Beckton Loop

Location: East London

Client: London Devlopment Agency
Date: Completed in 2009

Landscape Study

East Beckton in London’s Thames Gateway is an extraordinary place, a low-lying estuarine landscape formed by the Rivers Thames and Roding and home to Bazalgette’s great Victorian Sewage Works. 

The area has an elusive and disconnected character with a scattering of open spaces which are difficult to reach and limited access to the edge of the River Thames where the scale of views and the qualities of openness are magnificent as it flows out towards the North Sea.
 
East Beckton is a disorientating and difficult place for pedestrians and cyclists dominated by the grand industrial sites of the sewage works and gas works. The Beckton Loop would create a series of connected high quality open spaces and a route to new areas by the river. The project represents the first stage of the Cross River Park, an ambitious proposal from Design for London to create a singular urban parkland from this disparate and complex landscape and connecting both banks of the River Thames.