Westfield Stratford City

Australian-owned Westfield Group gave itself an 11-month head start on Olympic fever with this mammoth mall perched immediately adjacent to the Olympic Park, injecting relatively down-and-out Stratford in East London with a certain commercial boost, whether it wanted it or not. Expanding on its Shepherd's Bush/White City precursor (opened in 2008), this particular Westfield houses 350 stores and services, from Foot Locker to Foyles bookstore, with everything imaginable on either side of the letter 'f', including an outlet in the ever reliable employee-owned John Lewis Partnership chain of department stores. There's also a digital-only Vue cinema and 70 food outlets, including, in a weird sort of way, branches of Soho/Soho-area institutions such as Busaba Eathai, Rosa's, Wahaca, Wagamama, Japan Centre and gay institution Balans. Opened September 2011, this is now a major and buzzy east London destination for shoppers, catwalkers and the young and the restless. Tube and Overground station: Stratford.