of pedestrians and cyclists, with approx the same width of grass on either side.[12]
Work has taken place to resurface and renovate the route—especially around the Olympic Park.[17][18]
A community group was set up in 2016 for Greenway users,[19][20] and Newham Council began piloting better lighting,[21] with a view to opening the Greenway 24 hours a day.[1] Greenway Users have subsequently set up a Greenway Action Group to improve the recording of incidents by logging crimes on the pathway.[22]
The renovation of the Greenway was finished in July 2019, after the completion of major water supply works by Thames Water along the western half and the opening of the bridges over the Waterworks River and the City Mill River.[23]
In 2022, the Greenway was the site of one of 19 projects selected by the Mayor of London's Rewild London Fund to help 'rewild the city and recover nature'.[24][25][26][27]
The View Tube,[28] made from recycled shipping containers, is a viewing platform on the Greenway incorporating the Container Café.[29]
The older alternative name for the route is Sewerbank, with the name Greenway introduced after a renovation in the mid-1990s.[1]
In 1931 Mahatma Gandhi visited London for a period of 3 months for talks on the future of India, he based himself at Kingsley HallinBromley-by-Bow. His host there, the Christian SocialistMuriel Lester described his long early morning walks, beginning before sunrise, and which often took in the Sewerbank through StratfordtoPlaistow. Gandhi enjoyed the elevated view the bank offered, and on these walks he would always gather a collection of well-wishers eager to speak to him.[30]
^Gandhi's host at Kinsley Hall, Muriel Lester, described these walks in her account of his 3 month stay with her Lester, Muriel (1932). "Entertaining Gandhi - Muriel Lester - Google Books". Retrieved 28 May 2020.
