At weekends from Saturday 25 June to Sunday 24 July there will be a café under the bridge just before the start of the long Olympic park fence.

This temporary facility is part of the Folly for a Flyover project occupying the space under the Eastway flyover and alongside the towpath.

The café’s daily changing menu will include smoked salmon from Forman’s on nearby Fish Island, bagels and ice cream.

There will also be boat trips from the towpath.

The café is open 2-6pm.

See page 113.

Great Amwell Church has confirmed that its doors are open every Sunday afternoon 3-5pm until the end of September.

Tea and biscuits are available.

See page 71.

The Lea Valley Walk really now ends at Hackney Wick due to the closures caused by the Olympic preparations.

There is even a diversion to the diversion at Hackney Wick which is enough to make you go for the train.

However, it’s worth pushing on south a little bit further.

The current route south from Red Post Lane bridge, where the path is blocked off, is:

From the towpath go up on to the bridge and cross the water. Keep ahead and take the second turning on the left. (Or go right for the station.)

Go right and left to follow Wansbeck Road. After a junction keep on to a bend and go right up steps. At the top turn sharp left on to the Greenway which gives the best view of the Olympic Park.

At the far end is the View Tube cafe. And nearby is Pudding Mill Station on the Docklands Light Railway.

See page 114.

Opposition to flats being built on Essex Wharf at Lea Bridge is continuing to gather strength.

Essex Wharf is opposite Middlesex Wharf where the Lea Valley Walk leaves Walthamstow Marsh to the cross the river and pass the bottom of North Mill Fields.

Four blocks across the water from the Fields would spoil the rural feel of the area.

The Lee Valley Park Authority is opposing the planning decision.

The latest is here.

Ses pages 108 and 109.

The amount of weed in the Lea in Hackney as you approach the main Olympic site has caused comment long before the Olympic Games were known to be coming to the Lea Valley.

Now a study by Thames21 and University College London suggests that this is caused by a very high level of phosphates. A clean up is suggested.

Further south there is good news about the revived reed bed at Cody Dock.

See pages112 to 115.

Olympic refurbishment is now being felt as far north at Waltham Cross where £2.6m is being spent on improving the railway station.

This is of course because of its proximity to the Olympic white water centre but it will be a lasting legacy for those on the Lea Valley Walk wanting to break off at Waltham Abbey. Work should be completed by the end of this year.

See pages 89-90

Stanstead Abbotts old church is now open on summer Sundays from 2.30pm to 5pm.

It is best approached up the toll road from Rye House.

See pages 74-75 & 80.

Myddelton House garden, a diversion off the Lea Valley Walk, is now open with no admission charge.

The grounds of the Lee Valley Park Authority have been restored following a two year Heritage Lottery Funded project. There a new visitor centre and tea room.

On election day last week the Duchess of Cornwall made a little reported visit to the garden which is famous for being looked after by a member of her family Edward Augustus Bowles.

He lived in Myddelton House from 1865 to 1954 and introduced the unusual and exotic plants. The 108 year old Wisteria flowers this month.

The gardens are open daily from 9.30am to 6pm; free.

See pages 97-98.

The death of Michael Peet, Rector of Bow, has highlighted the 700th anniversary of the church on the edge of the Lea Valley.

The church, in the middle of the road just before the Bow Flyover, was attended by George Lansbury whose funeral was held there in 1940. He will be remembered with the unveiling of plaque in the church on Saturday 7 May, just two days after the rector’s funeral.

The Bow Church 1311-2011 anniversary year the church will be open on the first Saturday of the month until November.

The 700th anniversary is being kept on Thursday 17 November.

The night before there will be a peal of bells. This is important for it is sometimes claimed that those born between the sound of Bow Church bells and St Mary-le-Bow bells in the City are cockneys. Of course those Bow Church bells could be easily heard across the River Lea before the days of heavy traffic.

Michael Peet was born at Brocket Hall in the Upper Lea Valley.

See pages 45 and 177-118.

The Lower Lea will change with Olympic improvements to the landscape but The Guardian has a disturbing report about a threat to water traffic and river residents.