Escorts in Bow, E3: who is close, and how soon
On a June evening the light over Victoria Park lasts until well past nine, and that is the hour to see what Bow is made of. E3 is better known for its flyover than for its grass, yet it is ringed by green and water: the park across the Hertford Union to the north, the Regent's Canal and Mile End Park to the west, an old cemetery gone to woodland in the south, and the River Lea along the eastern edge.
E3 is not a home zone for anyone on the board, so Bow escorts always make the trip east from the middle of town and the west. The green ground is what makes the trip worth it, and each piece of it suits a different season and a different hour.
On the ground
Bow in practice
Landmarks on the arrival slip
By postcode, never by nameE20 1FD, E20 1GL, E14 8RS.
Nearest stations
Walking timeBow Road, 3 minutes. Bow Church, 4 minutes. Devons Road, 12 minutes. Mile End, 13 minutes.
Getting there
E3Travel is included across Zones 1 and 2, and counted from the moment the hour is set rather than from when she leaves.
On the board
Nearest prints to Bow
Who works here
On the board in Bow
The six prints above are a first shortlist for Bow tonight. Any of the twenty eight on the who is free page can be asked for by name instead.
Note 02
Victoria Park, over the Hertford Union
The canal runs along the park's southern edge, and the streets of Old Ford come right up to it. The park opened in the 1840s as the East End's answer to the royal parks, and it was soon called the People's Park. Grove Road cuts through the middle, and the western half holds the lake with the Chinese pagoda on its island. The gates shut at dusk, so in winter the park belongs to the afternoon; in July it can open the evening.
Note 03
Mile End Park and the Regent's Canal
West of Bow, Mile End Park is laid out along the Regent's Canal on ground cleared after the wartime bombing, a long, narrow strip rather than a square. Where it meets Mile End Road it simply carries on over the traffic on the Green Bridge, planted with grass and trees, so the walk never has to stop at a kerb. South, the towpath ends at Limehouse Basin, where the canal meets the Thames, and Limehouse itself.
Note 04
The cemetery that became a wood
South of Bow Road, Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park was one of the seven great Victorian burial grounds, opened in 1841 and closed to burials in the 1960s. It has grown into woodland since and is a local nature reserve now, with paths winding between leaning stones, ivy and birdsong. An autumn afternoon there before a table in the evening is about as far from a West End night as London gets.
Note 05
The Lea, Three Mills and the Olympic side
Bow takes its name from a bridge, the bow-shaped stone crossing thrown over the Lea in the twelfth century, and the river still marks the district's eastern edge. Downstream at Bromley-by-Bow, Three Mills Island keeps the House Mill, a tidal mill of 1776, and the paths by the water lead north towards the Olympic Park and Stratford.
Escorts in Bow come by road, so give it roughly an hour from the moment the office says yes, longer while the early evening traffic out of town is heavy, and find every length on the rates.
From The Roundup
Two notes worth reading for Bow
Asked most often
Bow, asked and answered
Is Victoria Park on the Bow side or the Hackney side?
Where does the towpath lead from Bow?
What is Three Mills?
Can the old cemetery be walked through?
One zone either way
Next along from Bow
Last strip
Say a name and an hour
Write in with a length, a time and the zone you are staying in, and a name from the board comes back with a window attached. That is the whole of the arrangement.