Wanstead Flats parkrun

This week it was time to tick one more venue off my LonDone list, so I visited Wanstead Flats parkrun for the first time.

With this last venue I have visited 56 out of 63 London parkrun venues. 7 more to go and if i want to re-visit the venues I went to before starting this site, I need to add 13 more. Plenty to keep me entertained for a long time, also considering that I tend to throw a good number of out of town explorations into the mix to keep things interesting.

Wanstead Flats parkrun also kept me consistent with my ideal ‘good-weather’ parkrun pattern: alternating London and countryside venues. This parkrunday came after visits to Tilgate parkrun and Lloyd parkrun. Perfectly on track for now.

Why did I pick Wanstead Flats for this week? There were two ‘very far’ venues left, Wanstead and Valentines. I am expecting to be able to sleep in on Sunday this week, so this was a good option for crossing town. And it has not been raining for a while, so all votes go for the grassy venue with scary mud stories. Utilitarian parkrun tourism at its best. 🙂

I had mixed feelings about this venue before going and not only because of how far it is from my base near Wimbledon Common parkrun. On one side, Epping Forest is great and the idea of running a parkrun on its fringes was very appealing. On the other side, I dread running on grass around large, non-descript open fields and I somehow had the impression this was what I was going to find here. Finally, the two massive apartment blocks that are seen in most pictures just look weird. Well, I was wrong on most points, but more on that later.

Anyway, enough with my rumblings. It’s time to dive into some more info about Wanstead Flats parkrun!

Trip to Wanstead Flats parkrun and parking

The event takes in both portion of this corner of Epping Forest, Wanstead Flats and Bush Wood. The start is at the playing fields, towards the Harrow Road boundary and next to the pavilion. If you are walking from any other part of this large green expanse, just head towards the two big apartment blocks. They are visible from nearly anywhere and the meeting point is very close to them.

Assuming you are trying to come using public transport, the event is not far from a number of stations. The official event page mentions Leytonstone High Road station (overground) and Leytonstone tube station (central line) as the two most convenient hubs to reach this event. They are respectively 10 and 15 minutes away from the meeting point. Very much doable and, frankly, a pleasant on a sunny day like today. From where I live, Citymapper suggests the trip by public transport would have taken me approximately 90 minutes. Driving time was indicated as 1h, so lazy me decided to go for the latter option.

As usual, the drive there was ok, while coming back to base late morning was an absolute pain. But this is nothing unusual for London. What was a bit unusual was the parking situation at or around the venue. So, where to park if you drive there?

If you look at pictures from the event, you can spot a car park just by the meeting point. The event page does not mention it, but it is indicated on maps and even on Waze as the Harrow Road Football Fields car park. So I decided to try my luck and head there first. First disappointment of the day: when I got there, its entrance was closed and it remained close also after the event. Fairly surprising, since it is kitted out with RingGo payment location information.

As a second option, I headed to the Jubilee Pond car park, which is one of the two recommended by the event page. Second disappointment of the morning: when I reached it around 8:40, it was still closed as well. I wonder if the nice people at the Corporation of London who manage it were just late or it is a common thing. It was open after the event and I used it to work a bit around the nice lake in the area.

Since I was panicking, I tried to head towards the third parking option recommended by the event page, but saw an off street, payable parking just before reaching it. So I ended up parking in Capel Road. Keep it in mind as an option, if needed. Available up to 4 hours, payment via RingGo. Not cheap.

From here, it was a 12-13 minutes walk to the meeting point.

Wanstead Flats parkrun: start and briefings

Since you might be approaching the meeting point from several different directions, in most cases crossing large green areas, as said above the two big apartment blocks are a very useful reference point. Head towards them and you cannot miss Wanstead Flats parkrun meeting point.

I approached the area walking along Harrow Road. At the right point, there is an opening leading into the now apparently unused Football Fields car park. Get in the car park and you will immediately see the pavilion (ugly but functional) and the two weird buildings (just ugly). Turn the corner and there you are: the hub for your weekly dose of parkrunniness.

This is one of those events where most people seem to show up with seconds to spare, so up to 8:55 it looked like we would have a double digit field. We didn’t. Volunteers congregate in the shade of the pavilion, which also offers decent toilet facilities. The funnel is just in front as the start will be.

The First Timers briefing was called in time and tourists and new joiners flocked to the side of the pavilion, where a very welcoming volunteer explained the route. They seem to be more concerned than usual about getting their tokens back here, so be nice and don’t take them as souvenirs. Really, don’t. Not cool.

Soon after, everyone bunch up loosely in front of the Pavilion, where the Main Briefing is delivered. It might look like it, but you are already standing on the start line. When the briefing is done, everyone just turns around 360 degrees and that’s where you will be starting. Get your watches and any other devices ready, because the herd will start moving pretty suddenly. And you want to be in a comfortable position near people running at your pace here.

Time to go!

Wanstead Flats parkrun course review – star ratings

Wanstead Flats parkrun course review – route highlights

There were 292 parkrunners on the day I visited. Not a huge number for London standards, but pretty substantial in absolute terms. Most people arrived just before the start, so I would assume Wanstead Flats parkrun developed a good local turnout organically over the years. Attendance seems to be pretty consistent in a 250-300 range, with some additional volatility towards or sometimes below the 200 mark during winter months.

This course does not have any specific bottlenecks. No tight switchbacks, gates, bridges or other features that force you to stop and walk if you reach it in a group. That said, long stretches are on fairly tight paths that won’t really accomodate more than 2 runners side by side. This makes overtaking rather cumbersome for most of the route, other than the bits run on grass to the South and West of the open playing fields. The tight paths are not physically restricted by hard boundaries or moats with crocodiles, so in theory you can overtake on their edges. But the terrain makes it less obvious here than in many other courses.

Surface-wise, we are looking at a mix of grass and hard path. To be honest, I expected more grass and I was pleasantly surprised. You have to run on grass at the start, but this is limited to the South and West sides of the playing fields. Most of the Eastern side of the playing fields is run on a path running to the side of the grass meadows and it enters them only at the end. Both the grass sections and the hard path sections were dry and easy to run on when I visited at the end of June, but I am sure it is a very different experience after a week of rain. Road shoes were absolutely fine after a dry week.

Elevation-wise, at 24m elevation gain over 2 laps, Wanstead Flats parkrun is true to its name. It is flat. The elevation plot chart below is clearly misleading due to scale. I did not feel any noticeable hill while running, even though it does seem that most of the first half of the lap is on a mild positive gradient. I did notice a noticeable but rather short downhill at the end of the Bush Wood loop. It was pleasant. I guess that confirms I was running a mild climb before somehow, otherwise there would be no elevation to run downhill from. Unless there is some kind of intra-dimensional portal somewhere in Bush Wood to gift us the only multi-lap parkrun with downhill sections only. It would be cool, but it would make Wanstead Flats parkrun busier than Bushy, and I doesn’t seem to be.

In terms of course design, it is very simple. Two laps made up by to distinct sections. 2/3 of the laps are around the perimeter of the playing fields and the rest is a short out and back with bubble loop around Bush Wood at the end. It is pretty easy to follow, with plenty of arrows you can follow. No marshals to be seen around the course.

A quick Relive route plot is on my YouTube Channel, with longer video highlights embedded below.

A lot of events have their Main Briefing on the start line, but this one comes with a quirk. You listen to the briefing facing the pavilion, so you clearly are not ready to start unless the plan is demolishing the thing by herd impact. Then everyone turns 360 degrees and it is suddenly time to go. A bit abrupt, but pretty cool. Be ready with your watch, you are not going to get much of a warning!

It’s a mass, wide start. Not much grass at the very beginning, probably because of the amount of people walking/running over it consistently. The first straight is not long and it is only used to connect to the main loop. Soon it is time to turn left, facing towards the two big apartment blocks. Now the grass section starts. First, it is on a path on short(ish) grass surrounded by higher, uncut grass that act as a natural barrier and block against wild overtaking. After another short section, it is time to turn right and run alongside the two big blocks now.

Now the path opens up and for the first time I have to praise the two monstrosities. They are ugly, not much to argue about that. But they are a pretty nice and consistent focal point for this venue. In a way, there is some beauty in unfiltered, fully owned bad looks, I guess. As you run past the things, you will be surprised by how short this segment on grass is. It is probably just slightly longer than the previous segment and you will quickly approach a slight left turn that transitions everyone into the woods.

The clearing into the woods is narrow. Not bottleneck-narrow, but narrow enough that you will have to slow down if you approach it in a large group with slower runners in front of you. Overtake before getting there, if you can. Once in, the path opens up after a few metres and it starts morphing towards its stable state. You will run for a while now in consistent settings: two parallel hard paths with grass in between and to the sides. The grass is rather high, so not great to run on but ok(ish) to quickly overtake. There are mature trees on both sides. Areas of shade alternate with more open clearings exposed to the sun.

Towards the end of this segment, the path widens and there will be a short section of two-way flow, with the fastest runners already coming back on the other side. However, runners don’t share a path. You still keep your two ‘lanes’ on your side and the speed demons come back on the other side of the larger central grass patch. It is cool, but it does not last for long.

After a pretty long straight, and after a short section of 2-way runners, it is time for a slight left turn. This is the start of the Bush Wood loop. The path becomes narrower, 2-abreast at most. The first half of this loop is the only segment where, just maybe, I think I could have felt a bit of an upward incline. Mature trees on both sides, it is actually quite nice. Towards the mid point of this short loop, a noticeable downhill starts, also running through a beautiful wood clearing with some nice visuals this time of the year. Then it’s our turn to be ‘the fast guys’ on the 2-way flow segment, before taking a slight left and continuing parallel to way up, but slightly separated by a few trees.

When you see a light in front and a slight left turn, you are back to the playing fields. I thought a long section on grass would start here, but it is not the case. You will run on a rather narrow path to the side of the fields, with patches of vegetation in between. A few nice landmarks can be seen when the vegetation breaks. The two ugly-cool blocks by the start, the Arcelor-Mittal Olympic Thingy and, further behind to the left, Canary Wharf and the distinctive One Canada Square skyscraper.

This side path leads you nearly to the Southern border of the field. Shortly before it, a turn right gets you onto the fields proper. About 50m more to go South, then sharp right and you have to run along the Southern side of the fields for 2/300m. When you reach the start area, you keep going straight on to start the second lap. At the end of the second lap, turn sharp right and run the 100m of the short connecting segment for your sprint finish towards the finish funnel. It is, apparently, a mild downhill, helping with that glorious approach to the funnel.

It is a short funnel, with very efficient scanning positions and some hard earned refreshments offered by the team.

Congratulations on completing Wanstead Flats parkrun!

Facilities at Wanstead Flats parkrun

As an area of common land focused on natural preservation and public use, facilities are pretty limited at Wanstead Flats parkrun.

The pavilion offers toilets and a shaded area, but there is no cafe on site. The volunteers bring drinks and coffee/tea, which is a very nice and welcoming touch. However, I always feel a bit self conscious using drinks offered by local teams as an occasional tourist, so I always try to restrain myself.

As a competitor to the McDonald’s index, I am continuing to collect data for the parkbreakfast index: how much is breakfast at each location?

At Wanstead Flats parkrun, there are no onsite cafes, so no datapoint for the parkbreakfast index.

Wanstead Flats parkrun: Video Highlights

As usual, I’ve taken a few video snippets during the run to give an idea of the course. If you like it, please subscribe, it’s a fun past time for me 🙂

The other parkrun videos on my YouTube channel are all linked on the course review and video highlights summary page.

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Achievements and performance

Conclusions

I don’t see Wanstead Flats parkrun being mentioned often when people talk about notable London parkrun events. This is pretty in line with my feeling when there: it has developed as a well attended event serving the local community, with a few tourists, but not swarms of them. Pretty much what you would expect a good parkrun event to be. There are no incredible sights to look at, nor unique features along the route, but I definitely enjoyed my run. And my visit here was made even more enjoyable by a very welcoming team.

Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. And there is plenty to explore around the Flats or, if you want to make a day out of it, further North into the main areas of Epping Forest.

Finally, obviously, thank you, Wanstead Flats parkrun team for your hospitality!