London Stadium

The stadium is best known for its role as the principal stadium during the 2012 Summer Olympics and it was the main athletics venue and the site of the opening and closing ceremonies.

It was built on former industrial land in Stratford as part of the larger Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park development, which includes parkland, other former Olympic Games venues including an aquatic centre, a velodrome, the London Olympics Media Centre and the Olympic Village as well as the ArcelorMittal Orbit observation tower. This park has spearheaded Stratford’s regeneration and it is surrounded by high-density residential developments.

The stadium can hold up to 80,000 spectators, although the terms of its lease with West Ham mean that capacity for football matches is limited to 60,000.

What to see on the London Stadium tour

While most people visit the stadium to watch a sporting event or concert, guided stadium tours let you see behind the scenes and allow you to discover parts of the stadium that you wouldn’t get to see as a regular visitor.

Guided tours run for 60–75 minutes and let you visit the home changing room, the hospitality restaurant, the indoor running track, the players’ tunnel and the managers’ dugout.

Visiting London Stadium

The stadium is located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park complex in Stratford in East London. It is within walking distance from the centre of Stratford and it is very close to the ArcelorMittal Orbit observation tower.

It is an eight-minute walk to Pudding Mill Lane DLR station, although Stratford station is an 18-minute walk away.

Pudding Mill station is on the Stratford to Poplar branch of the DLR, just one station below Stratford. It is an 11-minute ride from Canary Wharf with trains running every six minutes, Stratford is a two-minute ride in the other direction.

Although Stratford station is farther from the stadium, it is a lovely walk through the park with the last portion of the walk through the Westfield Stratford City shopping centre. Stratford also has much better transport connections with tube services on the Central and Jubilee lines as well as Overground, DLR and TFL rail services. Between the different tube and train lines, there is a train into Central London at least once every minute with a journey time of only 10 minutes to Liverpool Street in The City.

Certain aspects of the stadium tours may be restricted on days when there is a scheduled event at the stadium, although the extra atmosphere of a match day may make up for this.

Tours operate in English only; however, there is also an audio guide available in English, French, German, Italian or Spanish.

Tours are free of charge if you have a valid London Pass.

You should allow at least 2½ hours for your visit; up to 75 minutes for the tour plus travel time to and from the stadium.