Thamesmead West is located in South East London, South of the River Thames. Its neighbours are Plumstead, Belvedere, Abbey Wood, and Woolwich. Compared to other London areas, the creation of Thamesmead is a relatively new concept and mainly comprises social housing from the 1960s. The locality was named after urban planners created a newspaper competition asking local residents to think of a name for this new area. Thamesmead was the name chosen, yet some conspiracists say it was the name that planners had already chosen for the new area! Thamesmead is arguably one of London’s most diverse populations, with high proportions of African descending residents.

The area was originally located on unused marshland collectively known as Erith and Plumstead Marshes. It is made up of post-war social housing which are in the form of tall tower blocks. Its proximity to the River Thames made it a strategic military base and in 1515 Henry VIII, built a warship (Henri Grace à Dieu) with an aim of increasing the offensive capabilities of the British Navy. Woolwich Arsenal, which is located in this neighbourhood area, was a site for testing and manufacturing weapons by the British military due to its soft marshland ability to absorb weapon impact and being largely inhabited. During the 19th to 20th century the demand for weapons grew as Britain was in many wars, culminating in 73,000 people being employed in local weapons manufacturing factories by the beginning of the First World War. Following the two world wars the area became the setting for some of the most utopian urban planning seen anywhere in the UK. However, these schemes soon gained an infamous reputation, with the brutalist architecture of Thamesmead in particular, becoming synonymous with crime and the disintegration of working class communities.

British science fiction comedy drama TV series, Misfits, was filmed in the council estates of Thamesmead, so too were scenes in Stanley Kubricks’ unsettling film adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel ‘A Clockwork Orange’ (1971).

Thamesmead was once known for its lack of transport connections. While the introduction of the Elizabeth Line is changing this the area is still notorious as it is the home of two Category A Men’s Prisons, HMP Thamesmead & HMP Belmarsh.

Over the next 30 years around £1 billion will be invested in Thamesmead by the Peabody Housing Developers, who will seek to improve green spaces, housing and economic growth in Thamesmead West. Bexley Council has been given £100,000 by the Greater London Authority in funding to create a new engineering college in the area. Despite this, the biggest recent change to the area has been the opening of the Elizabeth Line at nearby Abbey Wood, just a short bus ride away. This is set to transform the area from an isolated suburb to a bustling commuter hub with direct transport links to central London and Heathrow. The Lombard Square development on Nathan Way is one development prompted by these new transport links, providing over 1,500 new homes in what is planned to be a new neighbourhood. This will be joined by the Dock 28 development at 20 Pier Way which also contains over 200 flats and is scheduled for completion in 2023.