The Advantage of Disadvantage
The Advantage of Disadvantage: Michael Owens told the story of how the wastelands of Stratford in East London, five miles from the City of London, were transformed into the buzzing, lush river city and creative hub that it is today.
The first step was appreciating the economic and transformative value of being a key rail connection to France with the Eurostar. Not a particularly "desirable" stop perhaps but one with huge potential for development, partly because it wasn't. It was not built up, it was not expensive, it was not conservation area, it was an affordable area with light industry, rubbish dumps and a fragmented community, since the docks were no longer viable.
The second was bringing that community together - articulating that potential, the arc of opportunity down the river front at a political level (go London Borough of Newham!) and at a community one. A local vicar opened up the church as a community centre, bringing people together and started to talk about the river as a metaphor, the river of life. The Water city idea started to take hold.
And then the Olympics Bid came along, Mayor Ken Livingstone saw the potential for leveraging the benefits for East London and supported it. So did Tony Blair, and by bringing along all the various stakeholders, councils, communities, business, investors, so also did new mayor Boris Johnson, and new PM David Cameron.
The games played a role in providing focus and a deadline accelerating the process. (A bit like our Viaduct and Wynyard Quarter and the America's cup). This helped keep up momentum and was widely supported. (even if it meant breaking some eggs to make an omelette). T
But they were also smart to set up the London Legacy Development Corporation (the vicar is on it - and many people involved have been there a long time) to think about longterm outocmes for the local community as well as London as a whole. There was some opposition, which can break a project of this ambition, but it was significantly outweighed by those who did support it within the community as well as out of it. Local businesses were in the room and found a way forward that didn’t mean entire displacement.
The Legacy Development Corporation has continued to deliver projects and improvements so that now the place has university research units, business parks, amazing gardens, cultural institutions like Sadlers Wells and the V&A and importantly affordable housing and great public transport.
It’s a helpful story about how things can happen. And I'm sure there is lots to learn about what went wrong as well as what went right. Another parallel with Wynyard Quarter is that original aspirations were to have a decent proportion of affordable housing - which then seems to disappear when governments change and/or cuts need to be found. A proportion of affordable housing should be a key part of the story. And the best way to deliver affordable housing is to actually build it.
The project has added value to the area and rents are higher. This has undoubtedly displaced people, and the roads are wide, the buildings are big - it is not human scale - yet it has also had a positive impact. This is the nicest Westfield I’ve been to with much used table tennis tables, a grand piano (with really good people playing on it), great shops and it is overrun by school kids (and everyone really). School groups are out in Queen Elizabeth Park where there are some brilliant play spaces.
The advantage of disadvantage + great transport links + vision + taking people with you + Olympics as focal point + keeping an eye on the long game = win.