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The area around London’s Olympic Park is a regeneration hothouse with micro-breweries, tech startups, speakeasys and spas. Now their spiritual needs are being met – with a beautiful chapel on a barge
A narrowboat moored to the towpath is offering passersby a “Shamanic ritual spa experience”. Its roof is decorated with an assortment of gongs, which are bonged occasionally by a man in a homemade cape. Across the water bobs a floating speakeasy cocktail bar that advertises a craft-beer-and-cheese-pairing cruise. Further along, diners are enjoying Szechuan aubergine with cashew cream in a Dutch barge that’s been converted into a restaurant. Beside it, a canoe hire company is running team-building paddleboarding expeditions.
As any Hackney Wick local will tell you, this corner of east London has changed drastically since the Olympic Games landed here in 2012. And this shift hasn’t just affected the kind of boats moored along the towpath. The once gritty edgeland of car-breaking yards, slaughterhouses and mountains of knackered fridges has long been swept away, replaced with all the trappings of hipster-infused regeneration. Tech startups now rub shoulders with microbreweries, while fresh rows of new-build warehouse-style apartments are accompanied by novel floating lifestyle concepts. But the latest arrival to the Lee Navigation moorings takes a more unexpected form. Continue reading...