Funding Loan Helps Kick-Start London Docklands Transformation

A £3.5 billion plan to transform the Royal Docks in the Silvertown area of London has been given crucial extra funding to get work started.

Homes England has provided £233 million of infrastructure loan funding to enable work to start on the site, one of the largest brownfield areas in the capital’s docklands.

While areas like Canary Wharf have been transformed with dozens of skyscrapers, Silvertown has been largely derelict in recent decades. But now the Silvertown Partnership, a joint venture involving   Lendlease and Starwood Capital, will create a new town centre featuring 6,600 homes and 1.8 million sq ft of new state-of-the-art workspace.

Soon construction staff will be showing up in lightweight work trousers and other work attire to get the project underway, with the infrastructure funding helping with developments like a new pedestrian and cycle bridge across the Royal Victoria Dock to provide an easy link to Custom House Crossrail station.

Other infrastructure projects will include the restoration of the Millennium Mills and the dock walls, which are badly in need of repair to enable the rest of the project to proceed. Jetties and widened canal walkways will also be created.

Commenting on the project, Homes England chair Peter Freeman said: “This infrastructure funding will enable The Silvertown Partnership to create new communities in the heart of east London and bring swathes of derelict brownfield land back to life.”

By funding the necessary infrastructure work, the agency may now have finally found a way forward for an area that London mayor Sadiq Khan said has “vexed planners and politicians alike for the last 40 years.”

The development may also be significantly aided by other developments in the area, such as the recent opening of Crossrail. The Custom House Station is just a single stop away from Canary Wharf as well as providing a connection into central London.