Geography
London's Blue Ribbon Network: Riverside renaissance along the Thames
Document Type
Book Chapter
Abstract
London’s riverside renaissance dates back to 1981, when Michael Heseltine, then Secretary of State for the Environment under Margaret Thatcher, declared London’s docklands a space without local democracy by replacing local government with the highly autonomous and non-elected London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) (Brownill, 1990). This body was charged with using public funds to attract real-estate capital into the economic vacuum created by the migration of London’s dock activities to the east of the city. The urban development process initiated at this point continues today, even though the LDDC was dismantled in 1998, as the collection of corporate skyscrapers clustered around the initial One Canada Square building continues to grow (see fi gure 10.1). This transformation of ex-industrial waterfront spaces into gleaming beacons of post-industrial urbanism was replicated elsewhere, in places such as Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, USA, and Melbourne’s docklands, Australia, using London docklands’-style entrepreneurial approaches to bring about renewal.
Publication Title
Regenerating London: Governance, Sustainability and Community in a Global City
Publication Date
12-22-2008
First Page
173
Last Page
191
ISBN
9780203886717
DOI
10.4324/9780203886717
Repository Citation
Davidson, Mark, "London's Blue Ribbon Network: Riverside renaissance along the Thames" (2008). Geography. 128.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_geography/128