HOW THE DERELICT DOCKS
BECAME DESIRABLE DOCKS
London Docklands, the destination of the new millennium, covers 55 miles of waterfront, starting where the City of London ends. Ten miles of the River Thames threads through the Docklands area and hundreds of acres of water provide unique "open space" for 75,000 residents and workers.

A helicopter trip at 1,000 feet over each of the main districts provides an impression of more water than land as amazed passengers look down on our watery world. It's the same for passengers on City Airport bound planes as their aircraft wheels around the Canary Wharf Tower (800 feet and the UK's tallest) for its final descent at six degrees onto the wharf runway that once welcomed cargo boats from all corners of the trading world.

The Docklands Light Railway wasn't always Britain's most successful.

Success
Docklands success is entirely due to its single regeneration agency - the first of its kind in Britain - called the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) which was given "draconian powers" to regenerate the eight square miles (22 square kilometres) of derelict Docks stretching six miles east to west and following the line of the River Thames.

From July 1981 to 30 March 1998, the LDDC totally transformed the area into one of Britain's most desirable live/work locations. A forgotten corner of London, much of it surrounded by high security walls, was regenerated as the aggressive, all powerful LDDC got to work...sweeping away the detritus of Left-wing local council dogma and stagnation and the dereliction of a once powerful Docks industry overtaken by new container technology.

The vision, grit and determination to succeed was provided by Reg Ward, a little-known New Town architect/planner. His ideas and negotiations during the formative first eight years, brought about successively:

Distinctive Red Brick Roads ("To brand the place as different")
Docklands Light Railway ("On high level tracks for maximum visibility")
District Shopping Centres ("Innovation in an area with no shops")
London City Airport ("We had a wharf long enough for a runway")
Canary Wharf Business District ("Response to banking's new technology")

Grade I Listed Georgian warehouses brought into use as homes, shops and waterside restaurants.

Reg Ward recruited 300 staff and consultants to regenerate London Docklands and kept them all on their toes by moving his command headquarters to a succession of locations throughout the area. Almost like other dictators changing their accommodation to avoid assassins in the night!

The opposition to the LDDC battalions came from local councils opposed to his methods (jealous of his progress), "wet" Tory Government ministers and wary civil servants who loved to meddle and muddle.

The Ward regime fell suddenly, the day after he concluded the biggest property deal in history with the developers of Canary Wharf in a war room manned by scores of lawyers, advisors, civil servants and spin doctors. He was forced to resign by his timorous political masters.

His successor, a high ranking army officer lasted 11 working days before he beat a hasty retreat from the Docklands regeneration trenches. His successors did not equal the impact of the Reg Ward Years as the LDDC lurched from crisis to crisis and became embroiled in long running feuds with Whitehall over transport, education, local housing and local politics the main issues getting in the way of regeneration.

After these divisions the LDDC was given more time to complete the task but even this was not enough to start regenerating the Royal Docks, the Jewel in the Crown because of their vastness and potential.

The regenerated Isle of Dogs, Wapping and Limehouse districts are handed back to the control of LB Tower Hamlets, witnessed by a large media turnout.

The last 18 months of the LDDC's life was spent in running itself down, handing over the pieces to no fewer than 21 other Governmental bodies and losing its chief executive as his political masters forced him to head-up the ill-fated Millennium Commission. He resigned within months.

The last year was also devoted to publishing a series of Monographs, that were delivered so late, piles of them were left in the LDDC reception area for anyone interested to take away.

The Monographs, written by LDDC executives and supporters, nevertheless provide the best record of those heady days when Britain first won the Regeneration Game.

In the final hours of the last day, 30 March 1998 no fewer than 31 land sale and development deals were signed off by the LDDC's executives. There were also a lot of grant agreements establishing endowments with the Royal Docks Trust, and the Isle of Dogs Community Foundation for ongoing community grants programmes and to implement a whole series of projects which the LDDC could not secure before it was wound up. The RDT, for example, got a grants endowment of £2.7m and project funding of £8+ million.

The Last Day of Deals, worth, perhaps, £70M, was a "two finger gesture" to the enemies at the gate as the Empire toppled...

LINKS
LDDC HISTORY
Regeneration Statements and Monographs

1998 Regeneration Statement:
http://www.addington3.freeserve.co.uk/lddcregen.html
Initiating Urban Change - London Docklands before the LDDC http://www.addington3.freeserve.co.uk/beforelddc.html
Starting from Scratch - The Development of Transport in London Docklands http://www.addington3.freeserve.co.uk/tranmon1.html
Part I - The Chronological Story
http://www.addington3.freeserve.co.uk/tranmon2.html
Part II - The Detailed Story
http://www.addington3.freeserve.co.uk/tranmon3.html
Part III - The Chicken or the Egg
http://www.addington3.freeserve.co.uk/tranmon4.html
A Strategy for Regeneration -
The Planning and Development Strategy of the LDDC
http://www.addington3.freeserve.co.uk/planmon1.html
Attracting Investment Creating Value -
Establishing a Property Market in London Docklands
http://www.addington3.freeserve.co.uk/propmon.html
Employment: New Jobs and Opportunities -
The Employment Strategy of the LDDC
http://www.addington3.freeserve.co.uk/empmon.html
Regeneration and the Arts in London Docklands http://www.addington3.freeserve.co.uk/artmon.html
Housing in the Renewed London Docklands -
A Major Contribution to Capital Living
http://www.addington3.freeserve.co.uk/housmon.html
Learning to Work and Live Together - The LDDC and the Local Communities
http://www.addington3.freeserve.co.uk/commongr.html
Laying the Foundations for Regeneration - Engineering in London Docklands
http://www.addington3.freeserve.co.uk/engmon.html

LDDC HISTORY
Completion Publications

Bermondsey Riverside
http://www.lddc-history.org.uk/bermondsey.html
Beckton
http://www.lddc-history.org.uk/beckton.html
Surrey Docks
http://www.lddc-history.org.uk/surrey.html
Wapping and Limehouse
http://www.lddc-history.org.uk/wapping.html
Isle of Dogs
http://www.lddc-history.org.uk/iod.html
Royal Docks
http://www.lddc-history.org.uk/royals.html

UK Government Papers
The Condition of London Docklands in 1981
http://www.regeneration.detr.gov.uk/rs/01297.htm
London Docklands Development Corporation Act 1994
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/locact94/Ukla_19940013_en_2.htm
The London Docklands Development Corp (Vesting of Land)
http://northernireland-legislation.hmso.gov.uk/si/si1989/Uksi_19891391_en_1.htm

Other Important Links
London City Airport Consultative Committee:
http://www.lcacc.org
Royal Docks Trust (London):
http://www.royaldockstrust.org
Island History Trust (Isle of Dogs community history)
http://www.islandhistory.org.uk
Civil Engineering in London Docklands
http://www.uel.ac.uk/civil-engineering/research/civil-eng_held.htm