View of Olympic Stadium from Counter Cafe

This week's “Hackney Wick and the Olympics” post put the spotlight on an area of East London that's in an interesting state of transition and well worth paying a visit the next time you’ve got a flight to London. But where to go and what to do when you get there? Here's a list of some Hackney Wick highlights to keep in mind.

Towpaths
Hackney Wick hosts a few cyclist and pedestrian accessible towpaths offering great vistas of the new Olympic Park juxtaposed against the more traditionally English post industrial factories and warehouses (many now acting as artist studios and galleries. The River Lee Navigation, the Hertford Union Canal and the Regent's Canal are safe and worthy of camera ready exploration. Waterfowl, hipsters, some of London's most infamous and iconic graffiti and traffic free routes to the Thames, Islington, Camden Market, Paddington and even all the way to Hertfordshire if you're up to the challenge.

Foreman's
Stour Road, E3 2NT
H. Forman & Son is a fourth generation family owned salmon smoker, established in the East End in 1905. Supplying smoked and fresh fish to top hotels, restaurants, chefs and retailers including Gordon Ramsay, Marco Pierre White, Fortnum & Mason, The Dorchester and The House of Lords to name but a few, they also happen to have the “closest venue to the London 2012 Olympic Stadium” on their premises and are making the most of their “unrivalled 2012 Olympic views.”

Foreman's Fish Island is a new corporate event and party venue with two spaces with capacity for up to 600. Formans London Since 1905 is the family's on-site restaurant also featuring views across the River Lea to the Olympic Stadium along with modern British cuisine and special Forman’s salmon tasting menu.

Counter Cafe
7 Roach Road, E3 2PA
With a front row view of the Olympic Stadium’s backside, this large-windowed, post-industrial canal-side cafe has high hangout potential. Within warehouse cum exhibition, performance and studio space, Stour Place, odds are there’ll be some interesting art to ogle when you’re there. And situated right next to Forman’s Smokehouse, ordering some salmon off the chalkboard ain’t a bad idea (and comes minus the “corporate” or upscale atmo at Foreman's).

Hackney Pearl
11 Prince Edward Road
, E9 5LX
With a self stated goal to be “the best local bar in London, serving great drinks, food and coffee to the locals of Hackney Wick” the Hackney Pearl has set quite a high bar for itself. Whether or not they (or any establishment) could ever lay legitimate claim to being “the best” one thing's for such, the folks at the Pearl are doing an impressive job trying. A seasonal menu, great drinks and arguably the best coffee in the Wick, this is the place to meet up to play catch up with friends or to slide into discretely for some quality downtime with the paper or a good novel.

Mother Studios
Queens Yard, White Post Lane, E9 5EN
When in the Wick you should definitely check out some art. There are lots of galleries and studios here. In fact, Hackney Wick is home of the world's highest concentration of artists in the entire world. And the contending mother of them all is Mother Studios, an independent, non-profit, artist-run organization with 15,000 square feet of warehouse space for a few dozen studios and another 1,200 square feet “Mother Project and Exhibition” space available to all Mother artists.

Photo: Chris Osburn