THAMES Gateway may be one of the largest urban regeneration projects yet undertaken in this country, but the Government’s plans for the area have been dismissed as “pathetically underambitious” by Sir Terry Farrell, the architect and urban planner advising the Thames Gateway Development Corporation. He says that the Government’s plans to build 120,000 new homes in the area should be completely rethought, claiming that the figure could be increased to one million.
The idea is not as far-fetched as it sounds. After all, the area included in Thames Gateway is vast — so big, Sir Terry says, that you could “fit another Central London between the River Lea and Dartford Bridge”. Thames Gateway stretches along the banks of the Thames from Newham, East London, and Greenwich, southeast London, to the Isle of Sheppey in Kent and Southend in Essex. It encompasses many local authorities and covers parts of three counties. The region has been described as “London’s safety valve” because it is hoped that it can help to solve the chronic housing shortage in the South East. It also encompasses the area that will be home to the Olympic Games in 2012.
Projects in Thames Gateway involve the regeneration of existing towns and the redevelopment of brownfield sites, as well as the construction of infrastructure and the building of thousands of homes. Some of the projects are high-profile, such as the metamorphosis of the Millennium Dome into O2, a leisure and entertainment complex, or the construction of the Olympic Park. Others, such as A13 Artscape and the Silvertown Aquarium, are little known.
To make matters more confusing, there are dozens of different agencies involved. Overall guidance comes from the Department for Communities and Local Government, but in fact there is little central direction. According to New London Architecture, which is hosting an exhibition on the Gateway in London, “the perception remains that this is an area without an overall leader”.
Projects are being handled by 17 local authorities, two county councils, three regional assemblies, three regional development agencies, several government departments and a host of other bodies. This has led Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group, an LSE research body, to describe it as “a muddle of overlapping mechanisms”.
Apart from concerns about the lack of an overall strategy, there is scepticism over whether the projects will lead to truly sustainable communities. Much of the area still resembles an industrial wasteland. In some cases where housing projects are under way, the infrastructure — such as shops, schools and hospitals — is lacking.
David Parry, who heads the development side of Cluttons’ Thames Gateway team, gives one example: “There is a development at Ebbsfleet that opens in 2009. If you look at the surrounding areas, there remains a lot of regeneration to be done. There is a lot of heavy industry lined up along the banks of the Thames in that area, and that is going to have to be vastly reduced.”
Much of the area covered by Thames Gateway lies in a plain that is at risk of flooding. The Government says it will ensure that new development “is sited appopriately”. And the Environment Agency is developing a strategy including improved flood barriers and a “green grid” of areas which could be sacrificed to floodwater if necessary. At present 1.25 million people are at risk from Thames flooding and a major inundation in the Gateway could cost up to £12 billion.
Despite all the doubts, estate agents point out that there were misgivings over Canary Wharf, now seen as a success. Knight Frank reports that the “Olympic effect” is already being felt in Stratford, East London, and John East, sales manager at Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, says that where regeneration projects are farthest advanced, from Tower Bridge to Thurrock, positive effects are evident. “The schemes are providing gentrification to previously run-down neighbourhoods and ongoing development is having a cumulative positive effect,” he says. However, he admits that buyers who came to the area expecting dramatic price increases have yet to be rewarded.
Mr East insists that in some cases new developments have been very successful. “Royal Arsenal at Woolwich is a great example of the redevelopment of a particular area. Berkeley Homes has taken this run-down, 76-acre site and is creating a new community. Surrounding the site there are still areas which are ripe for development, and as such Royal Arsenal is like an oasis. However, it is this gradual and sustained improvement that is spreading, and giving southeast London a facelift.”
Farther out, improved infrastructure could benefit towns such as Swanscombe in Kent. “Swanscombe has a lot of run-down terraces and closed shops,” Mr Parry says. “It needs prettying up, but it has potential as a Chelsea for the future.”
The key to Swanscombe’s attraction is its proximity to Ebbsfleet, the new Eurostar station. Not only will this give easy access to the Continent but, more importantly, it will cut the journey time to King’s Cross in Central London to just 15 minutes. Swanscombe is also within easy reach of the Bluewater shopping centre.
Mr East adds: “As long as the Government carefully considers all aspects, the Thames Gateway regeneration will create sustainable communities that will last the test of time.”
KEY PROJECTS: BARKING CENTRAL
Barking Central, which will open next year, is the first stage in the redevelopment of Barking town centre. The architects, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, have designed this £27 million project. Two hundred flats have been built above Barking’s library, which has itself been remodelled. All of the one-bedroom flats in the development have already been sold; two-bedrom flats, some of which have balconies or roof terraces, are priced at £237,000. Near by is Barking Riverside, a much larger scheme developed on 370 acres of land, which will be home to 26,000 people. It is still awaiting outline planning permission.
GREENWICH PENINSULA
Knight Frank predicts that the peninsula will be one of the top ten residential hotspots in the Thames Gateway. The £5 billion regeneration of the peninsula is one of the flagship projects, involving the construction of 10,000 new homes (of which almost 4,000 will be affordable housing), new schools and health and childcare facilities. The centrepiece of the project is O2, formerly the Millennium Dome, which is to be transformed into a music, entertainment and sports arena. With a capacity of 23,000 people, O2 will host the Olympic gymnastic and basketball finals. The stadium is scheduled to open next year, and the first residents of the new housing on the peninsula should be in place in 2008. The developers, who are planning to arrange the housing as “a series of integrated, distinctive neighbourhoods”, say that pedestrians and cyclists will have priority over cars.
THE BRIDGE: DARTFORD
Next to the QEII Bridge in Dartford, Kent, this is a brownfield site that is to be redeveloped to provide 1,500 homes as well as 1.5 million sq ft of business space and a science park. The housing part of the scheme is designed by Wayne Hemingway, formerly of the Red or Dead fashion label. Mr Hemingway says that the mission statement for the homes is that they should be “affordable and should make people happy”.
- Free breakfast talks accompany the New London Architecture exhibition on Thames Gateway at the Building Centre, 26 Store Street, WC1, until Sept 2. For details, see www.newlondonarchitecture.org. E-mail talk@newlondonarchitecture.org to book
FACT FLOW
- Thames Gateway is a programme to regenerate a funnel-shaped area 40 miles long and 20 miles wide that extends from Canary Wharf to Shoeburyness on the Essex coast and the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
- A £6 billion action plan for the region was launched last year by Tony Blair and John Prescott.
- By 2016 at least 120,000 new homes should be built, of which 35 per cent should be affordable housing. The Government also aims to create 180,000 new jobs.
- A priority is the "greening" of the region. The RSPB is opening to the public wildlife sites on a former firing range at Rainham, Essex, and clay pits at Cliffe Pools, Kent.
- Channel Tunnel stations at Stratford and Ebbsfleet mean that the Gateway will be connected to the Continent.
CAPITAL INVESTMENT
SIMON PREVITT is so convinced of the potential of Thames Gateway that he has chosen an investment in East London over Spain or Florida. In fact, he has sold a property in America to fund the purchase of two one-bedroom flats at Capital East, a Barratt development at Royal Victoria Dock.
Mr Previtt, who has been investing in property for five years, chose the flats because he felt that property prices in the area would rise. "I went for areas that had potential for growth," he says. He did not focus solely on capital growth, however. He sought somewhere that would appeal to tenants because it was already an attractive place to live. "I wanted to buy nice properties with nice views," he says. He settled on Capital East because "it is in its own little world down there at The Royals. There is a real community in an area being regenerated".
Properties have their own parking spaces, there is a gym on site, as well as a grocer’s and launderette. "There are lots of restaurants, a pub and quite a few bars," Mr Previtt says. There are also good connections to the City, to Canary Wharf and to City Airport.
