|
History of London Yard From 1984
|
||||||
|
Back to: History of London Yard 1800 - 1897 Back to: History of London Yard 1898 - 1983 1984
The LDDC set about finding a developer for the site. Mr. J.B. Streefkerk, the Dutch director of property developer V.O.M. remembers seeing London Yard for the first time from an helicopter: - "The
LDDC officer was sitting next to us in the helicopter pointing out to us
the empty docks, derelict sites, abandoned embankments with large, but
silent, cranes all in the middle of no-where. He showed us the yellow
squares of new sand that had been spread over the sites where the LDDC
had removed old buildings to make the them ready for new buildings. 1988
By the end of 1988, the London Yard development was complete and all the properties were sold. The development comprises of 312 properties, mainly of leasehold apartments but with some freehold houses on Manchester Road, Rotterdam Drive and Leerdam Drive. The freehold of the communal areas and apartment blocks is owned by the London Yard Management Company Ltd whose shareholders are the 312 property owners. The shareholders elect a Board of Directors who, in turn, collect ground rents; appoint managing agents; set the service charge; administer the code of conduct, including the parking scheme; maintain and renew the infrastructure and ensure compliance with the leases. The Board of Directors are not paid for their efforts. 1995
Initially, the LDDC retained the freehold of the part of Amsterdam Road from Manchester Road to the slipway, plus part of the car park in front of the restaurant. This was probably to ensure public access to the slipway and river walkway. With the expected demise of the LDDC, the Board opened negotiations to obtain the freehold in order to prevent it being acquired by the local authority. In 1997 the LDDC transferred the remaining freehold of the road and car park to the company together with £50,000 to pay for its future maintenance and cleaning. Following a study by a firm of consulting engineers the Board declined to accept responsibility for the Thames river wall. This was transferred to the local authority when the LDDC closed. The ownership of the river walkway was also transferred from the LDDC to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets at the local authority's insistence. The beach remains the property of the Port of London Authority.
London Yard is now a mature modern Docklands development which is expected to occupy this Isle of Dogs marshland for many years to come. But history shows that land use changes with the needs of the community - so what will London Yard become next .....
|
||||||
|
Back to: History of London Yard 1800 - 1897 Back to: History of London Yard 1898 - 1983 Authors Note One of the advantages of publishing on the Internet is the flexibility. Therefore, if you have additional information about, or photographs of, London Yard that would be appropriate, please contact us. We will be happy to update this document to include your contribution. Angela Brown and Ron Coverson
|
||||||
|
Acknowledgements: The authors acknowledge the following sources of information and photographs included in this document:
The Island History Trust Mr. J.B. Streefkerk Ted Johns East London Advertiser The Islander The London Docklands Development Corporation Geographers A-Z Map Company Ltd
© 2001 - Angela Brown, Ron Coverson and the above contributors. |
||||||
|
|
The
London Docklands Development Corporation was an urban development
corporation, the second to be established by the Government under the
Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980. For nearly seventeen
years, between July 1981 and March 1998, the London Docklands
Development Corporation (LDDC) worked to secure the regeneration of the
London Docklands, an area of eight-and-a-half square miles stretching
across parts of the East End Boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets and
Newham. The A-Z of the early 1980s shows the Isle of Dogs before the
LDDC development took place.
In
1995, the London Docklands Development Corporation paid approximately
90% of the cost of building a new wall, and repairing the existing
walls, between London Yard and the Samuda estate. London Yard Management
Company Ltd contributed £5,000.
In
July 2001, the River Walkway was opened up between London Yard and
Island Gardens when a wall between London Yard and Millennium Wharf
(previously Millwall Wharf) was demolished.
