4 7Issue 64 January-March 2008 4 74 7

THAMES GATEWAY | JOHN WORTHINGTON

Thames Gatewayp e rceptions – gi v i n gmeaning to an ideaJohn Wo rthington points out that establishing the Thames Gateway as a distinctivere gion within greater London is at least a thirty year pro j e c t .

John Worthington is aboard member ofLondon ThamesGateway DevelopmentCorporation, co-founderof DEGW, and GrahamWillis professor at theUniversity of Sheffield.

John Worthington. Co-founder of DEGW,Graham Willis professorat the University ofSheffield and Boardmember of LondonThames GatewayD e v e l o p m e n tCorporation. Johncurrently chairs theUrbanism advisory panelfor the Dublin Citymanager, is on the DCLGThames GatewayExecutive strategic panelfor the Parklands initiativeand a member of theCABE advisory groupreviewing guidance forsub-regional urbandesign. He is aprofessorial fellow `at theUniversity of Melbourneand consults on urbanissues in Scandinavia, theNetherlands and AsiaPacific.

To some the Thames Gateway is asymbol of the perils of globalwarming and the shoddy excesses ofdeveloper’s greed. To others it isrecognized as a new quarter of ametropolitan London growing wellbeyond its political boundaries. Inreality it is both a geographicallocality and a political idea. London’sgrowth east is not new.

The marshlands and fruit farms ofEssex and Kent have since the 1920’sbeen the playground and the place ofopportunity for Eastenders to escape.Forty years ago Peter Hall in London2000 prophetically recognized it aspart of the network of expandingLondon. Twenty years later SERPLANidentified the Thames as a corridorfor growth, which, soon after, wasnationally recognized by MichaelHeseltine with his commitment toDocklands. However it has been the

present Labour Government’ssustainable communitiesprogramme, planned to meet thegrowing demand for housing in thesouth east, that has re-ignited thedesignation of the “ThamesGateway” as a focus for investment.Politically it is a clear commitment toabsorbing the growth of metropoli-tan London, whilst redressing thebalance between the riches of thewest and the deprivation of the east.Culturally it looks outwards, with itsseafaring tradition, and has continu-ally absorbed new ideas through thewaves of immigration. It is perceivedboth as an area of deprivation andopportunity. Geographically theestuary is both a divider and a focus.The Gateway’s common identity isdefined by the river valley boundedat its edges by a road and rail corridorwith a common purpose of servicing

the city and acting as a conduit inter-nationally for goods. Today theGateway is part of distributed citywithin a networked region with apopulation of over 18 million. TheThames “valley to the west and the“estuary” to the east forming theeast west axis with a north south axisstretching from Brighton toCambridge. London, like other majormetropolitan conurbations is shiftingfrom a single dominant centre to adistributed network of centres,connected by a transport system thatbye passes the historical centre.

Major cities are changing fromsingle centres to networked conurba-tions. At a global scale cities tocompete need sufficient critical massto provide diversity and the widestchoice of opportunity. In Europe thephenomenon is clear. Amsterdammay be the name we know but it is

London, part of a distributed andnetworked region

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THAMES GATEWAY | JOHN WORTHINGTON

the six million population of theRandstad, Amsterdam, Utrecht,Rotterdam, the Hague, and the “innercity” airport of Schiphol, whichprovides the competitive criticalmass. Similarly the 11 million inhabi-tants of the Rhine-Ruhr (Dortmund,Essen, Dusseldorf, Cologne) havecreated a powerful city region. TheOresund with the completion of thebridge linking Copenhagen andMalmo, crosses political boundariesand with a population of 3.5 million isestablishing another globally compet-itive centre. These new urban conur-bations (Fig 1) are too big to conceiveas one entity. They have blurred andoverlapping boundaries, expressmultiple meanings and are an idearather than a precise geographicalarea. The idea is invariably given formby topography, reinforced by trans-port infrastructure. San Francisco bayarea around its bay, Copenhagen,Malmo around the Oresund, orKobe/Osaka/Kyoto focused on thefeatures of water.

Arguably each of us has our ownpersonal definition of our city, reflect-ing our values, expectations anddemands. We have” the city of ourimagination”, which can be exploredvirtually on the web from thecomfort of our home. Secondly wehave the “city of convenience” aportfolio of outlets which reflects ourunique demands. We may driveoutwards to an Ikea to give usconvenience, choice and a competi-tive price, or to the historical core toenjoy the experience of browsing tofind the perfect present. Lastly wedefine our city through “place” theneighbourhood we know, e.g KingsRoad Chelsea, Marleybone Highstreet or the City of London. How thecity or a segment of a city isperceived depends on whose eyes itis perceived through, and what ise x p e c t e d .

The Gateway focused around thedefining theme of Estuary crosses

political boundaries, with threeregional development authorities,two development corporations, 18Delivery agencies and 26 localauthorities.

It’s strengths are its paradoxes. Itis flanked by the well connected A13and M20 corridors with the isolationof the marshes beyond. It is bothintegrated by its heritage of the seabut divided by the topography of theestuary. It has pockets of wealth andprivilege alongside areas of social andeconomic deprivation. It offers theintensity of an urban lifestyle along-side the emptiness of the marshes. Ithosts the transient holiday communi-ties of Canvey and Allhallows along-side the historically rooted communi-ties such as at Cliffe, Leigh orSheerness. Terry Farrell’s “big idea’ forthe Gateway recognized the opportu-nities of these differences and aimed

to intensify existing areas of develop-ment and intensify the natural areasbetween. What the Netherlands hasachieved so successfully with theRandstad, which they typecast as alow density city in a high densitylandscape. Farrell’s vision is morethan a park. The green is a metaphorand rallying flag for accessibility forall to a sustainable life style whichintegrates work and leisure in a selfsupporting local economy.

We are familiar with articulatingthe meaning of towns through thephysical structure of their centres.Dublin straddling the corridor of theLiffey and bounded by the canals,though low density, has a recogniza-ble structure. Metropolitan regionssuch as Melbourne, or the Randstadare harder to articulate. Newfunctions are emerging along trans-port corridors, but they often lack

identity. They are not distinctiveplaces.

The Dutch with their strong tradi-tion of making and shaping the landhave not been afraid to envisionregional planning as an exercise inurban design. Jo Coenen when he wasappointed State Architect drewtogether a number of design teamsto envision the Randstad. TeunKoolhaas, an urbanist and architectwho had been instrumental in theplanning of the new polders and theestablishment of Almere new townwas given the opportunity to envisionthe northern sector of the Randstad,The municipalities of Amsterdam andAlmere funded the establishment of astudio overlooking the Ij where focusgroups were held to plan and discussopportunities for the area, reflectthese in rough models and establish avision (Fig 2). Teun tragically died of

cancer earlier this year, but the visionfor a networked city region linkingAmsterdam, Almere, Hilversum andUtrecht is established and the city ofAlmere within this wider context isexploring its future for 2030.

Emscher Landscape Park coveringan area of 3.5 million population and20 municipalities, has used theoverarching idea of a series oflandscape projects to integrate, givemeaning and instill pride in a declin-ing industrial area, which till the endof the second world war was theengine room of Germany. To kickstart the regeneration of the areafrom 1990 to 1999 a series of events,

such as the garden festival and anexciting cultural biennale, in associa-tion with a series of major regenera-tion projects were initiated under thebanner of the IBA. Fifteen years laterthe transformation has beendramatic, with a small team, a masterplan has been prepared which all themunicipalities are committed to andsets the strategy through to 2010.Emscher has many lessons. It gavestrong intellectual and politicalleadership from the centre, whilstallowing the maximum local initia-tive. It set aspirations and definedvalues. It was visionary in its thinking,but delivered successfully by acting

incrementally at a local level. It builtconfidence through events, which ranparallel to major reconstructionprojects that have changed thelandscape. Finally through majorpublic sector commitment, to strate-gically located infrastructure projects,it created a critical mass to changeperceptions and attract privatei n v e s t m e n t .

The Government’s ThamesGateway Executive has been learningfrom abroad. CABE has been giventhe task of teasing out the meaningand identity of the Gateway to artic-ulate the opportunities and ”makenew things happen’ (Fig 3). Farrell’s

“big idea” of the estuary nationalpark, has stimulated the “Parklands’programme with Terry as thechampion. The Parklands initiative,with vision can give aspiration, form,meaning, and goals for the region.The green grid plans already preparedfor East London, South Essex, andKentside, are the fruitful beginningsof an overarching spatial plan tointegrate the specific, building, siteand area initiatives. Parklands,supported by the green grid, has theopportunity to be more than a park.It can be the physical expression ofthe aspirations and values of anemerging sector of metropolitan

THAMES GATEWAY | JOHN WORTHINGTON

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5 0 Planning in London

THAMES GATEWAY | JOHN WORTHINGTON

London, through the environmentalstandards it sets, the quality of designit aspires to and the new patterns ofworking and living it supports. KenLivingstone, the Mayor of London inhis introduction to the plan for EastLondon’s Green Grid describes itsvalue as offering ‘scope for solitudeand sociability, physical activity andengagement with nature. By cateringfor a range of expectations and byaddressing the environmentalchallenges ahead, it will grow tobecome the living thread that weavestogether the communities of EastLondon-new and old’ (Fig 4).

In four years the Gateway hasmatured in articulating its distinctiverole as part of metropolitan London.The High speed rail link from centralLondon, via Stratford and Ebbsfleet tothe continent is open. The proposedcontainer port at Shellhaven hasplanning permission. The Olympicswill open in 2012, and the Gateway ison the map. Yvette Cooper at lastmonth’s Thames Gateway Forum setout a proposed spending programmefor 2008-11 of £500 million forregeneration and £100 million forlocal transport improvements withina total Government investmentcommitment of over £9 billion. Thethree major themes for positivechange she identified as: a strongeconomy, improvements in thequality of life and the development ofthe Gateway as an eco-region. Thechallenge will be to come to acommon understanding of what eachof these three themes will mean, andthe potential trade offs required toachieve our expectations.

London Thames GatewayDevelopment Corporation Is commit-ted, in addition to delivering theGovernment’s targets, to changingperceptions of the east of London (Fig5). The proposed SustainableIndustries Park proposed atDagenham dock, will be a beacon forthe transformation of what were

perceived as blighting industries, toclean, productive uses. The marshesat Rainham have been transformedand sensitively opened to the publicas a managed nature reserve ofregional significance. The village ofRainham, with the amenity ofWildspace (Rainham marshes) closeby, its historic character and goodaccess to central London by C2C isbeing nurtured as a high qualitylocation for family living. The 10,800home, 324 hectare, joint venturedevelopment by English Partnershipsand Bellway Homes at Barking river-side, aims to create a diversity ofsettings for individual expression andthe opportunity for a thrivingcommunity to grow.

Establishing the Thames Gatewayas a distinctive region within greaterLondon is at least a thirty yearproject. We can build rapidly but ittakes far longer to grow a commu-nity. The next ten years whilstfocused on the political imperativesof delivering homes and housesshould not lose site of the need tochange perceptions and invest in the

cultural, recreational, educational andenvironmental projects. In an era ofrapid change it is perhaps foolhardyto make long term blueprints for thefuture. Plans need to be flexible andopportunistic. Plans are increasingly aportfolio of projects, some big somesmall, long and short term, standalone and integral, some soft (events)others constructed. The integratingfeature is the statement of purpose(vision) and the long term publicinvestment of infrastructure, utilitiesand structure landscaping, invariably

given direction by a strong political orintellectual champion. In metropoli-tan New York the New York portauthority provided an overarchingspatial strategy. In San Francisco Bayarea rapid transport (BART) becamethe integrator. Similarly metropolitanregions have been given focus bycharismatic mayors (Daly in Chicago).Modelled on Transport for London,could there be a regional infrastruc-ture planning group integrating infra-structure and utilities?

Source: Design for London

Source: Nigel Coates, Mixtacity