Policy information sourced from Newham Local Plan 2018

S3 Royal Docks

Proposals that address the following over-arching strategic principles and spatial strategy will be supported:

  • Strategic Principles:
    • The Royal Docks will become a unique and high quality waterfront mixed use urban quarter, realising the value of its many locational advantages and limited, plan-led, carefully Managed Release of employment land in combination with co-location, intensification and sensitive infill, and innovative responses to flood risk;
    • Delivery of at least 8404 new additional homes and significant numbers of the borough’s targeted jobs growth will add to existing employment and communities and create new neighbourhoods. The majority of these will come forward on 7 Strategic Sites, acting together with those in neighbouring areas, with non-strategic infill and activation opportunities identified at scattered locations within the wider area; and
    • The Royal Docks will continue to perform a growing economic role in the production, conference, tourism and leisure, and increasingly higher education, social enterprise and green industry sectors, and incubation across a range of sectors including digital and creative, focused on the Enterprise Zone, which will be a world class business centre and an international forum for the exchange of knowledge and ideas.
  • Spatial Strategy:
    • Today’s fragmented residential development will become consolidated into distinct but interconnected neighbourhoods, and benefiting from a network of new and enhanced green and open spaces and continuous waterfront access, and good access to stations, buses (including riverbuses), and an enhanced walking and cycling network. New neighbourhoods, at West Silvertown, Silvertown, North Woolwich, Royal Victoria Dock and Albert Basin, will each offer a range of quality community and social infrastructure including new schools, health care facilities, community meeting places and local retail and services, with further connections to facilities on the ExCeL estate and at Custom House/Freemasons local centre, and Canning Town, East Beckton, Beckton Riverside and Woolwich town centre;
    • New street-based local centres will be developed at Thames Wharf and West Silvertown focused around North Woolwich Road and the DLR stations, and North Woolwich Local Centre will be enhanced in terms of the quality and diversity of offer (including public realm) and nearby well connected complementary uses, with all centres benefiting from pedestrian and cycle links to neighbouring residential areas;
    • The sections of North Woolwich Road between Tidal Basin roundabout and North Woolwich Roundabout, and longer term, Albert Road between North Woolwich and Albert Island, will be reconfigured to provide high quality, active pedestrian environments at a human scale, and increased cycle and public transport network accessibility, in line with Policies SP7, INF2 and having regard to Policies INF6 and INF7;
    • Industrial areas will re-vitalise in consolidated form at Thameside East and West, in the Albert Island (benefiting from Enterprise Zone status) and St Marks LILs, anchored by successful businesses committed to the area, and new wharf and boatyard facilities, and buffered by modern industrial, flexible business and warehouse buildings that are configured to provide the necessary transition to neighbouring residential environments, achieving waterside access, separation of industrial and residential traffic and making use of river based transport, where possible, and market sensitive diversification of the accommodation offer, which will be further complemented by mixed use cultural and creative hubs around North Woolwich Station and in the Silvertown Arches LMUA;
    • Consolidation of four safeguarded wharves in the Royal Docks (Thames, Peruvian, Manhattan, and Sunshine) at Central Thameside West on Peruvian and Royal Primrose Wharves will achieve no net loss of functionality or wharf capacity with additional development conforming with the associated SIL designation and complementing the wharves, including through maintaining access to them;
    • A package of river crossings, accessible bridges over the docks to the ExCel Centre and over the rail corridor between London City airport and Connaught Riverside, new riverboat services, improvements to the DLR and bus services (which will have evolved to address [new] desired patterns of movement) and access to Crossrail services will provide strategic and local access for residents and visitors;
    • London City Airport will continue to perform an important role in the area’s international business and visitor connectivity and as the focus to an employment hub with measures implemented to support the optimisation of existing capacity and further mitigation of its environmental impacts, including improvements to public transport;
    • The area’s key character assets, namely the open water and remaining historic buildings and structures of the docks, river/dockside views and access, and Victorian heritage of North Woolwich around the station, Woolwich Manor Way Area of Townscape Value, Lyle Park and Royal Victoria Gardens, will be re-valued and enhanced, whilst achieving appropriate mitigation of flood risk, ensuring that they form an integral part of the area’s future, with building heights decreasing with distance from Canning Town towards the east;
    • Local energy generation and district heating will be typical throughout the area with major developments being required to link and/or add to existing networks in addition to the provision of significant new energy transmission and ICT infrastructure to meet business, residential and transport needs; and
    • In order to deliver the above vision-based spatial strategy, the following Strategic Sites, as shown on the Policies Map, are allocated for development as set out in Appendix 1:
      • S21 Silvertown Quays
      • S22 Minoco Wharf
      • S09 Silvertown Landing
      • S07 Central Thameside West
      • S20 Lyle Park West
      • S23 Connaught Riverside
      • S04 North Woolwich Gateway

For more information please see the Local Plan 2018