Università di Pisa
Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Energia, dei Sistemi,
del Territorio e delle Costruzioni
Corso di Laurea in Ingegneria Edile-Architettura
Tesi di Laurea
in lingua inglese
Candidato
Alessio Lombardi
Relatori
Prof. Ing. Valerio Cutini, Università di Pisa
Prof.ssa Enriqueta Llabres Valls, Bartlett School of Architecture
Proposta di riqualificazione urbana
per la zona di South Dagenham a Londra
Requalification intervention proposal
for the area of South Dagenham
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Table of contents
1. Introduction ... 4
Why a new development in London: the city growth and evolving urban form ... 4
1.1. Site choice: why Barking and Dagenham? ... 5
1.2. 1.2.1. Central London is losing population ... 5
1.2.2. The growth of Outer London ... 6
1.2.3. Choice of Barking and Dagenham ... 7
Project phases ... 9
1.3. 2. Gathering of basic information ... 11
Site identification ... 11
2.1. Site context historical review: Barking and Dagenham ... 16
2.2. Key development areas in Barking and Dagenham: ongoing projects and opportunity sites ... 20
Review of UK’s planning system with regards to Barking and Dagenham ... 28
2.4. 2.4.1. Brief review of the planning instruments and current planning provisions in Barking and Dagenham ... 30
2.4.2. Planning obligations, regulations and good practice guides considered in the project ... 33
2.4.3. Another case study comparison ... 34
3. Analysis 37 Local level: network and context analysis ... 37
3.1. 3.1.1. Analysis of the Borough’s network in relation with the land use ... 38
3.1.2. Site connections in relation with its context ... 42
Site scale analysis ... 46
3.2. 3.2.1. Site current status and parcels ownerships ... 46
3.2.2. Analysis: site history ... 50
3.2.3. Analysis: site network ... 53
3.2.4. Analysis: site surroundings ... 55
3.2.5. Site height distribution ... 57
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4. Synthesis and concept: preliminary project (Metaprogetto) ... 61
5. Implementation ... 62
Zoning plan ... 62
5.1. 5.1.1. Zoning: density provisions and typology choices ... 62
Planimetric and Volumetric Project (Planivolumetrico) ... 65
5.2. 5.2.1. The choice of the terraced house typology ... 65
5.2.2. Planning guidances in the planimetric and volumetric project ... 66
Architectural zoom of a salient area: Ford Historical Centre proposal ... 67
5.3. 6. Appendix: possible future developments ... 69
A collaborative approach towards the design ... 69
6.1. 7. Appendix: planning in the United Kingdom ... 72
8. Appendix: zoning planning ... 74
Bibliography and gathered data sources ... 76
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Synopsis
This thesis concerns a redevelopment proposal for a site located within the Borough of Barking and Dagenham, in eastern London.
The area has a growing urban environment and a peculiar industrial past, making it an
interesting but problematic location for any redevelopment. At the same time, the prospected growth of the Borough conveys an urgent and radical urban intervention.
The project aims to outline an overall plan for a largely unused area in the Borough, with the purpose of activating its potentials while reconnecting the urban context – therefore providing for the Borough growth needs.
The work is structured in four sections.
In the introduction, the choice of the site is explained, as well as the reasons that drive the proposal and the structure of the work.
The second part will describe the gathering of the basic information of the area of intervention; its purpose is to introduce the following analysis phase.
The third part concerns all the proposed analysis of the site area and its surroundings, and enclose all the information that have been taken into account in the project proposal. A final conclusive fourth part ensues, which will include the description of the proposal.
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1. Introduction
The thesis concerns a redevelopment proposal for a site located within the Borough of Barking and Dagenham, in eastern London.
The area has a growing urban environment and a peculiar industrial past, making it an
interesting but problematic location for any redevelopment. At the same time, the prospected growth of the Borough conveys an urgent and radical urban intervention.
The project aims to outline an overall plan for a largely unused area in the Borough, with the purpose of activating its potentials while reconnecting the urban context – therefore providing for the Borough growth needs.
Why a new development in London:
1.1.
the city growth and evolving urban form
The 2011 census results show that London (the Greater London Authority, which is Inner and Outer London) experienced its greatest percentage population growth in more than 100 years (1891 to 1901).
London added nearly 1,000,000 new residents since 2001. That growth, however, is not an indication that "people are moving back to the city." On the contrary, National Statistics data indicates that London lost 740,000 domestic migrants between 2001 and 2011. The continuing core net domestic migration losses have been replicated in other major European metropolitan core areas, such as Milan, Vienna, Stockholm and Helsinki. The vast majority of the growth, as typical in major European core municipalities, has come from net international migration. London added 690,000 residents between 2001 and 2010. This pattern has become more prevalent since European Union enlargement, when Eastern Europeans began moving in much larger numbers to the United Kingdom and other richer areas.
London first became the world's largest urban area in the first quarter of the 19th century, displacing Beijing. At that time, London was approaching 1.4 million residents, living in an urban area of approximately 15 square miles (40 square kilometres).
Today, Inner London, the Outer London suburbs and two rings of exurbs spread 10,500 square miles (27,000 square kilometres), with a population of 20.3 million. In this context, the urban area (the continuous built up area) – circumscribed for more than one-half century by the Greenbelt – appears to have a population of 9.5 million, which would place it 27th in population in the world.
This surprising growth has caused the authorities to develop multiple plans to supply a sufficient amount of built environment. Among those is the London Plan and its
implementations, which indicate the housing supply needs of the city. As a result, more and more developable areas were made available for new projects, almost making London a live construction site.
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Site choice: why Barking and Dagenham?
1.2.
1.2.1. Central London is losing population
The London region is composed of the Greater London Authority (GLA), which includes Inner London, the historical core municipality, covering approximately the same geographical area as the old London County Council from the 1890s to the 1960s, and Outer London, the great suburban expanse consisting of detached and semi-detached housing.
GLA is surrounded by the Greenbelt, established to contain the expansion of the urban area after World War II, and, at least at first, to decentralize London's unhealthy and overcrowded conditions. Beyond the Greenbelt are the East of England and the Southeast, which are
composed of a first exurban ring of historical county areas, adjacent to the Greenbelt, and a second ring of historical county areas in the East and Southeast, beyond the first ring. Virtually all new urban expansion in the London region was forced into the exurbs by the Greenbelt.
As a result, most of the recent London region's growth has happened outside the Greenbelt, as showed in the chart.
Inner London has been a population growth miracle over the past two decades. The 2011 population was 3.2 million, up more than 450,000 from 2001 and nearly 900,000 since 1991. However, the 1991 figure of 2.3 million was more than one-half below the 5,000,000 peak reached in 1911. Even though historical core city losses are typical (where geography is held constant), Inner London's loss was huge, at more double those sustained in Chicago (since 1950) and Paris (since 1921). The core of Inner London was developed as a walking city and expanded substantially with the coming of transit. At approximately 26,000 residents per square mile (10,000 per square kilometre), Inner London is less than one-half the density of the ville de Paris and far less dense not only than Manhattan but even less dense than the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Yet, despite the recent increases, inner London's 2011 population is lower than counted in the 1861 census.
Even with the population, increase Inner London lost 390,000 domestic migrants to other parts of Great Britain between 2001 and 2010 (the detailed 2011 data is not yet available at this level).
One example can be the case of Tower Hamlets. This area is located just to the east of the Fig. 1 Domestic Migration (movimenti
della popolazione locale) in London, years 2001 – 2010.
6 Tower Bridge in Inner London on the north bank of the Thames, so it is very close to the City centre. It is home to substantial new development spurred by the rapid growth of the financial services industry both in the square mile (City of London) and Canary Wharf. Tower Hamlets grew to 254,000 in 2011, a nearly 80 percent increase from the 142,000 registered in 1981, less than its 1801 population. But like Inner London, Tower Hamlets used to be much more populous, reaching a record for a London borough at 597,000 residents in 1901. It then lost more than 75 percent of its population over the next 80 years.
1.2.2. The growth of Outer London
Outer London, which was combined into the Greater London Council in 1965 (and the Greater London Authority in 2000) also grew strongly, from 4.4 million to 4.9 million, outpacing Inner London (green Line in the chart). Outer London’s population is now at its peak population, and it’s keeping its pace.
Population density is 10,000 per square mile (4,000 per square kilometre); like Inner London, Outer London also lost domestic migrants, with a net 310,000 residents leaving for other parts of the United Kingdom.
This data led the choice of focusing the research in an area where the development was needed more than in other parts of the city.
Fig. 2 Population in the London Region from 1891. Inner and Outer London with its exurban
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1.2.3. Choice of Barking and Dagenham
The Greater London extent includes 32 boroughs. It includes the inner London and outer London municipalities, which as shown are growing at different paces.
The borough of Barking and Dagenham reflects the growth of the outer London areas;
furthermore, it has an increasing household need which places it over the mean growth needs of the other London boroughs.
Fig. 3 Household needs for Borough, future projection (2015 - 2041) Source: Household Estimates, London DataStore http://data.london.gov.uk/
This means that in addition of the fact that its population is increasing more than in other parts of the City, the borough is needing an effective development of the built area, thus requiring active interventions of urban planning.
The Barking and Dagenham Local Plan outlines the housing needs of the borough, which highlights the steep development of its built environment, both current and projected in the future. The plan describes many objectives that needs to be achieved in the future years to keep up with the requests of the London Plan. The purpose of creating new housing is here strongly connected with the necessity of generating local work, both to fill up the requirements of the existing industry and its projected growth.
8 Fig. 4 Housing target in Barking and Dagenham. As outlined in the borough's Development
Framework, the housing target is a primary development need which relates to the needs of creating local work and requalifying the urban context. Source: London Datastore
In addition to all this, the Borough houses many interesting developable areas which have been taken into account in the past two decades by the London Plan and the local plans, and which requires active interventions of requalification in relation to their urban context. These factors make Barking and Dagenham a primary choice for an urban renewal proposal.
The site of the intervention was selected among the Site Specific Allocations, contained in the Local Development Framework of Barking and Dagenham, which is the final implementation of the requests of the London Plant down to the local level. This choice will be described in the following chapter (§2.1, Site identification, page 11).
The proposal takes into account the specificity of the site, by an extensive study of the area in relation with its context in the Greater London area. Its urban planning history has been considered, along with some relevant or interesting examples of redevelopment and urban proposals in the area.
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Project phases
1.3.
As every urban development project, the issues to be faced are multiple and diverse. The complex urban fabric and the extension of the site area were tackled by dividing the work of analysis and project in phases and sub-phases. Being a source of inspiration for this thesis project, John M. Levy’s Contemporary Urban Planning1 has also been followed as a guideline for envisioning this work as a whole.
In this chapter, the phases of the project are introduced as a summary and briefly explained one by one. In the following chapters, each phase will be fully described, with regards to the specificity of the proposal.
1. Gathering of basic information
In this first phase, various basic information on the context of the site have been gathered, such as:
Environment and history of the context.
After a first description of the site context, this initial review will focus on a summary of the history of Barking and Dagenham, as a starting point for the new
development. A history of the specific site will be saved for later, in the site analysis phase, because it will be placed side by side with some focused analysis and design decisions.
Key development projects in the context.
These act as a source of inspiration for the following design proposal, and demonstrate the interests and the investments of the local administration in the development of the area.
Review of the Planning Policies that take into account the site and its context. These are the guidances that regards both the site and its context, and that will be driving the project proposal later on.
This first phase will be summarized in the first and second thesis panel.
2. Analysis:
identification of Critical Areas, Fixed Areas and Resource Areas (Criticità, Invarianti e Risorse)
As John M. Levy suggests2, a division of the site in different type of areas may help the designer to know what parts of the city can accommodate growth and change and what parts are essentially fixed because they may be occupied, for example, by historical
landmarks. This concept has been elaborated to include a classic methodology followed by some Italian schools, which commonly divide the site in:
Criticità (Critical or Hard Areas): areas where improvements are of the utmost importance because of their underdevelopment or for other reasons;
1 John M. Levy, Contemporary Urban Planning, 2010, p. 180. 2 John M. Levy, Contemporary Urban Planning, 2010, p. 73.
10 Risorse (Resource Areas): key zones which are strategic for the development,
meaning that they can accommodate growth or that they are of prime importance in defining the development in the site;
Invarianti (Fixed Areas): parts that are being fixed as per their importance in the definition of the character of the site.
To pursue this objective, the site and its surrounding will be thoroughly studied and some maps, or draft, will be produced, and these will then become part of the thesis’ panels. Starting from the context, the attention will be then focused on the site.
The analysis phase will be included in the third and fourth thesis panel.
3. Synthesis and concept:
preliminary project (Metaprogetto)
In this phase, the data gathered and the design decisions play a decisive role in the definition of the character of the project. Prior to the complete development of the plan, there are several activities that needs to be defined, by the means of imagining how they will be put into the final project. This will help to decide the best compromise between the necessities impending on the site.
As a result, a Preliminary project or Metaprogetto will be made, which represents how all the data coming from the analysis has been taken into account into a unique proposal in the form of a concept. This first idea will then be materialized into an architectural project in the following phase.
This phase will be represented by a single draft, included in the fourth thesis panel.
4. Implementation
The ideas exposed into the Preliminary project are further defined and materialized into three final drafts:
Zoning plan
Aims to examine the relationship of activities among the various land uses and the way that they relate to circulation systems. This study is built on the land-use planning, and carry in the urban design while taking into account the provisions for the area, with regards to the need of housing, parking and other destinations, as well as to public infrastructure such as street and railway networks.
Planimetric and volumetric project (elaborato planivolumetrico).
It will describe the decided disposition of the buildings and will suggest their orientation, as well as their surface and their volumes.
Architectural project of a salient area.
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2. Gathering of basic information
Site identification
2.1.
The chosen site lies within the Thames riverside area, in the borough of Barking and
Dagenham. It is on the north bank of the Thames, 15 kilometres east of the City of London.
This area is part of the Barking and Dagenham Development Plan, is one of the largest sites of planned development in London, covering an area of approximately 150 hectares, with almost 5 kilometres of river frontage. The general developing area is stretching from Westferry, in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets, to the Isle of Sheppey at the North Sea coast, and is therefore fully included in the so-called Thames Gateway area.
The Thames Gateway area has been explicitly designated as a national priority for urban regeneration. This area has been defined by the London Plan, and therefore it further define the objectives of the growth within its boundaries. An example of an urban development occurred within this area is the Canary Warf district. The inclusion of an area in the Thames Gateway usually make it interesting for new investments.
Fig. 5 Greater London area with its administrative subdivisions (boroughs), with the Green Belt boundary and the Thames Gateway area.
12 The specific site has been initially chosen among the former Key Regeneration Areas of the 2010 Barking and Dagenham Development Plan, which is an implementation of the London Plan. This plan, prepared during 2009, defined many allotments available from
redevelopment. Of these, two separate sites were the most interesting for a new development, since they were both requiring a deep intervention on the urban scale. Surrounding the Ford Stamping Plant, there was the South Dagenham West site, also known as Orion Park, a former Ford surface recently sold to in part to the public administration and to privates. On the east side of the Stamping Plant, the South Dagenham west site was included in the Development Plan.
Both these sites were surrounding the Stamping Plant, and the borough’s Development Plan was taking into account the activity of the industry in defining the objective for the urban requalification that would have made on the areas.
Fig. 6 The South Dagenham West site, also known as Orion Park, as described in the Barking and Dagenham Development Plan in 2010. Its key regeneration area code was SSA SM2.
13 Fig. 7 The South Dagenham East site, also known as Beam Park, as described in the Barking and
Dagenham Development Plan in 2010. Its key regeneration area code was SSA SM4. After the sudden Ford decision of closing the Tooling and Stamping Plant in 2013, the
Development Plan was reviewed during 2014 and a new report that describes the chosen site was released at the beginning of 2015.
This document is the Review of Planning Policy for South Dagenham. It takes into account the new availability of the site of the former Stamping Plant, suggesting that its land use will be converted from Industrial Land into Developable Land. At the same time, it consider the newly redistributed properties within the previous sites, as will be described later (§Errore. L'origine
riferimento non è stata trovata.3.2.1, Site current status and parcels ownerships, page
46Errore. L'origine riferimento non è stata trovata.). In substance, a new site has been defined, which put together the two old ones, as shown in the following image. This area is the one chosen for this thesis project proposal.
14 Fi g. 8 The ch osen site as sh o w ed in the 2014 revision of the Barking and Dagenh am Local Plan. The site now incorporates the previous parcels of SSA SM4 (B ea m Park) and of SSA SM 2 (So u th Dag enha m West).
15 The site is defined by a complex fabric of networks, the primary being the National Railroad which shape its southern edge. On its north border runs the two carriageway New Road which connects the eastern and the western parts of the borough.
On the east side, the site ends close to a secondary north-south road which traverse the railroad, while on the west side it is shaped by the A13 trunk road.
Taking the cue from the Review of Planning Policy for South Dagenham, and following a deep analysis which will be described in the following chapters, multiple objectives for the
development have been set. In summary, a sensible goal for the development would be to activate the area, to make it accessible for all the residents of the boroughs and transform it into a focal point. A better connection with the urban context would work as a generator for a new economy, attract new commercial businesses and retain and generate jobs in the area. The history and of the site and of its context has been taken into account, as well as the urban typologies existing in Barking and Dagenham.
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Site context historical review: Barking and Dagenham
2.2.
Barking flourished as a fishing port from the 1400s until late Victorian times, with the creation of the Barking fishing fleet, one of the most important in the country.
In these early times, Barking economic life was mainly related to an important historical site, the Barking Abbey. This religious structure had a big influence on its immediate and wider economic area during the XVI century. The Abbey was rich and influential because of its royal patronage and was the most important Abbey in England until Henry VIII ordered its destruction in 1538 after he formed the Church of England.
After the loss of its religious centre, the borough’s expansion kept increasing mainly because of its proximity to London, which made it a convenient place of residence for politicians and government officials from the XVI century.
In 1850 Barking was full of fishermen, shipwrights, masts makers, sail makers, ships chandlers, water keg makers, pork cask makers, net makers, knitters, waterproof clothing and boot
makers and ship biscuits bakers. However, the areas lack of diversity in the economic sectors made it dangerously susceptible to economic competition and change.
As the fishing industry declined, new industries moved into the area.
In 1857 an artificial fertilizer and sulphuric acid factory was built at Creekmouth in Barking, on the shores of the Thames. This was followed by the largest jute works in the world opening in 1866, which employed women and children to make mail sacks. River transport by barges along the River Roding was particularly popular and by the beginning of the Twentieth Century was helping Fig. 10 Barking at the beginning of 1920s
Fig. 9 - An impression of Barking Abbey in the Sixteenth Century. Drawing by F.J. Tingey, 1966, from Barking and District Historical Society, http://www.barkinghistory.co.uk/, consulted in May 2015
17 Barking to be attract small factories to its riverside sites.
At the beginning of the XX century, heavy industry and chemical plants opened, together with oil refineries and storage buildings for hazardous waste. Pollution from some factories left legacies in the town for years. For example, an asbestos factory built in 1913 gave Barking one of the highest death rates in the country from asbestosis.
In the nearby Dagenham development was slower. In 1887 a barge builder called Samuel Williams built a new deep water dock on the Thames. His dock was slow to attract new businesses until 1921, when farms were compulsorily purchased to build the Becontree Estate for those who fought in World War I.
This residential area still exists and is close to the current residential centre of Dagenham. Becontree estates is the most extensive residential area in the borough, and represent a prominent architectural character. Its in-line houses are a
fundamental architectural type and they will be taken into account in the project proposal, as will be showed later on.
Some of the remaining compulsory purchased areas left free from farms were offered for sale. This led Ford Motor Company to acquire 244 acres of Dagenham marshland from Samuel Williams & Sons, and in 1929-31 Ford built a large car factory.
This industry is located on the west part of Dagenham. When it opened in 1931, it was made of a single large building located close to the Thames River. In the Sixties, following the post-war economic boom, Ford built another building for the production of the bodywork of the cars: the Ford Stamping and Tooling Plant, its building located within the area of the site chosen for this proposal.
Fig. 11 Becontree estate in early 1920s
18 The overall workforce of the Ford industry peaked to 40000 people in the Sixties. The car
production slowly decreased over time and saw a steep fall after the Eighties, with Ford’s decision of focusing these plants more on the production of engines.
In the same years, Becontree Estate construction ended, reaching the southern part of the Borough close to the railway line.
From the sixties to the eighties the situation in the borough remain substantially unchanged. Its character was that of a industrially-oriented suburb, with its two Ford plants, the low-density Becontree residential area which hosted the most part of the industries workforce, and the two low-developed borough centres of Barking and Dagenham. The production of the two Ford plants had been going fairly well until the last economic crisis of 2008, with the exception of the Stamping Plant, whose activity had been decreased more and more during the years. In fact, with the advent of low-cost labour from Eastern countries, the production of the internal parts of the cars had been moved primarily abroad.
In 2007, planned investments were about to revitalize the activities of the stamping plant, but the new economic crisis changed Ford’s plans. After the crisis, Ford further reduced the
activities of the Tooling and Stamping Plant. This decay followed Ford’s decision, announced in October 2012, that the stamping plant activities at Dagenham would cease in Summer 2013. This decision was unexpected by the municipality of Barking and Dagenham itself, as proven by the fact that their 2010 planning provisions for the district envisioned the Ford Stamping plant as a fixed area within the surrounding development sites. The loss of jobs in the Stamping Plant was softened by Ford’s policy of re-employing a part of the workers in the oldest south plant, which in the meantime would be expanded for a new line of production of car engines. With a 2014 update of the Barking and Dagenham planning provisions, the Ford Stamping plant and the other former Ford areas nearby were joined in a new development site, requiring a new comprehensive effort to plan the whole new area.
Today, the urban fabric of Barking and Dagenham show the remnants of its industrial past mainly in its Riverside. In fact, the borough presents a completely different character between the northern areas and the southern areas — the element of subdivision being the A13 trunk road which traverse the whole municipality, running from East Ham towards Rainham. The northern parts of the borough of Barking and Dagenham are now predominantly
residential, while the southern parts adjacent to the river are the areas of the declined indus-trial activity.
Visible results of the overall deindustrialization are the various abandoned or unused areas, together with a scattered amount of brownfield land and therefore requiring determined and massive interventions. The main issues are a lack of access to public transport, services, employment and affordable quality housing.
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Key development areas in Barking and Dagenham: ongoing
projects and opportunity sites
Barking and Dagenham are now quickly
expanding and multiple development plans have taken into account a revitalization of the entire boroughs. Also, many urban planning projects have already been developed for the provisioned expansion of Barking and Dagenham. Although in course of realization, these project are being taken into account for driving this thesis
proposal, together with the development plans. The most important intervention currently planned are reviewed and taken into account as an inspiration to the project. Among those:
1) Barking Riverside redevelopment
2) The London Sustainable Industries Park 3) New Barking civic centre
4) Academy Central 5) London Businesseast.
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1 Barking Riverside Redevelopment
The Barking riverside has been for years a critical area because of the diffused brownfield land left by the deindustrialization.
The Barking Riverside project was developed by Maxwan Architects, a studio based in Rotterdam, and will be built within the next 20 years.
The project proposes housing for 25’000 people in 11’000 new homes, urban facilities (shops, bars, restaurants, recreation, sports), schools, a large urban park, multiple public squares, ecological values and an animated riverfront resulting in 2000 new jobs.
Accessibility to the river will be one of the features increasing value for the new residents and the inhabitants of the adjoining borough of Dagenham. The masterplan describes in detail the structure and quality of the urban space.
Another important feature of this project, that will be taken as a source of inspiration when designing the proposal (§3.2.6, Flooding risk considerations, page 59) is the architectural studio’s approach towards the flooding risk. By envisioning a system of streams, along with a complex water management system devised by the involved engineering company, the water has the possibility of being distributed over the site, therefore improving the speed of filtration in the soil and limiting the damage that may occur during flooding. This choice went alongside with the design decision of minimizing the built surface and concrete floors in the exteriors, using mainly water-filtering pavements.
Fig. 13 – Plan overview of the New Barking Riverside. Image reference: Hovelled, http://hovelled.com/barking-riverside-development, consulted June 2015
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2 London Sustainable Industries Park
The London Sustainable Industries Park site has been an area of change since the 17th Century. Back then the Thames would periodically breach the beleaguered sea defences, turning the land to water. Having finally repaired the Thames wall through a huge feat of remarkable engineering in 1719, a lake was created and the area became popular for fishing. Gradually land was reclaimed from the lake and deep docks created in the 19th Century using innovative steel reinforced concrete post system designed specifically for this site.
From the 19th century to the first half of the 20th, the area used to host a coal-fired power station. This was then decommissioned after the World War II, leaving the area as a vast brownfield, partially contaminated.
In 1972 began the recovery of the area with the establishment of an industrial park, which put together various manufacturers that relied upon each other for material inputs, delivered through the near railway line.
In 2010, a new masterplan for developing the area was presented. The project, called the London Sustainable Industries Park (LSIP), proposed a restructuring of the industrial park, which will be mixed with a business destination, offering up to 75,000 square meters of land with infrastructure.
Fig. 14 – New Barking Riverside mock up view.
23 Fig. 15 LSIP site during the 1920s and a mock-up view of the prospected redevelopment
First image source: Barking Historical Society, http://www.barkinghistory.co.uk/, consulted May 2015. Second image source: LSIP online website, http://www.londonsip.com/, consulted March 2015.
The key idea for the new development is to enable a sharing of resources and the exchanging of by-products between businesses. This way, the LSIP is expected to deliver cost savings and competitive advantages to those who locate here.
This sharing of materials, water and energy by local industries rather than importing resources from outside is an idea which has gained momentum over the past two decades with the growing importance of the concept of sustainability. To pursue such an objective, many ideas were put into practice. A heat network is being installed allowing some of the energy produced to be shared by businesses on site. A Waste-management company is scheduled to install a renewable-energy for electricity supply in 2015, while TEG (an organic waste recycler) has been given the green light to develop an anaerobic digestion plant. Another company, Closed Loop Recycling, which handles 35,000 tons of plastic bottles every year, is looking forward to the eco-friendly synergies that its neighbouring tenants will provide when they arrive.
In conclusion, the London SIP project will surely provide opportunities for environmental technology businesses, thus generating and attracting new skilled employment in the area of Barking and Dagenham.
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3 Barking Central
This project is possibly one of the most successful regeneration projects in the London Area. Set in the historic centre of Barking, a whole new civic centre has been developed, which includes a new Learning Centre, retail units, cafe, a new town square and an arboretum. The project was delivered in different phases during 9 years, with the different buildings
designed by various architectural firms; the spaces between this new townscape were designed by MUF architecture/art.
An interesting aspect of the project is how new modern design cooperate with old buildings. Colour become a very important part of the project. The design principles of the scheme were to create a vibrant, diverse and high quality environment that also introduces and reinforces links to the wider context of Barking Central. The public realm provides an unusual and
dynamic ground plan which unites all the building elements of the scheme. The buildings each have individual characters expressed in form and material approach thus providing variety within the urban fabric and making Barking Town Centre a landmark development.
Barking Central has created a vibrant, dense and high quality townscape that has reconnected parts of Barking, with active ground floor street edges, public amenities such as the Learning Centre, set around new public spaces. The scheme has already won prizes for housing, use of materials and public realm design, and sets a new standard for future urban regeneration, and the following projects in Barking Town Centre.
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4 Academy Central (former University of East London)
The old East London University campus in Longbridge Road, Barking, it is now being transformed in a housing site by Taylor Wimpey residential developers, under the name of Academy Central.
The site was originally acquired in 1919, as part of one of the largest housing projects in Europe, the Becontree Estate. The London County Council purchased the 3,000 acres we know as the Becontree Estate, between 1919 and 1921, to provide housing for the working classes. At that time, there were no need for massive education in outer London, especially considering that usually people working in Dagenham were coming from the impoverished streets of Whitechapel and Bethnal Green.
By the 1930s the situation was getting out of hand and it was finally recognised that families needed more schools and colleges for further education in a hurry. The London County Council dealt solely with housing, so between 1931 and 1946, it gave 24 acres of land to Essex County Council as the education authority. The land, on the western edge of the estate, was addressed for secondary schooling, and became known as the Barking Campus.
Essex County Council built and opened a technical college and a secondary school in
Longbridge Road, although the secondary school later moved to its own site in 1960.In 1965 the college was renamed the Barking Regional College of Technology and the newly formed London Borough of Barking Council became the education authority.
It was the rise of the middle classes during the 60s that really kick-started the idea that higher education really should have been for everyone and not just for the privileged few. In 1960 a
26 national system was introduced whereby every student enrolling on a degree course for the first time became eligible for a grant towards tuition fees and maintenance.
After the council applied to the Department of Education in 1967, along with two other
boroughs, the Barking Campus became part of the North-East London Polytechnic (NELP). Then in November 1988 NELP became a Higher Education Corporation; it was renamed the
Polytechnic of East London in April 1989 and then the University of East London (UEL) on June 16 1992.
At the start of the autumn term 1999, a third site for the University, the Docklands Campus overlooking the Royal Albert Dock, was opened. Another university’s site was the one in Longbridge Road, Barking and Romford Road, Stratford.
During the last two decades, the UEL decided to shift most of its activities in the newer campus of the Docklands. By the end of 2006, UEL was holding all its academic studies at campuses in Docklands and Stratford, and the Barking campus was closed.
The new housing estate promises to be one of the most environmentally friendly places in the borough to live. The developers have kept the old building exactly as it was on the outside to preserve this piece of the borough's history.
5 London Businesseast
The former Dagenham plant of global pharmaceutical manufacturer, Sanofi, was closed in 2010. The site was then scheduled to be transformed as part of an employment led masterplan for the site.
In November 2014 SOG Ltd took ownership of the manufactory’s buildings and established the so called Londoneast-uk Business and Technical Park. When completed, the 4 hectares complex will have a campus-style environment, which will provide business space to let on long-term leases or short-term licences. The whole facility is conceived as an environment for existing businesses looking to expand or for start-up companies engaged in scientific research,
innovation and development who require immediate access to specialist facilities and support services. Facilities are available to be re-used as they stand for immediate occupancy but also have the flexibility for bespoke redesign – with the capability to meet requirements from a wide range of industry sectors.
27 All these facilities would have been prohibitively expensive to build from scratch, underlining the hugely attractive offer the area provides thanks to the conversion of the pre-existing manufactory.
The rest of the former Sanofi site will consist of a Sainsbury’s superstore with car park and petrol station, a pub/restaurant, a hotel as well as significant further land for employment development. The site will also have good public transport accessibility and sufficient parking space (1000 parking places).
28
Review of UK’s planning system with regards to Barking
2.4.
and Dagenham
London’s current planning system in based upon a set of tools, called Frameworks, City or Local Plans and Development Strategies. The current planning system hierarchy asks London
boroughs to serve as local planning authorities. In this capacity, the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) has produced a Local Development Framework that defines its housing policies.
However, an additional body, the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC), has planning powers over parts of the borough, including Barking Riverside, designated an ‘opportunity area’ by the London Plan. Stretching over different boroughs along the Thames, the LTGDC overrides borough planning powers. This causes incoherence whilst cutting into the policy-making scheme involving the Government, the Mayor, and the LBBD3. Furthermore, the LTGDC has powers over portions of Barking Town Centre, despite its geographical distance from the Thames Gateway, whilst ignoring Gascoigne Estate, an equally central site within the Town Centre.
To sum up, each planning instruments has its specific target:
Planning frameworks. These take sets out the Government’s planning policies and how these are expected to be applied, and are defined by both the Government and other city authorities, such as the Greater London Authority (GLA).
Local plans. These are defined by council authorities, such as the Barking and Dagenham local council. They apply and further define the prevision of the planning frameworks.
Strategies. These are produced by the Major of London, and suggest the objectives and the methods that any planning proposal should follow.
The main planning tools that took into account the developing of the area around Barking and Dagenham have been:
- On the territorial scale:
- The London Plan, developed by the Major of London.
- The London Riverside Opportunity Area Planning developed by the Greater London Authority (GLA).
- On the local scale, the Barking and Dagenham borough local council is in charge for the
planning in this site. This organization produced:
o The Barking and Dagenham Growth Strategy 2013-2023; o The Barking and Dagenham Local Development Plan.
Furthermore, these provisions also recognize and further specify the objectives of the European Union, thus incorporating the aims of the project Europe 2020.
On the authorities level, in London there are two major urban regeneration programmes, the
3Ö. Çavusoglu, C. Gould, P. Long, M. Riera, Emerging Typologies and Density in Outer City: MSc City
29
Urban Development Corporations (UDC) and Enterprise Zones (EZ), which played an
important role in the development of the Isle of Dogs, located east of Barking. These will probably have their importance in the future development of Barking and Dagenham. In fact, these organizations aimed to regenerate inner city areas by constructing new commercial and residential properties on old industrial, abandoned or polluted sites, the so-called brownfields, largely present in Dagenham former Ford’s site.
Starting from the 1950s, the need for urban regeneration has been increasing in the United Kingdom, and especially in London. The main issues that had to be addressed were multiple, and they can be reviewed as follows:
80% of the UK population now lives in towns and cities (or urban areas), a percentage that has been progressively growing after the Second World War. This is mainly due to the concentration of jobs into big cities, and lead to the primary necessity of new residential areas.
Since the late 1960’s manufacturing industry in the UK has significantly declined, leading to a process commonly referred as deindustrialisation. This phenomenon has affected in particular the area of Barking and Dagenham due to the presence of the now closed Ford Plant, causing severe socio-economic and environmental problems.
The actions taken to overcome these problems led to new planning frameworks and master plans. The most important example of these policies took place during the last thirty years in the London Docklands area.
Furthermore, after 1997, there has been a greater emphasis on social aims and the need for policies to be sustainable. Sustainable urban development is here intended as a development planned in such a way as to reduce and minimise pollution and waste, make the most efficient use of non-renewable resources such as fuel, building materials, land and natural habitats, and safeguard and enhance both the natural and historic built environments for the benefit of future generations4. This approach is the same that guided the Barking and Dagenham provisions for redevelopment.
4 Urban regeneration in East London fact sheet, Royal Geographical Society, http://www.rgs.org/,
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2.4.1. Brief review of the planning instruments and current planning provisions in Barking and Dagenham
The London Plan
The London Plan is the Mayor of London’s over-arching strategic planning policy and covers all Inner and Outer London boroughs. Each borough’s local policy must conform with it.
This provision consists in a spatial development strategy for the Greater London area and has six objectives. As of the 2011 revision the objectives currently require any London city
expansion to5:
- meet the challenges of economic and population growth - lead to an internationally competitive and successful city - ensure diverse, strong, secure and accessible neighbourhoods - make the city “delightful to the senses”
- improve the environment
- ensure that London is a city where it is easy, safe and convenient for everyone to access jobs, opportunities and facilities.
The policies that enact these objectives are involving 7 different development areas:
Demography and quality of life; opportunity sites for intensification of the built enviroment; health, housing and social infrastructure; economic sectors and new sustainable workspaces; climate change mitigation, waste recycling and regeneration of contaminated land;
connectivity and integrating transport, environment and landscape shaping, air and noise pollution control.
London Riverside Opportunity Area Planning
This project has been produced by the Greater London Authority (GLA) working with the London boroughs of Newham, Barking and Dagenham and Havering, and with the former London
Thames Gateway Development Corporation.
It outlines multiple interventions, including thousands of new homes in Barking, an
environmentally sustainable business cluster at Dagenham Dock, and an intensification of manufacturing companies to the east of this borough. An extension of the Docklands Light Rail to Dagenham Dock and a new transit bus station at the same location are planned to serve the area. The Riverside area forms part of the Green Enterprises District, a project to create a low-carbon economy region in Greater London.
The main actions to be pursued by any development in the area outlined by this plan are6:
5
The London Plan, http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/planning/london-plan, consulted on April 2015.
6“London Riverside Opportunity Area Planning Framework.”,
https://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/planning/consultations/london-riverside-opportunity-area-planning-framework, consulted April 2015.
31 Intensification of Barking and Dagenham town centres and new emerging centres
Ensuring new jobs and services benefit existing communities Facilitating delivery of new housing to meet local and wider needs
Improving London Riverside as a place to live for new and existing communities Delivering a coherent public realm strategy building on the Green Grid and natural
water courses
Attracting investment through improved transport infrastructure
The London Riverside Opportunity Area Planning concludes that the area development presents great opportunities to capitalise on the site benefits. The framework acknowledges the
potential of the area, its good location and its outstanding green zones. Therefore, it suggests achieving results in terms of land availability, in order to facilitate new housing, jobs and supporting facilities.
Barking and Dagenham Growth Strategy 2013-2023
The strategy takes into account that unlocking the borough’s growth potential and delivering economic regeneration is essential for addressing many of the key challenges the borough faces. These include:
One of the lowest average household incomes in London. Raising average household incomes requires a strong focus on maximising employment opportunities and making Barking and Dagenham a place where people want to move to and stay.
The Strategy both seeks to ensure new employment opportunities are generated in the borough but also critically that residents have the skills, aptitude and ability to secure employment both in the borough and outside.
Large areas of vacant brownfield land partly reflecting the decline of manufacturing. Evidence suggests many investors either have limited knowledge or negative
perceptions of Barking and Dagenham which needs to be addressed by raising awareness about the opportunities available to investors.
High affordable housing need.
Difficulties retaining/attracting higher skilled residents. The percentage of residents in managerial categories is one of the lowest in the country.
The strategy then defines that over 17,000 new homes and 10,000 new jobs should be delivered by 2023.
European provisions: Europe 2020 and UK economy
In 2014, growth and employment in the United Kingdom were relatively unaffected by the general weakening of global activity. The economy continued to grow quickly due to strong domestic demand. The labour market continues to perform robustly with employment expected to have grown in 2014, while the unemployment rate continues to fall. Inflation is on a
downward trend, with the decline expected to continue, aided by the fall in energy prices. The resilience of the economy and financial sector has increased. However, a shortage of
32 housing will persist and is likely to underpin high house prices in the medium term and
continue to leave the sector less resilient in the face of risks.
These considerations further validate the need for new housing in London. A development of new residential areas for the increase of workforce that London is absorbing should be recognized as a significant point for any new urban development plan.
Barking and Dagenham Local Development Plan
This local development plan consists of a series of documents which are used to plan
strategically across the borough.The most important of these are the Core Strategy (DPD) and its related document “site specific allocations”.
The core strategy describes the Borough, its predominately characters and the its significant areas, and the strategy that should be followed by any effective plan development.
The site specific allocation document has been taken into account in reviewing the areas of possible and planned development. The chosen site for this project proposal has been selected among the Key Regeneration Areas described in this document, as described in the site
33
2.4.2. Planning obligations, regulations and good practice guides considered in the project
Planning obligations assist in mitigating the impact of unacceptable development to make it acceptable in planning terms.
In London, planning obligations are defined by the policies of the National Planning Policy Framework. This tool is a key part of Government reforms to make the planning system less complex and more accessible — councils have the freedom to make decisions in the best interests of their area.
The framework is divided in:
The Planning Practice Guidance, which describes the most the methods that any planning proposal should follow;
The policies. Every policy regulates a particular aspect of the urban planning, and each council has its own interpretation.
This means that National Planning Policy Framework gives guidances for every aspect of the planning actions to be taken in the Greater London. The local council policies translate the guidances in measures to be followed, like e.g. distances between buildings, carriageway width, reservation space for services and others.
These measures, also known as planning obligations, will be taken into account into the design proposal.
To summarize, the planning obligations, together with the mentioned planning frameworks and the numerous good practice guidances form a valuable set of tools for addressing the work of the designer.
In conclusion, the main planning obligations and good practice guides that are taken into account into this thesis proposal are:
- The Barking and Dagenham Local Development Plan. - The Barking and Dagenham Growth Strategy.
- The building regulations. These trace the requirements for services, fittings and equipment in or in connection with buildings as well as about the design and construction of buildings.
- The manual for streets. The manual for streets is the policy that regulates the street network planning in London. It aims to assist in the creation of high quality streets. The local council further expands the guidelines detailed in this manual with precise specifications valid in its territory, such as minimum distances
between buildings, carriageway width, reservation space for services and others. - Sounder city, the Major’s Ambient Noise Strategy.
- The flood risk vulnerability policy. This advises on how planning can take account of the risks associated with flooding.
34
2.4.3. Another case study comparison
London docklands urban development
London Docklands is the largest urban regeneration project in Western Europe. Started in the 1980s with the establishment of the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC), the area’s regeneration was far from complete when the LDDC was dismissed in 19987.
Brief history of the London Docklands Area
During 19th Century the Docklands was the main port of London and one of the busiest in the world. Surrounding the docks there were many industries, which sustained primarily on
imported goods and high-density, poor quality housing, which recalled the old inner-city area. This business started its quick decline during the 1950s. The advances in the industry after Second World war lead to an increasing size of the boats used for carrying merchandise, which could not reach the Docklands anymore. Also, the advent of the metal container meant that fewer docks were needed.
In twenty years the area became derelict, with few jobs, few services and poor living
conditions. Traditional jobs in the dock industry were lost, leaving space only for unspecialized and poorly paid employments.
The lack of financial interest in the area led Local Councils to lose interest in the area, therefore
7London Docklands: An Update, http://www.geocases1.co.uk/londondocks1.htm, consulted on April 2015.
35
building only low quality housing to restore the damages from the war, such as tower blocks. Many people were forced to leave area to look for work and a better quality of life.
Regeneration actions in London Docklands
In an effort to reverse the process of inner city decline, the UK government set up Urban Development Corporations (known as UDCs) in 1981, which took over planning responsibility from local councils.
The aim of these UDCs was to promoting industrial, residential and community developments, thus regenerating inner city areas with large amounts of derelict and unused land. These corporations had the power to acquire and reclaim land, convert old buildings and improve infrastructure through the investment of government money. They also aimed at attracting private sector investment, through offering companies reduced taxes and other benefits. An enormous amount of capital, most of it private, had been invested to produce a massive office and retail development.
Three major changes were accomplished by the plan: Environmental, Economic and Social regeneration8.
The Environmental regeneration was achieved thanks to these major interventions:
A network of pedestrian and cycle routes through the area with access to the river and dock edge through waterside walkways
The creation of pedestrian bridges
The creation of new open spaces (150ha)
A water based Ecology Park and London's first bird sanctuary at East India Dock Basin - one of 17 conservation areas set up planting of 200,000 trees;
The Economic regeneration was achieved for other reasons:
Docklands was close to the City of London, and this made it an attractive secondary office location, as well as a possible site for riverside residential development to accommodate young high income single person households created by new jobs in the financial services industry.
New road infrastructures: major new paths were built, including a link to the M11 highway.
Faced with a large amount of redundant railway infrastructure, the LDDC created a cheap light rail scheme to make use of it. This led to theopening of the
Docklands Light Railway in 1987 - now carrying 35,000 passengers a week; The 1980s boom in air travel was handled by the building of the City Airport in
the former Royal Docks. This airport is now a fast-growing and popular airport for people working in the financial industry (more than 500,000 passengers a year), and lead to the developing of related buildings, like conference centers, hotels and others.
8Inner Cities: Case study – regeneration of the London Docklands. GeoBytes GCSE,
http://geobytesgcse.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/inner-cities-case-study-regeneration-of.html, consulted May 2015.
36 2,700 businesses trading and attraction of important firms thanks to the
prestigious business complex;
This commitment has been recognized as one of the cause of the fall of unemployment, which went down from 14% to 7.4%, with a doubling in employment and numbers of businesses. Finally, a social regeneration was possible thanks to:
£10 million spent on improvement council and housing association homes £100 million spent on health, education and job training
a total of 22,000 new homes built
conversion and gentrification of old warehouses to new homes new shopping centres built
many restaurants, pubs and cafes built
For these reasons, the area has now received many awards for architecture, conservation and landscaping.
Consequences and criticism to the Docklands redevelopment
Soon many people from outside the area saw the opportunity of buying a house close to the city at what appeared to be cheap prices. On many of the developments, local council tenants were given first opportunities to buy at discounted prices, but this led to a number of abuses. Then again in the later 1990s London had a huge house price boom. By encouraging the
development of attractive waterside apartments along the River Thames and the old docks, the LDDC brought new, middle class residents into the area, closely followed by shops, restaurants and bars. Many locals were unable to afford the new high costs of the houses and flats, and the area grew lacking a low-cost housing.
The newcomers were not mixing with the original East Enders that kept living in the area. This led to a reduction in the community spirit that the old Docklands once had.
Moreover, despite the improvements, many of these didn't benefit the original EastEnders. Despite an increase in jobs with new businesses coming in, most of the employments required skills that the old inhabitants did not have.
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3. Analysis
Local level: network and context analysis
3.1.
Barking and Dagenham, being close to the eastern edge of the Greater London, reflects this not only in its historical suburban character but also in the network connections.
The borough is traversed by a complex fabric of networks, of both streets and railways. These shape its sub-zones and the project’s site itself.
Fig. 17 Barking and Dagenham network infrastructure
The most significant connections towards Inner and Outer London, both for their importance for the daily public use and their considerable impact on the urban fabric of the borough, are two. The first one is the National Rail Services line, which hosts the above ground trains, that run every half an hour during peak times and every hour during normal times. The second one is the District Line Underground railway. This one, despite its name, is actually an above ground section of the Underground system, similarly to the well-known Overground. This section, in fact, show up above the ground level well before Barking and Dagenham, in the western borough of Newham, and proceeds east to outer London always over the surface.
38 Regarding the street network, the most relevant connections are two as well, the first one forking in a second less significant one. The first one is the A13 Thames Gateway road. This is a
trunk road9, a major road in England.
The Thames Gateway first exit for the Borough is at the Witches’ Hat Junction, at the north-west corner of the project site – this effective name was given by the locals because of a permanent, concrete-art installation on the intersection’s roundabout, which make them resemble a couple of headgear of a wizard or of a witch10. Exiting at this section would lead to enter the so-called New Road, the second most important street. This road strokes all the northern edge of the site, proceeding to the eastern borough of Havering and Outer London. This road used to be more important before the construction of the A13 trunk road, since it was the primary connection between Inner and Eastern London. Nonetheless, nowadays it is a primary connection between the borough and the A13 road, and it is subject to daily traffic of both pedestrian, cycling, cars and trucks.
3.1.1. Analysis of the Borough’s network in relation with the land use
This part tries to explore the character of the site’s context at a Borough level, or local level. The content of this chapter will be represented in the second thesis panel.
To pursue an understanding of the site context, the study will therefore now focus on an area of the borough outlined by some of its Margins, as Kevin Lynch would name them. The site,
located in the southern part of Barking and Dagenham, is in fact not centred in its west-east dimension. Instead, it is placed on the eastern side of the borough, crossing the east
administrative boundary to end into the neighbouring district of Havering.
This disposition suggest to focus the analysis on a measured area. This surface can be thoughtfully chosen observing the natural limits, or Margins, presented by the urban environment around the site itself.
By the means of observing both the natural environment and the network fabric and of a practical on-site visit, it appears clear that the most significant elements of division – in the
9 A trunk road is the UK version of the Italian Autostrada. 10 As per the statement of some locals:
http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/39246/purpose-of-the-witches-hats-on-the-a13-in-london, consulted on July 2015.
39 sense that they actually feels like some boundaries within the urban environment – can be recognized in the Network Rail Services line and the major water streams, the Roding and the Ingrebourne River. This elements are in fact physically dividing the territory in separate parts, and they are crossed only in specific sections, in most cases by elevated bridges, rarely by ground level ones. The following drawing represents the newly obtained area.
Fig. 19 Obtaining a consistent area of study for the site context
This new context is the most directly connected the site, therefore being the most significant for this project purposes. Another “zoom” will be later performed when focusing on the site and its neighbouring areas. At this point it is possible to deepen the knowledge of the network infrastructure involving the site’s connections.
Starting from the railways connections, it is clear that the site presents a strong relation with the National Railway Services line, which strokes it southern edge. An existing railway station is currently present on the western part of the site, providing a connection between the line and the so called Orion Park area of the site. This area is the one on the left of the central Stamping Plant.
Another significant railway connection, this time with the London Underground line, happens less than one kilometre north of the site at the Dagenham Heathway station.
Among the relevant stations, the Beam Park proposed station has been considered as well. This station, located in the south-east corner of the site, has been envisioned in the Barking and Dagenham Development Framework; it is therefore currently prospected from the
administration itself. For this reason, a Beam Park station has been taken into account in this thesis proposal, and it will be carried into the final project.
This network infrastructure is clearly outlined in the next image, along with the other stations and connections. The land use has been described as well, dividing the prominent one
(industrial land use) by the residential areas, the green areas and the other land uses – leaving a deeper examination for later, when focusing on the site scale.
40 Looking at the land-use, it is evident how the residential part of the borough is here
concentrated in the northern parts of the study area. The site is touched on its north edge by the southern parts of the Becontree Estates; its eastern corner is more directly connected with newer residential areas, with a mixed land-use which also includes small retail stores and workshops (car workshops, small warehouses).
To further strengthen the idea of the urban fabric around the site, a map that takes inspiration from Kevin Lynch’s work The image of the City has been devised. A visual survey has been accomplished by exploring the site and its proximity. By walking and exploring both the nearby centres of Barking and Dagenham, but also the close neighbourhood of East Ham, an idea of the relations between the site and its context. As per the following image;
41 Fig. 21 Visual analysis of the context inspired from Kevin Lynch work
The map intent is to clarify the main paths and margin of the context, as well as the passages that break the continuity of the margins and of the main nodes and visual references that I found most relevant while performing some site visits.
Clearly, the most significant element is again represented by the separator of the National Rail Services. As shown in the land-use map, it is evident how this line has a major role in defining the diversity of the urban context north and south of it. This is represented by the thick red line, with the critical connections similarly visualised. It is evident how the probably most critical connection is the one of Cequers Lane, the dashed red line. This road, once connecting the northern parts of the borough with the southern ones, has been abruptly interrupted by the construction of the National Rail Services line. Its southern end is now cut short at the
Dagenham Dock Station; only a small pedestrian bridge remains as a connection with the Barking and Dagenham riverside areas.
Other existing connections, mainly represented well-made residential streets, make it possible to reach the farther diffused areas of interest, like the one of Barking Central and Academy central, the current living lungs of Barking.
