LONDON DOCKLANDS AREA

London Docklands Area

London Docklands Area

Introduction

In the 1960s and 1970s the London Docklands economy collapsed as port industries and related businesses relocated to other ports. However, since 1980 this semi-derelict area of London, on the banks of the River Thames east of Tower Bridge and downstream from the City (the banking and financial centre of London), has become one of Europe's largest and most impressive development sites. Taking advantage of the area's access to the City, the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) has transformed the area into a thriving development of offices, industry, shops, and houses (www.lddc-history.org.uk).

Discussion

Since the nineteenth century, the port of London, with its system of docks and basins in streams dug into the banks of the Thames, was living with all the industrial areas and popular East End After the destruction of the Second World War, this area had been rebuilt under form of large apartment buildings Le Corbusier-inspired, somewhat consistent with the wishes of inhabitants. In addition to deindustrialization, relocation of maritime activities, begun in 1968, spread from East to West. It ended in 1981 with the closure of the Royals and Docks caused a true social trauma that resulted in an exodus of part of the population. The result was more or less total neglect and the transition to a wasteland of a corridor measuring more than twelve miles. That territory, some 180 hectares of water surfaces were, of canals and docks extremely polluted. There were also many obsolete equipment and numerous warehouses still strong but no longer needed (www.barco.com).

Early attempts at regeneration were initiated by local authorities, they involved the reintroduction of industrial activities, but their actions proved unrealistic quickly. In 1976, the Greater London Council, responsible at the time of development of any Greater London, drew up a series of scenarios for conversion within a “Strategic plan” (Bethan & Dorling, 2004, 171-179). But the state already financially committed to the revitalization of older areas industrial North of England, was not supportive and it followed that minimal realizations. It was not until 1981, with the government of Margaret Thatcher, that was put in place a public planning-the-London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) anchored in a policy to regenerate all urban areas in the process of abandonment.

The London Docklands Development Corporation was awarded a major grant state which was to serve for Docklands reintegrate 2,200 hectares into disuse. However, 700 of them were initially private, it was necessary first acquire and then make them viable (Urban Task Force, 1999, 93-99). The orientations of the LDDC consisted in require the total abandonment of any maritime activity or associated and also establish a functional mix diverse as possible. But the fundamental purpose of the company was reintroduced on these abandoned spaces to mechanisms and the specific dynamics of any market Urban, both real and personal property and make Docklands attractive again by private investment and the leverage that would raise public investment. There were no plans and no prescription controller building heights or the allocation of land (Hill, ...