The process of regeneration consisted of a group of categories for improvement. The first category of change was transport; the LDDC spent almost half of its investment budget (of 1.8 billion) on improving the infrastructure of the Docklands. Carrying more than 80,000 passengers daily, the Docklands Light Railway – DLR - is the main feature of the improved transport plan, costing £734, and a future expansion has been planned. This railway serves as an extension to the tube and is heavily used by commuters to the major new office development on the Docklands from homes in central London, or the surrounding area. The Railway also connects to London city airport, allowing business people easy access to the airport. As well as the Railway, the scheme also improved around 100km of roads in the area.
An investment of £159 million into the utilities of the area has improved the poor drainage systems in place following the previous decline and increased electricity supply to the whole locale. This allowed the LDDC to reclaim previously derelict land, and use it to build superb new facilities – these are known as Brownfield sites, and their use is encouraged through many government scheme, grants and tax discounts.
The second major development alongside transport links was to change the environment of the area. Previously, there had been a policy of filling in the docks, to reclaim sparse land in central London, but the corporation stopped this process, and began a process of gentrification along the waterfront. They opened them up to the public, and by 1998, 31 miles of waterfront was available to the public. Water sports facilities are available on every dock, and installations of new shopping centres, entertainment facilities, such as clubs and pubs, and restaurants and bars, as shown at Salford Quays in the previous picture, made the area attractive to the public and it quickly became much visited location – now the third highest in London.
The scheme installed a large number of new commercial developments on the reclaimed Brownfield sites, which, coupled with the improved environment and infrastructure, made the Docklands an extremely popular place to work, with a massive amount of pull factors. These commercialised developments were centralised on the Isle of Dogs, which had been designated as an "Enterprise Zone", reducing business taxes for any business based there. Canary Wharf was the centre of this new business district, but the whole area showed dramatic change, as shown in these before and after pictures, becoming the new business district of London.
Community investment was also a key feature of the plan, 7% of the budget was spent on improving facilities for the re-growing docklands community, such as community centres, health clubs, sports centres and other visitor attractions and residents amenities, such as this marina, along with other everyday improvements i.e. more shops, and schools.
As not all of these improvements could be funded by the corporations own budget of £1.8 billion, they raised £7.2 billion of private investment in the area, into new shops, restaurants, print offices, and many different entertainment facilities, such as those found on the opposite side of London in the West-End, giving the area a diverse tertiary employment structure.
Significantly, so much private investment created a massive number of new jobs in the area, helping alleviate the unemployment situation. Un-employment dropped massively as the new infrastructure, improved environment, and heavy private investment encouraged business to set up there, and employees to desire to work in this new pleasant environment.
Following the increase in employment levels, the population of the docklands almost doubled, from 1971, and is still growing to this day.
Looking back on the LDDC's scheme in terms of figures, and a massively improved environment, seen in the couplets of before and after pictures throughout this article, the scheme was a success, but ultimately, this decision can only be made by the residents of the area. Because of this, I have tried to find the opinions of the residents using the results of a Mori Poll, taken from their Website www.morri.com, shown in the following graphs:
They clearly show the residents believe the scheme has been a success, so to conclude, I believe the process of re-urbanisation of the docklands has been a huge success, and that the gentrification of the area has helped to solve a multitude of environmental and social problems.
Taken from the LDDC re-generation statement (1981)
