How to Get to the ABBA Arena

ABBA Arena, Pudding Mill Lane, London E15 2RU. It is in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at Stratford, in East London, and it is the large dark timber dome you can see from the train.

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Take the DLR to Pudding Mill Lane

Pudding Mill Lane is the closest station and it is directly opposite the venue, about a minute from the platform to the door. It is on the DLR, and you pick that up at Bank, Tower Gateway, Canary Wharf or Stratford depending on the line you are already on.

Come this way. The walk from Stratford is perfectly fine and plenty of people do it, but Pudding Mill Lane puts you at the door and saves you twenty minutes at each end of the evening.

From Stratford

Stratford is the interchange for everything: the Central line, the Jubilee line, the Elizabeth line, the Overground, the DLR and National Rail, and central London to Stratford is 20 to 30 minutes on most of them.

From there you have two options. One stop on the DLR to Pudding Mill Lane, a couple of minutes, running every ten. Or walk it, about 15 to 20 minutes through the Olympic Park, which is a pleasant route in daylight and a longer one than it looks on a map.

By bus

Buses 25, 276, 425 and D8 all serve the arena, and so does the 108, which the venue does not mention. They share the same stops, and the nearest is Marshgate Lane, about four minutes away. Nothing stops at the door, which is why the DLR is the everyday answer and the buses are the fallback when it is disrupted. Coming out, the N8, N25 and N205 run from those same stops.

Taxis and drop-off

There is an appointed black cab rank on Barbers Road, next to the arena, which is the fact that matters when three thousand people leave at once. Taxis and private hire drop off and pick up at marked points near the entrances, and coaches use Barbers Road or Pudding Mill Lane.

There is no car park

None. Not at the arena, and none held for coaches to wait in either. The venue's advice is to come by public transport, and with the DLR opposite the door that is not the fob-off it usually is. Driving in, leave the car in Stratford or at Westfield and take the DLR one stop.

The one exception is ten blue badge spaces on site, which have to be booked in advance. The access route explains how.

Cycling

Short-stay cycle stands are on either side of the arena gates, at your own risk.

What time to arrive

Arrive 45 minutes before the concert, no later. Everybody goes through a security screening system on the way in, so the queue at the doors is real, and 45 minutes gets you through it with time for a drink rather than with time to spare.

Doors open at least 1 hour 45 minutes before, and if you come in early there is food and drink on the concourse. The Box Office is not at the arena: it is in the ABBA Voyage shop at Pudding Mill Lane DLR station, and it opens two hours before the concert.

There is no interval. Latecomers are held until a suitable point in the concert, and the venue does not publish where those points fall, so a late arrival could be standing outside for a while with no gap coming. That is the reason for the 45 minutes.

Getting away afterwards

Straightforward. The station is directly opposite and visible from the doors, the crowd all walks the same way, and the DLR is frequent. The signage around the site is not the best, but you can see the arena on the way in and the station on the way out, which covers it.