Surrey Canal is an area in inner south east London, situated 2 miles south of

Tower Bridge Tower Bridge is a Grade I listed combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones and engineered by John Wolfe Barry with the help of Henry Marc Brunel. It crosses the River Thames close ...

, which was formerly home to a section of the Grand Surrey Canal. It is formed by the meeting point of three districts:

Bermondsey Bermondsey () is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckha ...

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home ...

and

New Cross New Cross is an area in south east London, England, south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Gree ...

History and land use

The

Grand Surrey Canal The Grand Surrey Canal was a canal constructed in south London, England during the early 19th century. It opened to the Old Kent Road in 1807, to Camberwell in 1810, and to Peckham in 1826. Its main purpose was to transport cargo, primarily tim ...

was used to transport timber from the

Surrey Docks The Surrey Commercial Docks were a large group of docks in Rotherhithe, South East London, located on the south bank (the Surrey side) of the River Thames. The docks operated in one form or another from 1696 to 1969. Most were subsequently f ...

to Camberwell but it was closed in 1971 and subsequently filled in. The area surrounding this section of the canal has a history of residential development before it became a public park, Senegal Fields, in 1972. Since 1993 the former Senegal Fields site has been home to

Millwall FC Millwall Football Club () is a professional Association football, football club in Bermondsey, Greater London, South East London, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football league system, English football. ...

. Surrey Canal's boundaries as a district are roughly equal to the length of Surrey Canal Road, which runs along the perimeter of three postal code districts: SE16, SE14 and SE8. Surrey Canal future aerial

The remaining land use is predominantly industrial, including waste and recycling processing facilities on Landmann Way and a

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a large part of Greater London as w ...

maintenance depot.

Redevelopment

A development proposal, which received planning consent in March 2012, was thoroughly investigated by The Guardian newspaper in 2016 and 2017. As a result of funding claims that were false and links between the developer and Lewisham council, the scheme was cancelled. The developer (Renewal) was found to have no experience of such a scheme and lacked funds. It was registered in overseas tax havens. Followers of Millwall, local residents, former players, football commentators and supporters of clubs across the world expressed their concern about the scheme because it endangered a club with very close community links. It is hoped that the club's own proposals will be adopted in due course (this at 8th Feb, 2017.)

References

{{Reflist History of the London Borough of Lewisham