The government's levelling-up agenda isn't normally associated with London, but five boroughs have managed to wheedle £65m from the firstround of funding. Newham put in two bids and won by far the largest share of London's cash, which is nice, especially when one of the issues they're trying to solve is the lack of bridges across the River Lea.
"The Lower Lea is a highly severed place. The river is a political boundary, between the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Newham, and a physical boundary, creating significant severance between neighbouring communities. There is currently no ability to cross the river between the A13 at Canning Town and Twelvetrees at Bromley-by-Bow, a distance of over a mile."
Lack of bridges doesn't normally earn you money, but in this case there's an economic imperative which is jobs and houses.
"The area is poised for significant growth of over 40,000 homes and 280,000m² of commercial space over the next 20 years."
The plan is for a new footbridge at Lochnagar Street, roughly halfway along the crossing-free stretch of the river. This will help to connect a heck of a lot of homes in Tower Hamlets to several business parks on the Newham side, and also enable an active transport corridor between Langdon Park and Star Lane DLR stations. It's the red bridge on this map.
Ignore the unbuilt bridges with yellow letters, they're not part of the delivery.
Lochnagar Street is a stumpy turning off the A12 dual carriageway, barely 30m in length, used by drivers for U-turns and to access the Aberfeldy estate. It used to be longer and almost reach Bow Creek, back when all this was wharves and terraced streets, but has subsequently declined into a grim landscape of rundown warehouses, refuse services and vehicle repair. A lot of this has recently been cleared in readiness to become a significant residential waterside neighbourhood, so on the left will be Calico Wharf (785 flats, 16 storeys), ahead will be Islay Wharf (133 flats, 22 storeys) and to the right will be East Riverside (547 flats, 20 storeys). This future vision is almost unimaginable at present, as are "countless opportunities for picturesque strolls along meandering riverside walkways", but a new footbridge connection can only help.
Current riverside reality is a deep creek intermittently crossed by power cables, whose water drains away to muddy shallows twice a day. What's planned here is a perforatedconcrete span 55m in length and resembling an elongated Pringle attacked by a hole punch, paid for by levelling-up. It'll land immediately alongside a massive Sainsbury's distribution centre (opened 2016, closed 2021) which creates an immediate obstacle to onward progress. Thankfully a footpath already exists on this side of the river, namely the Leaway, which I have blogged about onnumerousrepeatedoccasions. This path connects directly to the adjacent business park and also downriver through Cody Dock, though not necessarily conveniently, so some of the funding will be spent on making this backwater creekside a tad more appealing.
"To ensure safe and accessible access to the new bridge, a programme of investment along the walkway leading to the bridge will bring activation and safety to encourage its regular use."
If all goes to plan Lochnagar Bridge will be completed by March 2024, indeed this expectation is a condition of funding, which'd be impressively fast given how many times a bridge hereabouts has been promised but not delivered. I greatly look forward to crossing it.
Meanwhile five other bridges between here and the Thames are under joint consideration by the boroughs of Newham and Tower Hamlets - target date 2031 - but will only progress if developers come on board. They're the lettered crossings on my earlier map, starting with one that's had planning permission since 2010.
A) Poplar Reach Bridge(Leven Road Gasworks to Cody Dock)
The Leaway stops dead at Cody Dock because the riverbank ahead is occupied by an obstinately immovable scrapyard. One solution has always been to build a bridge and continue the path on the opposite bank, but this relied on the remediation of a former gasworks and only now are the first flats arising on Poplar Riverside (2800 homes, 14 storeys). Alas the developers have only been asked to leave space for a footbridge rather than funding one themselves, leaving future residents potentially rather cut off.
B) Mayer Parry Bridge(Leven Road Gasworks to Electra Business Park)
This potential bridge launches from a different corner of Poplar Riverside and would land amid the unfinished Leaway section on the Newham side. It's yet not certain which half of Bidder Street it'd connect to, nor how, which doesn't inspire confidence. Like the previous bridge it's protected but unfunded, and would probably be built second so is even less likely to appear.
C) A13 Connector Bridge(Blackwall Trading Estate to Leamouth Depot)
This would be a solely Tower Hamlets bridge, connecting underneath the A13 to complete a Leaside path along the west bank. Essentially it'd be a riverside subway, but having been down to the unwelcoming spot I can't work out how it'd thread through the Victorian ironwork at high tide. It also won't be built until the Blackwall Trading Estate becomes 336 flats, which may be a decade away.
D) Leamouth Crossing(Orchard Place to the Limmo Peninsula)
This is much nearer the end of the Lea, just downstream of the Lower Lea Crossing. One side is the Limmo Peninsula, a former Crossrail building site currently at the "emerging masterplan" stage which could eventually contain 1500 homes. The other side is the tongue of land leading to Trinity Buoy Wharf, rebranded by developers as Goodluck Hope (804 homes, 32 storeys) and nearing completion. A creekside path has finally opened here, I was excited to discover yesterday, although it's anodyne as anything.
E) Trinity Buoy Wharf to Thames Wharf Bridge
One day there should be a new DLR station south of Canning Town at Thames Wharf, the wrong side of the Silvertown Tunnel, which'll unlock 5000 new homes on a site called Thameside West. If this happens they might also build a footbridge across the mouth of Bow Creek landing by the diner at Trinity Buoy Wharf, but there are so many ifs and maybes I wouldn't count on this ever happening. A lot of "nice to have"s are going to be sacrificed over the coming decade as London levels down.
