Recently in London Docklands Category

One of the things about being a quasi-journalist is that I get all sorts of strange and diverting press releases coming across my screen each day. It can be a lot of fun. I was sent a rather entertaining thing this morning from an organisation called "Property Property Property" run by an outfit known as Juice PR.

They say they conduct a "monthly analysis of the most popular searched for borough". And in this morning's "study" they are claiming that Hackney has proven to be one of the most popular searched for boroughs among home seekers between 28 and 35 years.

A feeling of profound unease descended at this morning's reports that confidence in security firm G4S is so eroded that the government is sending 3,500 troops in to bolster operations for the Olympics.  That, together with the vicissitudes at Heathrow and the closure of the M4 (signals being that it might be for the whole summer) made for a queasy start to the day.  Londoners' anxiety levels are already quite high. You might think I'm paranoid but I tell you now: they're all out to get me.  And I can prove it.  

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I started a hare running with my (admittedly somewhat intemperate) remarks about Tower Hamlets a few days ago. I have had a huge response to this, both in public and in private - mostly in private, and mostly supportive of my spluttering sense of exasperation. I am particularly grateful to the last post on this blog from Phil, who offers the voice of reason in all of this. 

It is a febrile and fraught environment east of Bishopsgate, and no mistake.  And I cannot help but observe that the City of London has enough threats on its horizon without its immediate neighbour destabilising the fringes. So I stand by my remarks, although I do concede that I could have expressed my views more professionally.

It's been a busy couple of days in UKR circles, with a lot going on. We had a great outing at the first Place East London conference on Wednesday, which showed the immense opportunity that still exists in the patch, and set out some key challenges for the East London regeneration community (several hundred of the blighters) who had assembled for the event and marauding on to the wine reception after.  

As we gear up for the Place East London conference over in Stratford Town Hall later today, the forces of goodness and light begin to coalesce over in London E15.  We will find new paradigms for East Enders, I promise, and we will forge a new path for wealth creation for all.  

But I am reminded that it isn't always all a hotbed of positivity over on the east side.  There is, of course, that very special vortex of madness, that place which sensible people would all do well to avoid; that borough of which only the brave dare speak the name, a little like that of Lord Voldemort.  It is the rightful heir to the shenanigans at Liverpool and Lambeth of the 1980s.  I speak, but of course, of... Tower Hamlets.  

We are a bit hoist by our own petard with our up-coming Place East London conference, which is being supported by the UKR Forum.  This event, which I am privileged to be chairing, is being held on 20 June at Stratford Town Hall (yikes! I've just realised that's tomorrow!).

It is a half-day conference, starting at 2pm and finishing (with drinks) at 5.15pm.  And we find we are a little in demand.  I wrote to the target audience promising "energetic and pacy" content, with some quick fire sessions, to provide a thoroughly focused opportunity to discuss East London, not just in the run-up to the Olympics but also - and more crucially really - in this strange new economy in which we find ourselves! 

I was immeasurably saddened by last night's (truly excellent) television programme on BBC2, "The Secret History of our Streets", which laid out the background to the so-called "slum clearance" of Deptford High Street.  It was the age-old story.  Row after row of perfectly serviceable terraced houses, in a legible street pattern giving space to a successful and prosperous community, had been CPO-ed and cleared, to make way for systems-built blocks of flats; destroying readily improvable houses in favour of these flats (notoriously incapable of being gentrified) and scattering families and communities to the four winds (in the main, the outer reaches of the new towns of Essex but - and this is key - with no regard to keeping folk together).  Nicholas Taylor, a former Lewisham councillor of some 31 years standing (and clearly a very well meaning individual) attempted to make sense of it all for the viewer.  He was defending the indefensible really.  There was some charming footage of him as a young man bounding about the streets of Deptford, with reforming evangelistic zeal shining out of him.  But his defence really fell right away when he recollected how a fellow councillor, who lived "in a big Victorian house up the hill, had been utterly bewildered that nobody wanted to live in these flats".

Further to last Wednesday's blog (and I must apologise for the increasingly rabid nature of these postings, but spare a thought for me sometimes - it really is wearing being this incandescent with rage the whole time).

Dr Evans and Twitter drew my attention to the truly excellent definition of the Thames Gateway to be found in the UKR Regeneration Dictionary, viz: The Thames Gateway "A slightly silly name (how can a gateway be 40 miles long?) for a blameless and still largely unknown part of the South East where the standard of living is shockingly below the rest of the region for a surprisingly large proportion of the 1.5m population, and which, with thoughtful long-term planning and investment could become a much better and more attractive place to live and relieve the development pressure on other more congested locations elsewhere; but which had the misfortune to become a focus of government action, and a battleground between ill-informed brownfield romantics, development fetishists, regeneration fantasists and disaster junkies."

The lovely David Thame of EG called me to pick my brains about his upcoming feature for the magazine on the prospects for London regeneration schemes.  In a (somewhat breathless) list he was seeking intelligence on Elephant and Castle, the East End (Stratford, Bromley by Bow, Royal Docks) and Battersea Power Station ("just because something is up for sale", he asked, "does that mean there will be activity?") with Nine Elms generally.  Oh, and for good measure, Earls Court, Wembley, the Greenwich Peninsula, Canning Town, Lewisham Gateway and Brent Cross/Cricklewood.
 
Whew! I said.  Calm down dear, for goodness sake, you'll have a hernia!  
 
But he was seeking some proper thoughts on which of these could be serious prospects for progress in 2012, and which might end up moving a little slower, so of course I tried to be helpful.  But you won't be surprised to learn my prognosis was a little bleak.

Regulars will recall me writing about the Reg Ward Memorial Event remembering-the-force-of-nature-that-was-reg-ward.html and, in the interests of me remaining connected to my Docklands roots (btw I don't think any of us will ever achieve "closure" on Reg) but also as a resource to students of urban regeneration out there, I thought it was important to report on the follow-up.  Much of the inception of regeneration thought can be traced back to London Docklands (in a wholly tasteless analogy I always say it could be compared to the way that all foot and mouth disease was traced back to the same farm) and anyone studying our field would be as well to have access to the correct sources (and know which old gimmers were responsible).

The other day a few of the Docklands Lags (DLs) congregated in the Yi Ban (a rather wonderful Chinese restaurant overlooking the Royal Albert Dock) to have a sort of post mortem on the event and to pick over the entrails.  We noted sadly that the vista of the Royals was much as we had left it when the LDDC was wound up but, on the memorial evening itself, we were all agreed that it had been a great event.  The great Stuart Innes (our very own "Brown Owl") has put together a page about the event on the LDDC History website. There are video clips of the various speeches and a host of pictures of various reprobates.  One of the speeches was made by Richard Desmond (who Reg had given his big break to in the mid-eighties) and there was much muttering about this by the purists, both on the night and subsequently.  But it has to be said that Mr Desmond  made a charming speech on the occasion.  And one thing (of many) that you could say about Reg, was that he knew it took all sorts.....

I see Richard Desmond is in the news again.  One of the Docklands Lags sent me an e-mail entitled 'Our Friend Richard'  with a link to a spoof news page called 'Newsthump'.  The story is headlined 'Richard Desmond launches lottery to raise funds for Richard Desmond' and runs 'It is hoped that a new lottery that has been set up by Richard Desmond to raise money for Richard Desmond will provide Richard Desmond with enormous amounts of cash, Richard Desmond has revealed. The health lottery, which will disguise itself as a charitable venture in order to extract money from idiots, will be drawn on Saturday evenings on ITV and Channel 5. 'This will be a unique opportunity for people to give me lots of money, insisted Mr Desmond.  The launch of the game is being backed by a £20m publicity campaign and Health Lottery chief executive Martin Hall said the game would benefit everyone in Great Britain who is called Richard Desmond and owns the Daily Express.'

Probably not very fair, but made me smile anyway.  Stuart Innes' s LDDC website has an LDDC People Page.  It is a sort of Facebook for Docklands Lags (DLs) and is such a splendid resource that I am thinking of nicking the idea, lock, stock and barrel for UKR.  You got to know who to blame.