Case study of inner city redevelopment: London Docklands

You can refer to page 168-169 of Key Geography for GCSE textbook.

During 19th Century-port of London busiest in the world
Surrounding the docks were:

• many industries using imported goods
• high-density, poor quality housing (typical old inner-city area)

1950s-ships become bigger = unable to reach London's docks

By 1970s, area became derelict, with few jobs, few services and poor living conditions. 

Many people forced to leave area to look for work + better quality of life.

Because: 

• traditional jobs in docks were lost (manual, unskilled, unreliable and poorly paid)
• most housing was substandard-lacking basic amenities (services e.g. water, sewerage, electricity..) and located in poor-quality environment

When textbooks talk about amenities, they mean:

Amenities definition: A desirable or useful feature/facility of a building/place. e.g. basic services in housing like electricity, water, sewerage... 

In 1981, the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was set up to try to improve:

• social
• environmental
• and economic conditions of the area

LDDC given 3 main tasks: 

1. Improve social conditions by:

• creating new housing
• creating new recreational facilities
• improving shopping facilities

2. Improve economic conditions by:

• creating new jobs
• improving transport system (to and within area)

3. Improve environmental conditions by: 

• reclaiming derelict land 
• cleaning up docks
• planting trees
• creating areas of open space (people like parks and peaceful green surroundings)

To clarify if you're confused: 

Derelict land: land that is damaged or abandoned and cannot be put to use until damage is repaired 

Reclaiming derelict land is: to recover land that has lost its productivity and to make it usable again

What improvements were made after 1981?

Social Improvements


1. Housing

• 22,000 new homes created (many are former warehouses converted to luxury flats)
• 10,000 refurbished former terraced houses (Refurbish: to renovate and redecorate smth esp. a building

-In 1981 population= 40,000

-In 2000 population= 85,000

2. Services

• several huge new shopping malls
• post-16 college and campus for new University of East London
• leisure facilities: watersports marina, national indoor sports centre 

Economic Improvements


1. Employment

• number of jobs increased, In 1981= 27,000  In 2000= 90,000
• many new firms and financial institutions e.g. Stock Exchange, ITV Studios, newspaper offices
• many high-rise office blocks, esp. at Canary Wharf

2. Transport

• Docklands Light Railway links area with central London
• Jubilee Line Underground extension
• City Airport
• Many new roads, including M11 link 

Environmental Improvements

• 750 hectares of derelict land reclaimed 
• 200,000 trees planted
• 130 hectares of open space created

However, remember that not everyone was happy about the changes, because not everybody benefited:


Negative effects on the local people: (in descending order of importance to me, others may be more important for you, but structure your answers in an exam so that you write what's most important first!)

• new jobs went to people living outside the area, as local people did not have the technical skills (a lot of new jobs created were in finance/media industries--using high tech equipment--local people not skilled enough to do these types of jobs)
• a lot of new housing far too expensive for locals
• more money was spent on providing infrastructure (expensive offices + houses) and a clean environment for office workers; than on services (e.g. hospitals and care for elderly, health + educational facilities for local people)
• noise + air pollution (dust) from the building
• prices in area generally increased (e.g. in shops, bars etc.) --newcomers were wealthy, causing local shop and recreational prices to rise--
• newcomers did not mix with local people--tension--causing a breakdown of East Ender's community