Canning Town Walk (June 2007)
7 Royal Victoria Docks from the footbridge
From the top of the bridge there is a splendid view in all directions. Starting a the ExCeL centre and moving clockwise we see:
ExCel, standing for Exhibition centre london, an LDDC idea, but not completed and opened until 2000. Has attracted many hotels to the area – including the floating Sunborn Yacht hotel.
In the distance, you can see East London University, one of the developments on the Royal Albert Dock, which is worth a visit of its own, particularly for the group of cylindrical student residences, looking rather like oil storage tanks.
East London University and flight path beacons for City Airport, King
George V Dock, North Woolwich
Closer than that, spanning the area and separating the Royal Victoria Docks from the two later Royal Albert and King George V docks is the Connaught Crossing, completed in 1990.
The large area on the right of the dock, including the area of water off from the main dock and the large bulk of Millenium Mills (buit for Spillers flour in 1933) is the Silvertown Quays site, a £1.5 billion development that got planning permission in May 2007. This includes conversion of the mills into flats, 5,000 new homes, various community facilities, a lively town centre for Silvertown and the Biota! Project, a large aquarium designed by Terry Farrell & Partners for London Zoo. (though we don't expect it to be anything like as good as The Deep in Hull!)
Close to the bridge is Eastern Quay (2003 Gardner Stewart Architects), constructed with a steel frame and is one of the first residential apartment blocks in the United Kingdom to have fully-glazed exterior walls. It uses advanced glazing technology to stop residents getting fried.
The large development, mainly of fairly small houses is Brittania Village, which began in 1994 with a Peabody development of 85 homes. The LDDC then made a deal with Wimpey for 777 more, along with some limited community facilities, including a primary school, in 1995. The area was completed with a few more Peabody trust and East Thames Housing Group properties.
Walk or take the lift down to dock level at the south end of the bridge, and walk through the arch at the centre of the semi-circular ring of shops.
Here there is a plaque marking the opening of the West Silvertown Urban Village by the government minister Selwyn Gummer in 1996.
Turn left and then right at the roundabout with a tall chimney and walk down Mill Road to the main road (North Woolwich Road.)
The large chimney in the middle of the roundabout dates from the 1930s. At the southern end of Mill Road are some workers cottages which appear to date from around 1900.
Cross the main road to the south side, taking great care. A suitably placed pedestrian crossing is only in planning application stage!
If you have plenty of time, you might like to make a detour to Lyle Park at this point, off Bradfield Road, a couple of hundred yards to the east. The park was presented to West Ham by Abraham Lyle & Son in 1924 and contains the fine metal gates from Harland & Wolff Ltd, ship builders, ship repairers and engineers in Woolwich Manor Way, Beckton from 1924-1972 (their actual shipyards were in Belfast and Govan.) The park also provides good views across the Thames to Greenwich Millenium Village and elsewhere.
next: The Silvertown Memorial
