Our guide to London Stadium in London, England, includes information on events, tickets, parking, public transportation, hotels and restaurants, seating, MLB baseball and more. Read on to find out how to get the most out of your gameday experience.

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In a city full of unique, historic and interesting sporting venues, London Stadium still manages to stand out among the crowd.

Built to serve as the centerpiece of the 2012 Summer Olympics, the stadium now serves primarily as the home of Premier League football club West Ham United. But it also hosts soccer friendlies, athletics, rugby and cricket events, and big-time concerts.

Most notably for American sports fans, the stadium is used whenever Major League Baseball stages baseball games in London as part of its MLB World Tour, which it has done twice before and is scheduled to do again in 2024 and 2026.

Its ability to stage such a wide variety of events is just part of the reason why London Stadium is an interesting place architecturally, as it was chosen by MLB because it’s one of the few outdoor venues in England with a large enough event surface to hold a baseball diamond.

London Stadium also attracts visitors to an area of the city not often considered by tourists, one that is emerging thanks in large part due to the venue and other nearby hotel, recreational and entertainment options.

Buy tickets for London Stadium events on LiveFootballTickets.com.

Getting to the stadium

London Stadium is located several miles east of the central city in the Stratford district. The venue, as well as much of the Olympic Park next to it, is reclaimed industrial land that was built for the 2012 Games and beyond. As such, London Stadium is now surrounded by modern residential high-rises, hotels and retail and entertainment centers (more on that below).

For locals and tourists alike, London’s robust transportation network is the best option to get to Stratford and to London Stadium. The Stratford train station, located a half-mile east of the stadium, is a stop on the London Underground (aka the Tube), Overground and Docklands Light Railway networks, with the Central and Jubilee lines of the Tube stopping there.

The Docklands Light Railway (DLR), a surface train network that operates around East London, also has a stop at Pudding Mill Lane, just south of the stadium.

If you’re staying in a hotel in central London, using the Underground exclusively for a trip to London Stadium is likely your best bet, while those whose starting points are in East London or the Docklands area will find the DLR to be most convenient.

Don’t be confused by the presence of a West Ham station on the Underground and DLR network. That stop is located more than a mile to the southeast and not convenient to reaching London Stadium.

Parking at London Stadium

Though driving a car isn’t advisable to anyone just visiting London, the stadium has more convenient parking options than most comparable venues in the area.

That comes thanks to the adjacent Westfield Stratford City shopping center, which has several large car parks that can accommodate sports fans and casual shoppers alike on a London Stadium event day.

Drivers using these parking options are charged at an hourly rate, with a maximum daily rate of £16.

London hotels near London Stadium

• Snoozebox Olympic Park – 0.4 miles away
• Holiday Inn Express London Stratford – 0.5 miles away
• Hyatt Regency London Stratford – 0.5 miles away
Search for more London hotels on Booking.com.

Map of the surrounding area

Things to do around the stadium

For most fans coming to London Stadium, the primary pre-event attraction will be the sizable Westfield Stratford City shopping center. It’s very difficult to miss — especially for those arriving via the Stratford station, since you’ll have to walk through the mall to reach the stadium.

Anyone familiar with the multinational Westfield brand of shopping centers will find this particular location to be no different. An outdoor/indoor facility, it has several levels of shops, including food courts on multiple stories, as well as outdoor eateries and food carts.

Those whose trips to London revolve around an event at the stadium can also consider one of two hotels within the Westfield complex, including the Hyatt Regency London Stratford.

If you’re craving a pub-like atmosphere, or at least an eatery that caters to fans heading to the stadium, you’ll find more of those options the closer you get to the venue.

To get to London Stadium from Westfield, you’ll have to walk across a street, then along a fairly long pedestrian bridge into the Olympic Park toward the stadium’s front entrance. This path, not surprisingly, gets crowded as kickoff/event time gets closer, and is lined with folks selling food and drinks, as well as bootleg merchandise.

The approach to the stadium also takes you into what is known officially as Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which serves as a green space for the neighborhood but also contains a few remnants and reminders of the 2012 Games.

You’ll pass by the Olympic Aquatic Center before crossing the bridge, and Olympic sculptures and images of the rings can be seen in various spots around the park. If you’re an Olympics fan, or at least remember the 2012 Games fondly, it’s worth a stroll around to check things out.

There’s another attraction worth checking out if it’s something you’re into: The ABBA Arena is located just south of the Pudding Mill Lane station on the DLR. As its name suggests, the 3,000-seat venue serves as the home for ABBA Voyage, a recurring concert show featuring the music of the wildly popular Swedish band. (In case you’re wondering, no, ABBA’s members don’t physically appear in the show, but rather holograms of them in their prime.)

Shows are typically held five days a week, with matinees on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are available via Viator.

London restaurants near London Stadium

• Forman’s Restaurant – seafood, 0.2 miles away
• DonArancini – Italian, 0.4 miles away
• Crate Brewery & Pizzeria – pizza, 0.4 miles away
Search for more London restaurants on Tripadvisor.

Watching a game at London Stadium

The majority of fans attending an event at London Stadium approach from the east, coming from the Westfield mall and its surroundings. After walking across the pedestrian bridge, you’ll come across what in essence serves as the stadium’s main entrance, recognizable by the large “West Ham United” sign mounted at the top of the stadium.

While this entrance can support large influxes of fans coming in, there are two other large entry points, one on either side. The southeast entry is closest to the West Ham supporter store.

Visiting fans will be directed to the southwest side of London Stadium, as the visiting supporter section is located in one corner of the South Stand.

Note that the entry gates serve as just security checkpoints. For most London Stadium events, including MLB baseball games, a specific gate will be denoted on your ticket depending on your seat location, lettered A through K. When you find your gate, that’s where you’ll scan your ticket and gain entry into the stadium structure.

Inside, the main concourse largely wraps around the stadium and offers access to the lower seating sections, which are numbered in the 100s. Meanwhile, a series of staircase towers give fans access to the upper sections, numbered in the 200s.

Once you get inside the seating bowl, you’ll get a sense of London Stadium’s unique structure. Because it was built to accommodate a running track, the upper seating areas can feel far removed from the pitch. The lower stands on all but the east side are positioned to move forward to be closer to the action — evident by the fact that patrons must cross over pedestrian bridges to reach these sections.

This also creates sizable spaces on the main-level concourse, which in some spots are utilized as fan gathering areas with patio tables and bar games available.

Even while attending a soccer match, it becomes clear why MLB baseball games can be accommodated at London Stadium. For baseball, the stadium is configured with the lower stands positioned at an angle along the foul lines.

While these lower-level seats are in an ideal baseball configuration, it means the upper-level seating areas in what would normally be the “ends” of London Stadium are pretty far removed from the action during MLB events.

In addition, the configuration puts home plate underneath the very large overhead canopy that shades nearly the entire seating bowl. Thus, a ball fouled straight up can hit the canopy — when this happens, the ball is ruled out of play.

Though West Ham might not be considered one of the “marquee” clubs of the Premier League, attending a match remains a treat for a visitor to London. Like nearly every other longstanding football club, West Ham has its unique traditions that it made sure to keep when it moved from its old stadium, the Boleyn Ground, to London Stadium in 2016.

Most conspicuous is the club anthem, the old-timey standard “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.” When the song is played pre-match and when West Ham scores a goal, a series of bubble machines on the pitch will blow bubbles around the stadium.

Meanwhle, West Ham goes by two nicknames, Irons and the more obvious Hammers. “Irons” seems to be preferred by the club’s more die-hard fans, who are quick to shout out the rallying cry “Come On You Irons” at any opportune moment.

Food and drink at London Stadium

The concourse area of London Stadium has numerous food stalls, most of which serve typical sporting-event fare such as burgers, nachos and chicken tenders. However, very British items such as meat pies, pasties and sausage rolls is also readily available.

London Stadium’s food menu is known to get revamped for the MLB London Series baseball games, with more American fare introduced. The 2023 games included items like a donut burger and a two-foot-long hot dog.

The stadium’s beer selection includes well-known brands such as Amstel and Heineken, but it also features local breweries such as Brixton and ciders from Strongbow and Inch’s.

Fans can also frequent one of several food stands outside the stadium, along the perimeter walkway just beyond the security checkpoints. These stands can offer items like kebabs and loaded chips, and typically remain open post-match for fans who have an appetite as they’re exiting the stadium.

Original publish date: March 29, 2024

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