A ‘green corridor’ connecting the Olympic Park to the Thames along the banks of the River Lea in east London is finally getting the funding to complete a missing link.

East London Advertiser: Artist impression of how Lee Valley green corridor will lookArtist impression of how Lee Valley green corridor will look (Image: Olympic Legacy Corp)

A network of paths and cycle routes will eventually stretch three miles from the park to Bow Creek.

Ramblers and cyclists heading towards the Thames from Stratford along the riverbank come up against a spiky metal fence when they reach the disused Bromley-by-Bow Gasworks Dock.

Now a £240,000 project has been unveiled by the London Legacy Development Corporation, agreed with Tower Hamlets and Newham councils, to open up the riverfront from the disused dock down to London’s only lighthouse at Blackwall.

The project fills the last gap in the 26-mile Lea Valley regional park for a continuous landscaped riverside route by the spring of 2015, stitching together new and existing parks with local communities and business to unlock access to the waterways.

It is part of London Mayor Boris Johnson’s £2 million kitty announced today for six projects across London.

The cash is a boost for campaigner Simon Myers, 39, who has been struggling for four years to raise funds to restore the dilapidated gasworks dock into a culture and leisure centre.

He has been hampered by the Lee Valley corridor having to stop abruptly by the metal railing on his doorstep.

The project includes planting and landscaping along route between Three Mills and Canning Town and creating ‘gateway’ paths between Poplar’s Aberfeldy Estate and the future Poplar Reach park and riverside walk.

The idea is to be the catalyse for further development and to unlock future funding. Regeneration cash for the 2012 Olympics ran out last year with just one gap—the Gasworks Dock.