(Note: This Booklet has been reproduced
by kind permission of the Commission for the New Towns now known as English
Partnerships. It is published for general interest and research purposes
only and may not be reproduced for other purposes except with the permission
of English Partnerships who now hold the copyright of LDDC publications)
In 1981, the London Docklands Development Corporation
(LDDC) was created and charged with overseeing the world's largest urban
regeneration project. Its task was to bring land and buildings into effective
use, encourage the development of existing and new industry, create an
attractive environment and ensure that housing and social facilities were
made available to encourage people to live and work in the area.
While Wapping and Limehouse are often linked together,
as this brief history shows, their regeneration followed different paths
and different timescales. Wapping is largely a story of the 1980s, Limehouse
of the 1990s.
In the case of Limehouse, the breakthrough came in 1993
with the opening of the Limehouse Link. Before then, Limehouse had been
a victim of traffic clogging up streets that had never been intended for
such volumes. In the few short years since the Link took all that traffic
underground, Limehouse has become a highly attractive and desirable place
to live.
Unlike Limehouse, Wapping did not suffer from through
traffic to other areas of London Docklands. On the other hand, one of
the many problems Wapping did suffer from in 1981 was the lack of adequate
internal roads and communications. Whilst work had started at St Katharine
Docks in 1969, and the conversion of riverside warehouses to attractive
residences and places of work was already under way, there was no central
plan and no investment magnet.
The coming of the docks imposed isolation on Wapping
and Limehouse, because docks meant high walls to deter crime. The closing
of the docks imposed another form of isolation on the area: that of dereliction
and unemployment. Today, isolation is a thing of the past. Wapping and
Limehouse are fully integrated into the life of central London, The future
is very bright.
The original Saxon settlement of "Waeppa's people"
was probably in the vicinity of today's junction of The Highway and Cannon
Street Road. The more recent history and character of Wapping is closely
bound up with the Port of London, and in particular with the development
that began during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. For example in the 1530s
the pub on Wapping High Street which is today known as the "Town
of Ramsgate" was called the "Red Cow" in an allusion to
the still rural nature of the area. By 1750, the pub was just one of 36
along the High Street alone, serving the needs of the shipyards and wharves
that made Wapping one of the busiest parts of London.
By the end of the 18th Century the quays in the Pool
of London had become unable to cope with the pressure of shipping, while
the owners of the goods being shipped were demanding a solution to endemic
pilfering. It was in Wapping that the first enclosed docks in London were
opened in 1805, followed by Thomas Telford's St Katharine Docks in 1828.
Massive warehouses were built and south Wapping became an island fortress,
surrounded by water and high walls - the designer of London Dock, Daniel
Asher Alexander, went on to design Dartmoor maximum security prison! The
area's isolation led Parliament to authorise construction of a foot tunnel
between Wapping and Rotherhithe in 1823. This was finally finished by
lsambard Kingdom Brunel in 1843 and converted into a railway tunnel in
the 1860s.
While the general reason given for the demise of London's
docks is the introduction of containerisation in the 1960s, the docks
in Wapping had become outdated a century earlier with the advent of steam
power and the consequent building of ships too large to fit into them.
For many years, ships unloaded their cargoes onto barges at larger docks
downriver, and the barges then ferried them to warehouses in Wapping -
an uneconomic and cumbersome system for handling cargo. Not surprisingly,
therefore, the docks in Wapping were the first to close in the 1960s.
As a result many associated local businesses and industries also closed
down.
Wapping presented a very mixed picture in 1981. The Port
of London Authority, and subsequent[y Tower Hamlets Council, had started
to fill in the docks to avoid the costs of looking after dock estates.
Similarly, a large number of 19th and early 20th Century warehouses had
been demolished during the 1970s. By 1981 Tower Hamlets Council had made
a significant start in regenerating the area with new housing around the
former Eastern Dock. It had also made a start to reclaiming the Western
Dock and providing a sports centre, open spaces and a health centre.
In 1969 Taylor Woodrow had won a public competition for
the redevelopment of the 12 hectare site at St Katharine Docks. The 835
room Tower Hotel was opened in 1973, the year that Ivory House was converted
into a mixed development of shops, offices and apartments. The Dickens
Inn was opened in 1976, having been built around the relocated timber
frame of a brewery discovered accidentally by Taylor Woodrow when demolishing
a nearby warehouse.
In spite of these developments, the London Docklands
Development Corporation (LDDC) faced a substantial regeneration task elsewhere
in Wapping in 1981. The LDDC was vested with a number of large open tracts
of land, including Shadwell Basin and Western Dock. However most of the
remaining old warehouses along the riverside continued in private ownership.
The LDDC was one of the first Urban Development Corporations
to be designated under the Local Government Planning and Land Act 1980.
Its task was to secure the regeneration of its area by:
Far from looking upon the docks as a problem, and far
from wanting to fill them in to create yet more land, the Corporation
took the view that the unique character of Docklands had to be preserved
and enhanced. The creation of an attractive environment would not only
benefit the people who lived and worked in the area but it would generate
interest from developers, attract investment and bring land and buildings
into sustainable use.
In-filling of the docks and demolition of warehouses
and other dock buildings was halted. At the LDDC's request, the Department
of the Environment reviewed the Statutory List of Buildings of Architectural
and Historic Interest in Docklands and scheduled a further 116 buildings.
Other initial works included cleaning the exterior of Hawksmoor's St George
in the East church on The Highway - the road that Dickens had described
in Sketches by Boz as "that reservoir of dirt drunkenness, and drabs".
A start was made on street tree planting, and other environmental works
were undertaken to start to overcome the air of dereliction which was
apparent in Wapping at the time.
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Contact
with Wapping residents
Before addressing the task of encouraging people to work
and live in Wapping, the LDDC talked with the existing local communities.
In these initial discussions, three concerns were apparent.
First, local people wanted access to the new housing
developments which were first proposed when the PIA started filling in
the docks. Local people were concerned that new housing would be for sale
at prices beyond their reach. They were also worried about the area becoming
a dormitory. Many jobs had been lost with the closure of the docks: new
local employment was needed. The LDDC responded positively by undertaking
to provide homes for rent in new housing developments in and around Western
Dock, and to make special provision for priority purchases for local people.
It also earmarked new sites for employment uses in the west of Wapping
and along The Highway.
The second concern was shopping. Local shops did not
provide for everyday needs. Facilities needed to be improved. The LDDC
took this concern on board although, despite some small improvements,
it was not until 1992 that Safeway opened a supermarket in Thornas More
Street.
Another concern was a proposal for a local distributor
road through the area. The Corporation modified the plan and built only
the section which served specific development sites at the western end
of Wapping.
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1983: LDDC publishes its Development Framework
Across the Urban Development Area the LDDC used development
frameworks to guide regeneration. An area development framework offers
more flexibility than traditional land use planning, as it sets out a
series of objectives which can be reviewed as development proceeds and
amended to accommodate changes of priorities. Local people can use a framework
to check that their concerns have been noted and developers can use it
to assess the opportunities.
In early 1983 the LDDC published its development framework,
"The Future for Wapping". Public exhibitions were held at which
the ideas were explained and people could express their views. The aim
was to create a diverse development appropriate to the inner city, but
also emphasising its flexibility and openness to change. With over 90%
of the existing housing stock in local authority ownership, more private
housing was seen as a key to creating a balanced community and to provide
choice. In addition, the old disused warehouses along Wapping High Street
and Wapping Wall were identified as highly suitable for residential conversion.
There was already commercial development, with News International and
the World Trade Centre, and the framework anticipated further such development
at the western end of the area round St Katharine Docks and along The
Highway. The new distributor road was proposed to serve the major development
sites and link The Highway and Wapping High Street.
In the framework the LDDC also identified the need for
open spaces and the unique opportunity for the creation of a series of
linked open spaces between the river at Shadwell Basin and Hermitage Basin
site. In the past access to the river had been minimal and deliberately
discouraged. Now it was not only to be encouraged, but considered an important
principle in future development wherever possible.
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Extensive consultation
As a result of the local consultation and exhibitions
additional concerns were expressed about primary school provision, open
spaces and the future of the existing Council owned housing estates. The
Corporation responded by contributing towards two new primary schools,
Hermitage and St Peter's (replacing an existing school) and provided additional
funding to enhance existing provision. It also embarked on a programme
to provide new open spaces and to refurbish existing ones and a strategy
was agreed with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to improve Council
homes.
The
LDDC proposed that as much as 40% of all new housing would be offered
at "affordable" levels to local people by providing small starter
homes, sometimes involving housing associations, and by funding rented
accommodation through a cross subsidy from market priced housing. However,
the early success of housing sales in Wapping led to a steep climb in
land prices, which rose from negative values in 1981 to parity with other
central London locations by 1985. House prices increased in line, thus
endangering their affordability. The LDDC's solution was to offer local
residents interest free loans of up to £10,000 to help them afford new
properties, which at the time were averaging between £50,000 and £70,000
for a three bedroom house.
The Corporation sought to encourage housing for rent
and entered into an agreement with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
On a riverside parcel of land owned by the Borough, together with LDDC
land at Hermitage Basin, Hermitage Wall and on the riverside, the Corporation
proposed developing housing, including 90 homes for rent. This followed
the development of initial key sites at Western Dock and Shadwell Basin,
which also included rental housing.
The Corporation eventually purchased the Tower Hamlets
site and the Borough used the money for new council housing at Hermitage
Wall and to improve the nearby Wapping Estate. New homes have been built
at Hermitage Basin and on the riverside developers have plans for further
housing and a park.
Consultation was extensive across a wide variety of subjects.
For example, the development proposals for Shadwell Basin included provisions
to protect the sailing activities there. Nevertheless, the East London
Marine Venture, the locally based charity responsible for promoting watersports
within the community, expressed concerns about the impact of new development
on wind conditions for sailing. The LDDC responded by extensive wind testing,
which led to redesigned proposals.
In 1985 the LDDC opened an office in Wapping. In addition
to ongoing links with the various tenant groups in the area, Wapping based
Corporation staff started a dialogue with the two church leaders of the
Anglican and Roman Catholic communities of St Peter's and St Patrick's.
These two churches are located in what was seen as the new heart of Wapping,
between the existing Wapping Estate and the major new housing areas of
Western Dock. Together with other community leaders, a series of projects
including the St Peter's Centre, which centred on the heart of Wapping,
were developed to forge links between the established and incoming communities.
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Emphasising the area's unique character
What makes London Docklands unique is the water - both
the docks and the river Thames itself. Yet before the advent of the LDDC
in 1981, access to the waterside was not only discouraged but for much
of the area prohibited. The Corporation changed all that. Access to the
waterside was opened up and use of the docks as an amenity encouraged.
This, together with other improvements, encouraged local people to stay
as well as people from outside to move in.
Another source of encouragement for local people to stay
was the variety of new housing. Before the arrival of the Corporation,
those who aspired to homes with gardens would have had to move out, as
many had already done, from London Docklands to the suburbs. Now, they
could stay on in Wapping and move into a new home, complete with garden,
in a mixed community whose ethos was definitely not suburban.
Employment in Wapping had virtually disappeared during
the 1970s and had to be created again. Perhaps the most spectacular form
in which this happened was the News International offices and printing
works, extended and consolidated with the Corporation's support. The LDDC
also encouraged many smaller and less headline-grabbing office and light
industrial developments.
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Promoting
continuity
In regenerating Wapping the LDDC took a great deal of
care to maintain continuity between old and new. Diversity was encouraged
as always, but in ways which resulted in happy juxtapositions rather than
clashes. A strong landscape infrastructure was promoted and designed around
a system of canals to link Shadwell Basin with Hermitage Basin, the two
parts of the London docks which had not been filled in by the time the
LDDC was set up.
The £1.77 million Wapping Wood and Western Docks Canal
scheme provided not only a strong visual link through the heart of Wapping
but also introduced a pedestrian route, with access to the parks, schools
and shopping facilities that would be developed. improvements were also
carried out at Wapping Gardens, Waterside Gardens and King Edward VIl
Memorial Park, new green spaces created at Wapping Green and a playground
built at Helling Street.
London stock brick and slate roofs, both traditional
to inner London, were specified by the LDDC. However, the emphasis was
not always on uniformity. For example, one aspect of the past which the
Corporation was not anxious to continue was council housing design of
the 1950s and 60s. The LDDC engaged some of Britain's leading architects
to prepare outline designs which were used to promote available housing
sites. MacCormac Jarnieson and Prichard designed the housing around Shadwell
Basin, which set the standard for new housing in Wapping. The 30 acres
of land were deliberately subdivided into smaller plots, in part to promote
diversity in design.
Although the LDDC is not a statutory housing authority,
it was concerned from the start that tenants of local authority housing
should not feel cut off by the development going on around them. The Corporation
has spent over £36 million on refurbishing more than half of the public
housing stock in the Docklands area, comprehensively where necessary,
and elsewhere with environmental improvements, landscaping and external
refurbishment.
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Investing in the Community
The Accord agreed with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
in 1988 gave a new formal identity to the LDDC's commitment to investing
in Tower Hamlets Docklands. This investment has ranged from major grants
to funding for small schemes supporting voluntary and community group
initiatives.
Major LDDC grants in Wapping have included £356,000 to
the new Hermitage Primary School, £292,000 for St Peter's Primary School,
£278,000 to Bluegate Fields Primary School, and £62,000 to works at St
Patrick's School and £676,000 to provide a new training unit at Shadwell
Adult Education Centre.
The £953,000 LDDC grant which refurbished St Peter's
Centre has enabled it to house three different training organisations.
Examples such as these, plus the creation of an Access Centre, have transformed
training provision in Wapping.
In healthcare, the Wapping Health Centre which had opened
in 1981 soon came under increasing pressure as the area's population started
to increase.
The
LDDC wholly funded a major refurbishment in 1992 at a cost of £445,000,
providing attractive accommodation for a GP practice, a dentist's surgery,
district and school nurses, health visitors and other community health
staff.
The Wapping Community Group and Tenants Social Club now
enjoys the use of additional space at the Raines House Community Centre
thanks to a grant of £253,000 from the LDDC. Younger residents have benefited
from the building of a new youth club at Wellclose Square with LDDC funding,
as well as the complete refurbishment of Wapping Youth Club. As for the
very young and their parents, LDDC funding has helped with the construction
of the Eve Armsby Family Centre and Day Nursery.
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Updating transport
In 1981, much of the basic transport infrastructure in
Wapping was already in place, including the East London Line with a station
at Wapping, as well as the main London Underground station at Tower Hill.
The Highway was and is a main east-west route through the area, with its
strategic importance significantly increased by the opening of the LDDC's
Limehouse Link tunnel.
Access
has been improved with the opening of the Docklands Light Railway in 1987
and its subsequent upgrading and extension to Bank and Beckton. The DLR
station at Shadwell provides Wapping residents with easy access to the
London Underground network via Bank. The East London Line is being upgraded,
with the LDDC contributing to improvements to existing stations. The heart
of the Wapping Riverside area now enjoys, for the first time, convenient
connections to Tower Hill, Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street via the
100 Hoppa bus service.
The Corporation has played a major part in improving
bus services. Wapping also benefits from the D1and Docklands Express buses
which skirt its edge.
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Limehouse in history
In the small area between Commercial Road to the north
and the River Thames to the south, Wapping to the west and the Isle of
Dogs to the east, Limehouse packs several important historical associations.
The
name itself comes from the lime oasts or kilns established there in the
14th Century and used to produce quick lime for building mortar. Pottery
manufacture followed. In 1660, Samuel Pepys visited a porcelain factory
in Duke's Shore, Narrow Street, whilst the Limehouse Pottery, on the site
of today's Limekiln Wharf, was established in the 1740s as England's first
soft paste porcelain factory. During the excavations for the Limehouse
Link Tunnel, the dual carriageway road which has transformed access in
London Docklands, a pottery kiln was found at Dunbar Wharf.
By the Elizabethan era many sailors had their homes there
and by early in the reign of James 1 about half of the 2,000 population
were mariners. In the 18th Century, when Limehouse was considered the
easternmost end of London, the population numbered 7,000. In 1724 Hawskrnoor's
St Anne's Church opened to cater for their spiritual needs, whilst the
clock remains to this day, the highest church clock in London.
The well-known London brewer, Taylor Walker, began brewing
at the site of today's "Barley Mow" pub in 1830**. This stretch
of the Thames was known as Brewery Wharf, whilst from a little further
along the embankment the Dunbars, after whom Dunbar Wharf is named, exported
Pale India Ale from the Limehouse Brewery in Fore Street to India and
Australia. They also exported people: the first voluntary passengers for
Australia left from this wharf (the first involuntary ones left from Wapping
Old Stairs). Brewing in Limehouse did not cease until 1960, when Taylor
Walker merged with lnd Coope.
Shipbuilding, established in the 16th Century, thrived
well into the 19th Century. As the age of steam led to bigger ships, the
facilities at Limehouse became inadequate. However, local ingenuity found
a highly successful alternative: the firm of -T & W Forestt's (sic)
built many of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution s lifeboats in Limehouse
between 1852 and 1890.
The
area's association with London's docks began in 1803, when Commercial
Road was laid out through open fields to connect the recently opened West
India Docks to the City of London. This was followed in 1820 by the construction
of the Regent's Canal and what is now called Limehouse Basin. The Basin
provided a navigable route from the Thames to the Grand Union Canal, which
had opened in 1814. Later, a connection was made between Lirnehouse Basin
and the Limehouse Cut, which had opened in 1770 to provide a link between
the Thames and the River Lea.
In 1841 the London and Blackwall Railway was built to
transport commuters into the City. Today's Docklands Light Railway (DLR)
runs along this route, and Limehouse DLR station, together with much of
the track, is built on the original viaduct.
Another association which is very much alive today is
with Asia. The Strangers' Home for Asiatics opened in West India Dock
Road in 1890, whilst from about 1890 onwards Chinese people working for
the Blue Funnel Line started to settle in Pennyfields and Limehouse Causeway,
creating London's first and original Chinatown. The resulting opium and
gambling dens soon attracted a wider clientele than visiting Chinese sailors,
luridly described by, amongst others, Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde.
Charles Dickens also had a number of Limehouse connections,
the earliest being his godfather Christopher Huffam, a rigger, who lived
at No.5 Church Row (now Newell Street) and had his sail loft nearby. Dickens
would visit him here aged eleven. When he was of more mature years, Dickens
spent some time in the pub he called "The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters",
almost certainly the historic "The Grapes" in Narrow Street.
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Limehouse in 1981
Limehouse Basin was amongst the first docks to close
in the late 1960s. By 1981, Limehouse shared the docklands-wide physical,
social and economic decline which led to the setting up of the London
Docklands Development Corporation.
Access
was poor. There were large areas of vacant and derelict land at Limehouse
Basin and elsewhere. On the riverside, the conversion of former commercial
buildings to new homes had begun. However at the western end of Narrow
Street there were a large number of potential development sites, of which
the most significant was Free Trade Wharf. Three large council estates
dominated the eastern part of the area, the inter war St Vincent's and
Roche Estates and the post war Barley Mow Estate: St Vincent's was in
a particularly run-down condition. There were conservation areas in Narrow
Street and the area around St Anne's Church.
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The LDDC's initial reaction
The key to realising the potential of Limehouse lay in
relieving the area of traffic. In 1981, the London Borough of lower Hamlets
and the Greater London Council had jointly considered a number of options
for tackling the issue including widening the A13 Commercial Road and
building a new road through Limehouse, but no action had resulted. At
the same time, limited proposals were under consideration for what was
to become the Docklands Light Railway.
In November 1982, the LDDC published its Limehouse Area
Development Strategy. This built on existing plans for Limehouse Basin,
and offered a discussion framework for future development, housing refurbishment
and environmental improvements across the whole of Limehouse. It was based
on four major projects: Limehouse Basin, Free Trade Wharf, what was then
known as the Light Rapid Transit Route (DLR) and the Docklands Northern
Relief Road, a road corridor between The Highway and East India Dock across
the north of the Isle of Dogs.
However, it was not until the mid 1980s with the abolition
of the Greater London Council that the impetus for improvements to the
infrastructure was provided. The key to development in Limehouse lay next
door in the Isle of Dogs. Initial development plans on the island had
been modest: light industrial development and a low rise business park.
By 1984, 8 million sq it of potential commercial developmerit was predicted.
In 1985 proposals for a 10-12 million sq it development on the 71 acres
of Canary Wharf were being considered.
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The
opening of the Limehouse Link
The sheer scale of the Canary Wharf proposals, and in
due course the rapid implementation of the first phase of development,
provided the impetus to the transport improvements which completely altered
prospects for Limehouse as well as for the Isle of Dogs.
By the time the Docklands Light Railway opened in 1987,
it had to be closed at weekends and in the evenings to be upgraded and
extended to meet anticipated demand from existing and committed development.
However, the big breakthrough for Limehouse was in road access, and it
needed a body with the powers and vision of the LDDC to carry it through.
Road widening proposals were not the answer. The Corporation's
1982 Development Strategy has stated: "if Limehouse is to be successfully
regenerated, and its historic character retained, through traffic must
be prevented from entering the area and its roads used for local access
only." The solution was to be found below the ground.
To minimise the amount of demolition in a residential
area a serpentine route under Limehouse Basin linking a number of parcels
of derelict, underused and cleared land was selected. This in turn would
link with the road corridor across the top of the Isle of Dogs and on
through Leamouth to the A13.
The 1.8 km Limehouse Link tunnel, opened in 1993, was
designed, planned and built in just over seven years. This compares remarkably
well with the average of fifteen years for other major road schemes. The
complexity of the engineering task in construction of the Limehouse Link
made it, at the time, the second biggest engineering project in Europe
after the Channel Tunnel.
The Limehouse Link, combined with traffic management
measures on Limehouse Causeway and Narrow Street, has removed the traffic
problem from Limehouse. Since 1993, the opportunity has existed to enhance
the character of Limehouse and to continue to build on its many attributes.
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Impetus
to housing
Limehouse offers a wide range of housing and extensive
open spaces. In and around Limehouse Basin some of London's most attractive
flats and houses add a modern flavour to the area's historic associations,
whilst on the riverside warehouses have been converted to much sought
after housing.
The building of the Limehouse Link directly affected
169 homes, largely at St Vincent's Estate and the Barley Mow Estate. Under
The Accord agreed with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 1988, the
LDDC rehoused people from an additional 296 units and a number of families
who were sharing homes. In total 556 households were rehoused. Most of
the families were offered new housing association homes, mainly on the
Isle of Dogs and some opted for refurbished Council homes. The LDDC also
agreed to fund a £35 million package of social, economic and community
initiatives to benefit Tower Hamlets residents.
The LDDC has contributed over £10.5 million to the refurbishment
of 635 council homes in Limehouse. The comprehensive improvements carried
out at the Barley Mow Estate following construction of the Limehouse Link
are a model of their kind. The Roche Esate has been completely refurbished
helped by an LDDC grant of £3.25 million while Oast and Kiln Courts have
seen environmental improvements and the replacement of doors and windows,
with a grant of £344,000 from the Corporation. More recently John Scurr
House which is just outside the Docklands area, was accepted by the LDDC
as a special case and received £642,000 of Corporation funding, including
£157,000 towards the cost of decontamination works.
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Conservation
and environmental improvements
The Corporation has spent over £3.1 million on conservation
projects in Limehouse since 1981. Much of this has been focused on St
Anne's Church, which is now in the best condition of all Hawksmoor's churches.
A similar amount has been spent on environmental improvements, including
the creation of new open spaces and a pedestrian network throughout the
area.
The completion of the Limehouse Link provided the LDDC
with the opportunity to undertake a number of environmental improvement
projects, particularly along Narrow Street and in Limehouse Basin, the
latter in partnership with the British Waterways, owners of the basin.
Lirnehouse Basin is growing in popularity as a marina, and the Cruising
Association has built its headquarters there.
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Investing in the community
The LDDC upgraded and significantly extended Ropemakers'
Fields to provide Limehouse with a park at its heart, using land above
the tunnel as well as previously derelict land. The cost to the Corporation
was £1.3 million. A further £500,000 of Corporation funding went to build
a pedestrian bridge and riverside walkway across Limekiln Dock.
The
original Limehouse Youth Club, demolished to build the Limehouse Link,
was replaced and upgraded by the LDDC at a cost of £1.4 million. As for
really young local residents, Limehouse Arches Nursery received £185,000
and a similar sum was spent to build a new annexe at Cyril Jackson Primary
School, which also received help with its nursery. Play areas were also
funded at Barley Mow Estate (£40,000) and St Vincent's Estate (£96,000).
Although it lies lust outside Limehouse, the £637,000 granted by the LDDC
to Wapping Training is an important item to record in Corporation funding
for the area.
In healthcare, Gill Street Health Centre, originally
opened in 1977, was extended in 1990 in order to have the capacity to
handle the growing population of Limehouse. The LDDC contributed £280,000
of the total cost of £390,000.
Church and community centres in Limehouse have also benefited
from LDDC assistance. The Barley Mow Veterans Club received £203,000,
Limehouse Library £98,000 and Tenants' Meeting Rooms at the Barley Mow
and St Vincent's Estates £40,000 each. The Chinese Association of Tower
Hamlets and Tower Hamlets Community Transport are among other local beneficiaries
of Corporation funding.
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The
future for Wapping and Limehouse
The opening of the Limehouse Link provides the most dramatic
example in Docklands of a major project totally transforming prospects
for an individual area. This, together with the many related works planned
and carried out by the Corporation, mean that the Wapping and Limehouse
district, always one of London's most historic areas, is now also one
of London's most attractive quarters.
Part of its appeal, to residents and visitors alike,
is its wealth of leisure facilities, many of which are unique to this
part of London. They include a thriving watersports centre at Shadwell
Basin, parks, cycle paths and riverside walkways and a wide variety of
eating and drinking places ranging from historic waterside pubs to London's
only purpose-built sports restaurant, Babe Ruth's.
Further planned developments will enhance the area's
character, for example, British Waterways' scheme at Limehouse Basin which
include over 400 new homes, 200,000 sq ft of offices, shops, a pub or
restaurant, creche and museum.
On 31 January 1997 the LDDC handed on its responsibilities
for Wapping arid Limehouse to London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The future
of the area is secure.
As with most organisations the Annual Reports and Accounts of the LDDDC are a good source of chronological information about the work of the Corporation and how it spent its money. Altogether these reports contain more than 1000 pages of information. These have been scanned and reproduced as zip files on our Annual Reports and Accounts page
The
LDDC will complete its remit on 31st March 1998 but has been progressively
handing on its responsibilities in the Urban Development Area since 1994.
One test for each handover is that regeneration should have become self
sustaining. Even though regeneration of the two areas seemed a distant
prospect in 1981, Wapping and Limehouse have more than met this criterion.
What Wapping
was like in 1981