Next week, Barack Obama and the leaders of the planet's most powerful economies will attend the G20 summit at the vast ExCel conference centre. Their mission is to find a solution to the global financial crisis. It will be hard work but there will doubtless be time for the Obamas, the Sarkozys and the Browns (OK maybe not the Browns) to enjoy themselves.

Yet the ExCel centre sits east of Canary Wharf in sunless Canning Town, an area of the capital so grim that parcel delivery firm DHL once refused to go there - while happily venturing into Baghdad. It's also notorious for poor health. Every stop I travel from Kensington to Canning Town I lose a year of life expectancy.

But in the spirit of furthering international relations, we took a trip to Canning Town, in a forgotten corner of east London close to where the River Lee meets the Thames, to see what tourist delights await Obama & Co.

The journey begins at Canning Town Tube and DLR station, next to the A13 flyover, which cuts Canning Town in two and deafens those nearby.

First stop is the station plaque commemorating the Thames Iron Works, which once stood there. It supplied the iron for Westminster, Hammersmith and Blackfriars bridges, 144 warships and employed 7,000 men. In 1894, Thames Ironworks FC was formed, changing its name to West Ham United six years later. (Note to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, England would not have won the 1966 World Cup without "the Irons".)

At the station, I stop passers-by for guidance on what to do next in Canning Town. "I don't know," says newsagent Yogesh Patel, 22, before bursting into laughter. Jenny Bowen, a passing librarian, suggests the er library.

Luckily help is on hand, in the shape of Ian Kirby, whose job it is (believe it or not) to train people in Canning Town and the rest of the London borough of Newham as tourist guides in time for the Olympics. He conducts four guided tours across the borough, including one around Canning Town that takes in the ExCel centre.

"There is a lot to see around here," insists Mr Kirby, citing such examples as the Brick Lane Music Hall, the last music hall left in Britain and which is no longer in Brick Lane but Canning Town; the site of Britain's biggest ever explosion when a dynamite factory blew up in 1917; and a cat rescue centre that saved the strays from the Olympic site before the builders moved in.

Bounding like a world leader on to a party conference stage, we set off down the Barking Road to check out the pubs, clubs, restaurants and shops a stone's throw from ExCel. Rathbone Market, on the Barking Road and once the epicentre of Canning Town life, is scarily quiet. Most of the shops are boarded up including Lenny's Pigeon and Pet Food store. "This is the centre of Canning Town and where there were 30 shops, now there's only eight," says Ron Cramer, 68, who has run Rathbone Flowers at the same spot for 40 years. "The council doesn't even pay for a sweeper on a Saturday any more. We have to wait until Monday for the rubbish from the market to be picked up."

Next door is George's Café, where Newham's local politicians hang out, feasting on fish and chips for £4. There is no one in there. But the presidents, premiers and dictators of the G20 have other eating options. Across from the café is Pizzeria Fontana. Except it doesn't serve pizza. In fact it's a Portuguese café, whose main clientele are from Brazil, Mozambique or Angola. Sisters Fatema Marques, 49, and Rosana Uliana, 39, sell salt cod for £10 a plate and Brazilian chicken pasties for £1 - a bargain for hard-up world leaders.

For late night drinking there are no end of options. Club Afrique - "Smart dress only no jeans or trainers" - looks promising while across the road the Ordnance Arms offers Obama the chance to sample a more traditional English way of life. "Where should Barack Obama visit when he comes to Canning Town next week?" I ask Timothy Purcell, 55, who is propping up the bar. "Who is Barack Obama?" he asks.

"The American president," I explain. "So where would you take him?"

After a long pause "To Cork City in Ireland to have a pint of Guinness and he would enjoy it."

Canning Town also offers something for the ladies. Ruby Joe's Imported Goods sells an eclectic mix of items that to take back to first families everywhere and includes brightly coloured cloth (costing between £10 and £70 for six yards); gospel CDs (£7); leather handbags (starting from £60) and ice buckets at £20.

Proprietor Joseph Amoh says the world leaders should come and see the main road. "They will learn a lot of things," he says, "Like there are no high street banks." It is not clear if this is a good or bad thing but it should at least deter protesters from trying to "storm the banks" during the summit.

In fact there's a single building society cash point although the office itself is now shut down and boarded up. We are by now at the top of the Barking Road where it meets Beckton Road. This where, coincidentally, in 1931 at Dr Katial's house, a future and great world leader Mahatma Gandhi was photographed meeting Charlie Chaplin.

We tried to find the house but to no avail. "It was most likely bombed during the war," says Ian Kirby. Best not to mention that to Angela Merkel.

FAMOUS FACTS ABOUT E14

* According to the London Gazeteer, the area's original name was Hallsville but it probably took its modern name from George Canning, the first viceroy of India from 1858. Others suggest that its name came from a mid-19th century factory, possibly a cannery.

* Eighty-five per cent of the housing stock in Canning Town was destroyed in the Blitz.

* In his journal in 1857, Charles Dickens noted that “Canning Town [is] so charged with corruption that not a trace of vegetable matter grows on its surface — bubbling and seething with the constant rise of the foul products of decomposition”.

* Canning Town had the largest population of black people in London by 1920, according to the London Gazeteer, with an estimated 100 black families living there by 1935.

* Canning Town and Custom House are in the top five per cent of the most deprived areas in the UK, according to Newham Council.

* For every Tube stop on the Jubilee line going east from Westminster to Canning Town, life expectancy decreases by one year, according to the London Health Observatory.

* The Evening News reported in 1976 that Ronald Avenue in Canning Town was London's worst street for dog-biting. When postmen refused to deliver mail there because of the dogs, residents had to collect their mail from a sorting office two miles away.

* On 1 Feburary 1953, 1,130 houses were flooded during the Great Flood of Canning Town when the banks of the Thames and Bow Creek burst. A one-bedroom former council flat cost £40,000‑£45,000 in 1999 and a one-bedroom house cost in the region of £65,000. Now prices start at around £230,000.

* The Royal Oak pub on Woodman Street, Canning Town was allegedly the training ground for boxing champion Frank Bruno.

* In 2005 DHL announced that it was happy to deliver to Baghdad but not to Canning Town. They now deliver there without problems.

* The Bridge House pub in Canning Town was an important British pub rock venue — it was home to U2's first British gig, Depeche Mode played there for a year and Dire Straits had a nine-month residency.

* Mark Knopfler wrote a song called the Silvertown Blues with the following lyrics: “From the Canning Town train I see a billboard high/There's a big silver plane rising up into the sky/And I can make out the words seven flights every day'/Says six of those birds are bound for JFK.”

NOTABLE CANNING TOWNIANS

* David Essex, singer. Born there in 1942 as David Cook.

* Marty Feldman, comedian. Born there in 1933.

* Mark Noble, West Ham player. Born there in 1987.

* Windsor Davies, actor. Born there in 1930.

WHERE TO EAT IN E14

* Caribbean Scene: award-winning destination for jerk chicken and plantain with an open theatre kitchen and thatched-roof dining areas. ExCeL Marina, 17 Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock, E16, 020 7511 2023, www.caribbeanscene.co.uk.

* Nakhon Thai: serves good lobster curry and pad thai, with live music on Fridays and Saturdays. Waterfront Studios, 1 Dock Road, E16, 020 7474 5510, www.nakhonthai.co.uk.

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