Silvertown Is Go!

Lindsey
By Lindsey Last edited 202 months ago
Silvertown Is Go!
Silvertown.jpg

Now that Cedric’s had a chance to recover from the awfully big excitement of the Clissold Park windfall, our regeneration rabbit is about to go hippety hoppety flop eared over news that Silvertown Quays has had the go ahead from Newham.

This means that there will be a massive, mixed use development at the Royal Victoria Dock in the East End, full of shiny new houses, offices, workspaces, green spaces and all those positive regenerationy type things, along with promises of sustainability and good transport links via the DLR extension. All in all it will create a "thriving waterfront community" just a lollop away from its neighbouring regeneration site at the Olympic Park.

Not, as you might have thought, an upmarket, assisted living community for well heeled geriatrics.

Most excitingly for Cedric, though, is the prospect of visiting his underwater friends at Biota! in 2009. Billed as an "aquatic visitor attraction" we weren’t too sure about this a couple of years ago but the Zoological Society of London reassures us that the exhibits – or "biomes" – will all be underpinned by hardcore conservation and education. What’s more the exhi… sorry, biomes, will contain entire underwater ecosystems, doing away with many of the individual small tanks we’re so used to seeing at more dated aquaria (hey, still love that word).

The development is phased over the next 10-15 years with the inevitable luxury, waterfront apartments, along with Biota! coming first.

Image of shipping cranes in Silvertown, left over from the old days courtesy of Pigsaw's Flickrstream

Last Updated 03 May 2007