I've long loved Footpath 47 at Barking Riverside for its estuarine bleakness, a half mile of undeveloped Thames foreshore with open access to the river. I've also long urged youto visit before a wall of flats encroaches and the river'sedge is tidied up to incorporate a promenade and coastal garden. Well, you need to hurry up because the men with strimmers have arrived and the environmental tipping point approaches.
The land beneath your feet isn't truly a natural habitat, it's layers of pulverised fuel ash from the decommissioned Barking Power Station mixed with clay spoil, topped off further back by humps of landfill. But it is exceptionally rare to be able to walk along a broad grassy path beside unprotected estuary, and before long it won't be possible at all. Works have just started on what's known as Foreshore Package 0-1, the western half of Footpath 47's shoreline stroll, kicking off with vegetation clearance and the relocation of existing wildlife. They're also in the process of installing 'ecology fencing', notionally for safety reasons rather than to deter the passage of reptiles, but the net effect is to prevent the public from straying down to the tidal edge, perhaps forever.
The long-term plan is to create Foreshore Park, an 18 acre green stripe connecting fresh city blocks to vegetated banks and coastal grasslands. This'll have a raised promenade suitable for cycling overlooking a terraced landscaped area, creating 'waterfront public realm' for tens of thousands of new residents. It'll kick off near the pier with a meeting spot called The Terrace, merge into a small recreational area near the existing Project Office and skirt a more natural basin including a lower walkway and a short perpendicular spur called The Lookout. Importantly it'll also raise flood protection from the existing crest level of 7.1m to the 8.2m needed to satisfy the Thames Estuary 2100 Plan. Standing here near an open bank I did wonder if that could possibly be sufficient, but apparently even the appalling inundation of January 1953 only reached 5.1m hereabouts.
Footpath 47's proposed fate is as follows. Later this year the western half will be temporarily diverted away from the Thames to follow a pavement-bashing arc through the new estate and along the unforgiving slog of Choats Lane, thus technically providing a link to the eastern half by the Goresbrook. The new earthworks to create Foreshore Package 0-1 should take about twelve months, with Footpath 47 reconnected via a temporary link path as soon as appropriate. The eastern half will then be terraced and promenaded in a similar manner, with the new retaining wall complete by the summer of 2030 according to one document I've seen. I've also seen one document saying the two metal navigationbeacons here will be retained and relocated, and another saying they've been deemed of insufficient heritage interest so will simply be removed.
Ultimately Footpath 47 will be the forgotten name for a riverside promenade a tad further back than the existing path, all fully accessible, and a key interface that finally provides Barking Riverside residents with easy access to the river. At present no new flats have been built anywhere near the Thames, indeed less than a quarter of the proposed 20,000 homes have yet been completed, all much further up the landfill mound. It could be 2046 before developers finally pack up and go, but these preliminary works need to begin now to allow further phases to continue. You can read more about the immediate evolution of the foreshore here, and see greater detail in the consultation boards pack here, but mainly I urge you to come and see how Footpath 47 looks now before the Closed/Diversion signs appear, which could be soon.
This untamed unpaved path has been gradually encroached upon for the best part of a decade, but what happens next will kickstart an inexorable step change to terraced residential waterfront, by no means anodyne but alas no longer unique.
