Greenwich Peninsula
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The Greenwich Peninsula is an area of
Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...
in South East
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. It is bounded on three sides by a loop of the
Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...
, between the
Isle of Dogs The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England. It includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Haml ...
to the west and
Silvertown Silvertown is a district of West Ham in the London Borough of Newham, in east London, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, Thames and was historically part of the parishes of West Ham and East Ham, Becontree Hundred, hund ...
to the east. To the south is the rest of Greenwich, to the south-east is Charlton. Formerly known as Greenwich MarshesOS 1:2500 map of 1867, Republished as ''West India Docks 1867'', The Godfrey Edition, Alan Godfrey Maps, 1991, Gateshead, and as Bugsby's Marshes, it became known as East Greenwich as it developed in the 19th century, but more recently has been called North Greenwich due to the location of the North Greenwich Underground station (not to be confused with North Greenwich on the Isle of Dogs, at the north side of a former ferry from Greenwich). The peninsula's northernmost point on the riverside is known as ''Blackwall Point'', and this may have led to the name ''Blackwall Peninsula'' sometimes being used in the late 20th century. Landmarks include ''The Dome'' (also known by the current corporate logo The O2 and previously the
Millennium Dome The Millennium Dome was the original name of the large dome-shaped building on the Greenwich Peninsula in South East (London sub region), South East London, England, which housed a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millen ...
), the southern end of the
Blackwall Tunnel The Blackwall Tunnel is a pair of road tunnels underneath the River Thames in east London, England, linking the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and part of the A102 road. The northern portal lies just south ...
and the western end of the Silvertown Tunnel, but the area is now being substantially redeveloped with new homes, offices, schools and parks. Ravensbourne University London, a media and design university built on the peninsula in 2010, neighbours The O2.


History

The peninsula was drained by Dutch engineers in the 16th century, allowing it to be used as pasture land. In the 17th century, Blackwall Point (the northern tip of the peninsula, opposite Blackwall) gained notoriety as a location where pirates' corpses were hung in cages as a deterrent to other would-be pirates. In the 1690s the
Board of Ordnance The Board of Ordnance was a British government body. Established in the Tudor period, it had its headquarters in the Tower of London. Its primary responsibilities were 'to act as custodian of the lands, depots and forts required for the defence ...
established a
gunpowder magazine A gunpowder magazine is a magazine (building) designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications re ...
on the west side of the peninsula, which was in operation by 1695, serving as the government's primary magazine (where newly milled powder was stored before it was sent out, on board specially equipped hoys). Alongside the magazine were a wharf, a
proof Proof most often refers to: * Proof (truth), argument or sufficient evidence for the truth of a proposition * Alcohol proof, a measure of an alcoholic drink's strength Proof may also refer to: Mathematics and formal logic * Formal proof, a co ...
house and accommodation for the resident Storekeeper. From the early 18th century, however, local residents began petitioning Parliament for the magazine (and its dangerous contents in particular) to be removed; this eventually led to the establishment of a new set of Royal Gunpowder Magazines down river at
Purfleet Purfleet-on-Thames is a town in the Thurrock unitary authority, Essex, England. It is bordered by the A13 road to the north and the River Thames to the south and is within the easternmost part of the M25 motorway but just outside the Greater ...
, which was opened in 1765. By 1771 gunpowder was no longer stored at Greenwich, though the buildings remained ''in situ'' for some decades afterwards. The peninsula was steadily industrialised from the early 19th century onwards. In 1857 a plan was presented to Parliament for a huge dock occupying much of the peninsula, connected to Greenwich Reach to the west and Bugsby's Reach to the east, but this came to nothing. Early industries included Henry Blakeley's Ordnance Works making heavy guns, with other sites making chemicals, submarine cables, iron boats, iron and steel.
Henry Bessemer Sir Henry Bessemer (19 January 1813 – 15 March 1898) was an English inventor, whose steel-making process would become the most important technique for making steel in the nineteenth century for almost one hundred years. He also played a sig ...
built a steel works in the early 1860s to supply the London shipbuilding industry, but this closed as a result of a fall in demand due to the financial crisis of 1866. Later came oil mills, shipbuilding (for example the 1870
clipper A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. The term was also retrospectively applied to the Baltimore clipper, which originated in the late 18th century. Clippers were generally narrow for their len ...
s ''Blackadder'' and ''Hallowe'en'' built by Maudslay), boiler making, manufacture of
Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar (masonry), mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in th ...
and
linoleum Linoleum is a floor covering made from materials such as solidified linseed oil (linoxyn), Pine Resin, pine resin, ground Cork (material), cork dust, sawdust, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a Hessian fabric, hes ...
(Bessemer's works became the Victoria linoleum works) and the South Metropolitan Gas company's huge East Greenwich Gas Works.OS 1:2500 map of 1894, Republished as ''West India Docks & Greenwich Marshes 1894'', The Godfrey Edition, Alan Godfrey Maps, Gateshead, 2000, Early in the 20th century came bronze manufacturers Delta Metals and works making asbestos and 'Molassine Meal' animal feed.OS 1:2500 map of 1914, Republished as ''West India Docks 1914'', The Godfrey Edition, Alan Godfrey Maps, Gateshead, 1991, For over 100 years the peninsula was dominated by the
gasworks A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...
which primarily produced
town gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...
, also known as
coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...
. The gasworks grew to , the largest in
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, also producing coke, tar and chemicals as important secondary products. The site had its own extensive railway system and a large
jetty A jetty is a man-made structure that protrudes from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater (structure), breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French la ...
used to unload coal and load coke. There were two huge gas holders, of 8.6 and 12.2 million ft3 (240,000 m3 and 345,000 m3). The larger holder, originally the largest in the world, was reduced to 8.9 million ft3 (250,000 m3) when it was damaged in the
Silvertown explosion The Silvertown explosion occurred in Silvertown in County Borough of West Ham, West Ham, Essex (now part of the London Borough of Newham) on Friday 19 January 1917 at 6:52 p.m. The blast occurred at a munitions factory that was manufacturi ...
in 1917, but was still the largest in England until it was damaged again by a
Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...
bomb in 1978. Originally manufacturing gas from coal, the plant began to manufacture gas from oil in the 1960s. Its peak production of 400 million ft3 per day (11.3 million m3) in the mid 1960s is believed to have been the largest of any single site in the world. The discovery of
natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...
reserves in the
North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
soon rendered the complex obsolete. On the eastern shore was Blackwall Point Power Station; the original station from the 1890s was replaced in the 1950s by a new station which ceased operation in about 1981. On the western shore, a large area including the site of the Victoria linoleum works later became the Victoria Deep Water Terminal in 1966, handling
container A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...
traffic. At the southwestern end of the peninsula
Enderby's Wharf Enderby's Wharf is a wharf and industrial site on the south bank of the Thames in Greenwich, London, associated with Telcon and other companies. It has a history of more than 150 years of production of submarine communication cables and associ ...
was occupied by a succession of famous submarine cable companies from 1857 onwards, including Glass Elliot, W T Henley, Telcon, Submarine Cables Ltd, STC,
Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It was founded in ...
and Alcatel. The peninsula remained relatively remote from central London until the opening of the Blackwall Tunnel in 1897, and had no passenger railway or
London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...
service until the opening of North Greenwich tube station on the
Jubilee line The Jubilee line is a London Underground line that runs between in suburban north-west London and in east London, via the West End of London, West End, South Bank and London Docklands, Docklands. Opened in 1979, it is the newest line on the ...
in 1999. Closure of the gasworks, power station and other industries in the late 20th century left much of the Greenwich Peninsula a barren wasteland, much of it heavily contaminated. In the early years of the 21st century, surviving industries were mainly concentrated on the western side of the peninsula, between the river and the A102 Blackwall Tunnel southern approach road. They included Alcatel, a Tunnel Refiners/Amylum
glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ...
plant (from 1976 until about 2008 part of
Tate & Lyle Tate & Lyle Public Limited Company is a British-headquartered, global supplier of food and beverage products to food and industrial markets. It was originally a sugar refining business, but from the 1970s, it began to diversify, eventually dive ...
) which closed in 2009, and two large marine aggregate terminals on the Delta Metals and Victoria Deep Water Terminal sites. The second of the two gas holders was demolished in 2020.


Redevelopment since the 1990s

Public and private investment since the early 1990s has brought about some dramatic changes in the peninsula's topography. In 1997 the national regeneration agency
English Partnerships English Partnerships (EP) was the national urban renewal, regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by regional development agency, regional development agencies on a regions of England, region ...
(later renamed the Homes and Communities Agency, now Homes England) purchased 1.21 square kilometres (300 acres) of disused land on the peninsula. The agency's investment of over £225m has helped to enhance the transport network and create new homes, commercial space and community facilities and to open up access to parkland along the river. In addition to the construction of the Millennium Dome, new roads were built on the eastern side of the peninsula in anticipation of new developments. New riverside walkways, cycle paths and public artworks were also created, including Antony Gormley's '' Quantum Cloud'' and Richard Wilson's '' A Slice of Reality''. (In 2015, these were among five North Greenwich artworks incorporated into '' The Line'', a public sculpture trail spanning the
River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...
.) Two phases of Greenwich Millennium Village, a mixed-tenure residential development designed by architect Ralph Erskine, with a primary school, a medical centre, a nature reserve with associated education centre have been completed. A
Holiday Inn Holiday Inn by IHG is a chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson (1913–2003), who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee. The chain was a division ...
hotel was also built nearby, and the Greenwich Yacht Club was relocated to a new site south-east of the Dome. North Greenwich tube station on the Jubilee line opened in 1999. It is one of the largest London Underground stations and also has a
bus station A bus station, bus depot, or bus interchange is a structure where city buses or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. A bus station is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can st ...
. The North Greenwich Pier offering commuter boat services to other parts of London, both east and west, is located on the Thames on the east side of the peninsula. In 2004 outline planning permission was granted for further large-scale redevelopment of the site, including over 10,000 further homes, some facing the river or overlooking the park, of office space and the conversion of the Millennium Dome into an indoor arena, renamed The O2, which was used as a
London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
venue. South of The O2, new public realms were created, ''Peninsula Square'' and ''Green Place''. To the east of Peninsula Square is Ravensbourne University London, which relocated to Greenwich Peninsula in September 2010. In 2011, the university's campus won an award in the
Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
(RIBA) Awards for London. From a shortlist of 55 schemes, the Ravensbourne building won the education and community category. To the south east of the square, the six storey 14 Pier Walk building houses offices for
Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...
.TfL begins move into new greener, cheaper Greenwich Peninsula offices
TfL press release, 13 August 2009
Adjacent to this is the 11 storey 6 Mitre Passage office building. New restaurants and shops have opened facing onto Peninsula Square and Green Place. Transport for London constructed a cable car over the River Thames just before the
2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
began. This runs from a riverside station south-east of the O2 over the river to the
Royal Victoria Dock The Royal Victoria Dock is the largest of three docks in the Royal Docks of east London, now part of the redeveloped London Docklands, Docklands. History Although, the structure was in place in the year 1850, it was opened in 1855, on a pre ...
west of the ExCeL Centre. Adjacent to the cable car terminus was a large temporary building housing the London Soccer Dome, formerly the David Beckham Academy. This opened in 2005 but closed in 2014, with the main structures being dismantled, transported and re-erected in
Southend Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...
; the site is intended for residential use. Approximately 400 m further south, at the western end of River Way, is the Pilot Inn
public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...
, which, along with the adjacent housing terrace, is among the oldest remaining buildings on the peninsula. Central Park runs through the central spine of the peninsula, with the Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park further south providing a haven for many different species of bird, plants and insects. A
combined heat and power Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to electricity generation, generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise ...
(CHP) energy centre has been constructed adjacent to and east of the A102 Blackwall Tunnel Southern Approach to provide
district heating District heating (also known as heat networks) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heater, space heating and w ...
to an eventual total of 15,700 properties on the peninsula. It is operated by Pinnacle Power for Greenwich Peninsula ESCO Limited. A 49 m high tower forms part of the energy centre, designed by C. F. Møller Architects, and was completed in 2016. The tower is clad in a complex metal cladding formed of hundreds of triangular patterns (initially titled 'Lenticular Dazzle Camouflage'), designed by British artist Conrad Shawcross. The tower cladding later featured as part of an art trail around north Greenwich, with the work given the title 'The Optic Cloak'. In 2016, construction started on new buildings for St Mary Magdalene Church of England School (part of the Koinonia Federation; the federation then operated at four Greenwich sites, two of which moved to the new building on completion in September 2018). The school is located at the corner of Millennium Way and John Harrison Way, and has sports facilities available for community use.


Future development

The peninsula is now being developed with new homes at Peninsula Riverside, and Parkside Peninsula Quays. The redevelopment of Greenwich Peninsula is planned to take around 20 years. The improved access to the peninsula from
Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is a financial area of London, England, located in the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The Greater London Authority defines it as part of London's central business district, alongside Central London. Alongside ...
, the City and the West End via the Jubilee line has increased the prospects for continued residential regeneration.


External links


GreenwichPeninsula.co.uk


References

{{Major Development Projects in London Peninsulas of England Geography of the Royal Borough of Greenwich Districts of the Royal Borough of Greenwich Districts of London on the River Thames Redevelopment projects in London Port of London