Unlocking potential at historic London dock

One of the East End of London’s least known dockland sites is being offered as a rare commercial and community development opportunity. Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) and London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC) have substantial funds allocated to site improvement and are seeking development partners to transform East India Dock Basin into a vibrant new visitor attraction. This will be the first phase of one of Britain’s largest regeneration projects, the Lower Lee Valley.

The Basin and adjacent land, which is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and lies opposite the O2 and Greenwich Peninsula, is accessible to the public but is little known and hardly used.

Savills Leisure Team is marketing the site: nearly 10 acres of land, open water and mudflats, the remnant of a much more extensive dock basin constructed in the early 1800s during the heyday of sea trade with the Far East. At its peak, East India Dock handled up to 250 ships at a time, importing tea, spices, indigo, silk and Persian carpets. The docks closed in 1967, since when the majority of the area has been infilled and built over, leaving a substantial part of the former marshalling basin to nature. The lock gates controlling boat access and tidal flow are still in place but have not been used for some years.

LVRPA and LTGDC want East India Dock Basin to become one of the premier open public spaces in the area: a destination in its own right and a gateway to the Lea River Park, a core project within LTGDC’s Corporate Plan and the Greater London Authority’s East London Green Grid and Lower Lea Valley Opportunity Area Planning Framework. The site would include quiet areas with enhanced ecology, a reactivated water basin, waterside activities including riverboat services, floating pontoons and boat moorings, retail and café units and improved transport links to Canning Town and East India stations. Leasehold structures are preferred.

Alan Plumb of Savills in Oxford says: “Potential partners will need to acknowledge LTGDC’s design framework but, at the same time, proposals should form part of an imaginative development that will complement the vision on a more commercial level, with a mix of free and pay-to-use facilities. Preserving the site’s heritage and ecology are important elements and residential development, or proposals that would significantly restrict public access, will not be acceptable.”

In order to comply with funding requirements and to capture visitor opportunities around the Olympic Games, the development must be completed in 2011. Interested parties should contact Savills in Oxford to arrange a site visit and receive a supplementary information pack, and must submit their initial proposals by 31 July 2008.

Shortlisted prospective developers will then be required to produce a detailed scheme.

For more information, visit Savills.com.