It took nine years to build the Thames Tideway tunnel from Acton to Abbey Mills, a massive drainage project to detain and divert London's Victorian sewage overflows. But it's taken even longer to finish off the additional public realm on top of the capped shafts, with the last of seven offshore worksites now finally transformed. It's the King Edward Memorial Park Foreshore and by extending into the Thames it's made the east London park 8% larger. [8 photos]
King Edward Memorial Park hugs the river where Wapping meets Shadwell and has already been infiltrated by another tunnel shaft. The Rotherhithe Tunnel passes directly underneath because Edwardian engineers decided this was the ideal spot for a ventilation shaft and also a spiral staircase for pedestrians (not used since the 1970s). The road is 23m down and the Thames Tunnel more like 60m so there was no chance of the two ever clashing, but the new bore does in fact pass directly beneath the old shaft.
The park was a bit glum during the years of construction blighted by a large worksite on land, a large cofferdam offshore and a lot of cranes and silos digging 19 storeys down. Marshals had to be employed so the Thames Path could cross the access route for the works, which always felt like those passing through were just getting in the way. But now the last construction workers are packing to leave, the access road has been transformed into a welcoming path and local residents are getting used to having a great new viewpoint on their doorstep.
The new protruding foreshore is 70m long and half that wide, with almost all the good stuff around the perimeter. Steps lead down at both ends to a riverside terrace from which passing Clippers and a Rotherhithe panorama can be enjoyed. The lower path has warning signs saying Beware Flood Zone which isn't bluster, it's because higher tides are intended to overtop the river wall onto the lower walkway "providing an opportunity for the public to dip their toes into the river". Sooner you than me. Another sign says Warning During cold weather there is a possible risk of Slip Conditions', which is either stating the bleeding obvious or because they could have thought harder about creating a safer surface.
There's seating throughout, much of it traditional benches with plaques commemorating those who passed away during the construction of the project. Elsewhere are chunky long wooden slatted things that swoosh round the lower terrace, all with the idea of facilitating a communal gathering point because it's much nicer to sit here than in the rest of the park. I had to contend with a resident making a loud phonecall which rather put a damper on a desire to pause awhile, although I imagine on a fine summer's evening the cacophony could be much louder.
Every Tideway foreshore project has some art and here it's Cargoes by sculptor Hew Locke. He's created some absolutely gorgeous bronzeboats, each up to a metre long and begging to be touched, which is just as well because one toddler was absolutely going for it. I found four and couldn't work out the theme, perhaps boats that used to ply trade here? Apparently they represent the far-reaching impact of Britain’s maritime power and trading empire on diverse ethnic, social and economic groups across different periods and communities while reflecting on boats as vessels for travel, trade and transformation and as metaphors for human passage. Also there are six so I completely missed a couple - the full list is tug, Chinese junk, flat barge, carrack, Thames barge and Bangladesh riverboat - so look more carefully if you visit.
Up top the chief points of interest are the twin ventilation shafts that appear at every Tideway site, beautifully sculpted in cast iron. They're called vortex columns, resemble weird upward trumpets and here feature a linework pattern inspired by the grilles in the Rotherhithe Tunnel Rotunda. The plaza alongside is extensive and mostly blank apart from a heck of a lot of inspection hatches, because they've hidden a functioning maintenance interface in plain sight. One brass circle does however mark the precise outline of the shaft directly below, so if you're squeamish about heights you might want to avoid standing over the 60m drop.
A plaque reveals that the Duke of Gloucester officially opened King Edward Memorial Park Foreshore last September, or rather lifted a white cloth off the plaque in the bandstand, then walked around and stroked the art while talking to its creators. You may not get the VIP treatment but you have the advantage that you can visit after the site's been fully completed and see it at its best. You might even want to get your feet wet, in which case the weekend of 15th/16th August looks to have a particularly high tide. Also this is just one of seven Thames Tideway foreshore extensions so you could attempt to visit the full set, also the various similarly decorated sites that aren't actually on the river.
It's been a right mess along the river while the Tideway Tunnel was being constructed, but thankfully they've tidied up and arguably left things better than they were before.
