Community Planning Weekend
October 2017
In the summer of 2017 Tower Hamlets Council published its masterplan for Shadwell Park, also known as King Edward Memorial Park.
Thames Tideway which is conducting the works for the new supersewer has allocated £3.1 million to the project to offset the impact on the park and the duration of time the works will take – until 2020/21.
The Community Liaison Working Group which meets with Tideway bi-monthly believes that the scheme Tower Hamlets has devised could be greatly improved with more input from local residents in what they want for their park. To do this the working group ran an intensive planning weekend and invited designers, landscape architects and cost consultants, people from the council and Tideway to come together and produce a scheme that is fitting for this unique riverside park. A leaflet was sent to every address in Shadwell and Wapping by the first week of October with all the details. In order to make the park one that everyone is proud of, as many local residents as possible were encouraged to attend. The programme started on Friday October 13 at 6.30pm at Shadwell Basin Centre, Shadwell Pierhead, Glamis Road E1W 3TD.
Here is a link to the masterplan
Details and times for the planning weekend:
A bright future for Shadwell Park Planning weekend flyer
Community Weekend Presentation
The event was well attended by local residents who over the course of the weekend heard presentations from local historian Ray Newton, who gave a history of the area – of how the Corporation of London’s Shadwell Fish Market became the King Edward Memorial Park, dedicated in a park memorial “to the use and enjoyment of the people of East London for ever”, opened by KingGeorge V, Saturday 24 June 1922.
Shadwell resident Sahabi Choudhury provided a summary of the stark socio economic differences in park users from the local area and the Director of Shadwell Basin Outdoor Activity Centre, Mike Wardle outlined how he wanted to see the right balance in the park between sport and leisure users. Architect student Jeff Tan demonstrated with a water model how the energy of the Thames could be used as a feature of the park. The discussions were rich and passionate and a final presentation that encompassed these debates was produced and we have put all of these ideas forward to Tower Hamlets Council.
The Council is now consulting on a detailed design for the Masterplan and a Community Masterplan Advisory Group has been set up. Updates will be available here.
See links below:
Shadwell Park Community Planning Weekend_2017 10 15 Final session
Summary of-Community-Planning-Weekend
“We want the park to be a haven for everybody,
where you can sit and watch the river or play games
and you can’t hear the sound of traffic”
Photos by Kois Miah