Opinion: Carrying the torch for East London

Elizabeth Wright from English Cities Fund, which works with councils and landowners on development and regeneration, explores how East London could benefit from the city hosting a 2036 Olympic Games. 

Londoners will have noted with interest Sadiq Khan floating the idea the capital could once again host the Olympics.  Ten years on from the success of 2012, the Mayor says he has spoken with the International Olympic Committee about London being the venue for the Games in 2036 or 2040.  

With sustainability an increasingly critical global issue, and given the capital’s existing sporting and transport infrastructure, the promise is that London could deliver the ‘greenest’ ever Games as the facilities are already in place.  

It was East London and Stratford in particular that benefited from 2012, with unproductive industrial wastelands and polluted canals transformed as part of some gold medal winning place-making in and around the Olympic Park.   

A decade on from that glorious summer, many will reflect on the regeneration legacy and the degree to which the Games could once again serve as a catalyst for change.   

A few grudging sceptics may argue that Stratford’s Westfield retail-led development would have happened anyway, but it’s clear where the momentum is taking us. London has continued on its merry way since 2012, expanding eastwards along the Thames. Rather than looking back, the more telling question is simply, what’s next? 

The opening of the Elizabeth Line will connect east and west London as never before. The completion of Crossrail comes just a few months after the symbolic movement that has seen City Hall move to Royal Docks in Newham, the London borough that is the next waypoint of London’s eastwards growth.  

There will be much-needed trickle down benefits from these milestones. Regeneration opportunities and social challenges abound in Newham, which is formed of six town centres and 13 local centres.  

Canning Town is at the heart of the borough and, while you can just about see ArcelorMittal Orbit, the Anish Kapoor structure in Olympic Park, it marks the border where the previous waves of development have stopped short. 

Leaving aside those sites that attractively overlook the Thames, the focus of regeneration challenges today are away from the waterfront. 

Canning Town is working to shake-off its post-war history where it suffered significantly from the demise of the docks from the 1970s onwards.  

In Newham Council’s own estimation, place-led regeneration has a huge role to play addressing complex challenges that exist in Canning Town and across a borough which features some of the UK’s most deprived neighbourhoods.  New homes are required to help overcome current weaknesses, which include a high rate of population churn and net out migration. 

Newham’s social issues reflect some of the country’s toughest urban regeneration challenges. Welfare reforms have, for example, affected some residents’ access to rented housing. Newham has some of the highest numbers of households in temporary accommodation and the second highest Local Authority waiting list for affordable housing. As many as 52 per cent of children in the area live in poverty, much higher than the London average.  

For anyone living and working in Newham, the idea that Levelling Up, the flagship national policy agenda, is about the North-South divide in the country may well seem bizarre.  London is a global city and an economic powerhouse in its own right but it has its own Levelling Up challenges, including a severe housing crisis that affects a very wide demographic, from families living in poverty to well-paid young professionals.   

My own organisation, The English Cities Fund – a strategic joint venture between Muse Developments, Legal & General and Homes England – is among the cohort of development organisations who have been working hard for a number of years to deliver new homes and placemaking, to improve homes, lives and communities in Newham.  We have already delivered one big Canning Town scheme. Rathbone Market is a mixed-use development that features 652 mixed-tenure homes, 32,000 sq ft of retail space, a library and neighbourhood centre and two new public spaces.   

Across the road from this site, we’ve just started work on the Manor Road Quarter, which will create 804 homes, of which 50% will be affordable homes.   We’re working with trusted partners Metropolitan Thames Valley to get it just right. At 32 storeys tall and featuring a range of apartment types and some 8,000 sq ft of commercial space, Manor Road Quarter will become one of the tallest buildings in Canning Town on completion in 2024.  

Here, as elsewhere in the borough, there are strengths to build on. Newham has a young, energetic and increasingly skilled workforce. It also has land available for regeneration projects and boasts a superb level of transport connectivity by road, rail, underground, river and air. 

Better access to jobs, housing and giving a greater sense of permanence to the area by quality place-making are all crucial objectives. If another Olympics would support those goals, all power to London 2036 or London 2040.  We are talking about the most culturally rich, diverse and energetic city in Europe, if not the world, and no one should feel closed off from what it can offer.  

For us in Canning Town, we’re continuing with our work to help bring a pride into a place first swamped by industry, that’s driving to bring forward a positive future for all.   

Photos provided by Influential