Meet the young buyers who have finally made it onto the ladder
London’s new waterside city with homes for 50,000 people — so good even the Mayor is moving there
ROYAL DOCKS is one of the capital’s fastest evolving regeneration zones. Once the pulsing heart of the London shipping industry, Victoria, Albert and King George V Docks — nicknamed “The Royals” — comprise the focal point of the £5 billion rebirth of a wider swathe of east London from Canning Town to North Woolwich, that will become home to 50,000 people.
Work started around the docks five years ago and now the former industrial dead zone is bursting into life, with new homes launches scheduled throughout the summer.
Mayor Sadiq Khan’s money-saving plan is to move London government six miles downriver to The Crystal building at Royal Victoria Dock, where it can be part of the action as a new world grows up around it. Maybe in their down time, the Mayor and his Greater London Authority team will get sand in their shoes on a city beach, go wild swimming or hang out at the increasingly interesting range of bars and restaurants that were enlivening the dockside until Covid-19 struck.
As regeneration continues, there are plans for more waterfront watering holes, eateries, public squares and gardens, offices, sports facilities and new schools. What there does not appear to be is a masterplan to bring cohension to the area. Transport is a key ingredient of any successful regeneration and a new Crossrail station is due to open at Custom House next summer to augment the existing Docklands Light Railway and river bus services.
The Royals’ biggest development to date is Royal Wharf, providing 3,385 flats beside the eerily fabulous Thames Barrier Park.
Edward Robinson, a partner in estate agent Knight Frank’s city & east new homes team, says buyers have been a mix of international investors, parents buying flats for their children, former local renters, first-time buyers and families. “People see it as a good place to put down roots.” These buyers have been tempted, in part, by affordability. “In comparison with the new build in Canary Wharf, which ranges from £1,100 to £1,600 per square foot, Royal Docks is at least 40 per cent cheaper.”
The remaining few dozen flats at Royal Wharf, which completes this summer, are priced at about £750 per square foot, with two-bedroom homes from £577,000. Visit ballymoregroup. com for details.
Matthew Johnson, sales manager at agents Johns&Co, is also selling homes at Royal Wharf. “Some shops and units have now opened including a dental practice, pharmacy, nail salon, coffee shop and gastropub,” he says. “Still to come are a range of international restaurants as well as a patisserie, a hair salon and a new NHS clinic.”
Another big player is Mount Anvil, which is working on two major sites in the area. Newham council was this week expected to grant the housebuilder permission to build 854 homes at Western Gateway, beside the ExCeL centre at Royal Victoria Dock in E16.
They will eventually become Royal Eden Docks, with a residents’ pool and rooftop running track. To date, about a fifth of the flats that have come to the market have been sold, two years before the first residents are due to move in, with investors taking the majority of
the homes. Mount Anvil has already built out Royal Docks West, with 105 homes at Western Gateway.
ROYAL ALBERT DOCK
The focus is set to shift in 2027 to Royal Albert Dock, where the £1.9 billion Asian Business Port is being built on a 35-acre site. The port will create 20,000 jobs and act as a “gateway to the UK” for Chinese businesses according to its developer, Advanced Business Parks.
The site masterplan, by British architect Sir Terry Farrell, also includes affordable workspace for start-ups, plus homes, shops and leisure facilities, a half-mile waterfront “high street” and a series of garden squares.
Nearby are new homes at Gallions Point, conveniently close to Gallions Reach DLR station and right at the eastern boundary of the docks.
By Royal Docks standards, this is a small development, with 127 homes ranged around three courtyard gardens. Prices start at £348,750 for a one-bedroom flat and Help to Buy is available (telfordhomes.london/gallions-point).
Gallions Reach Shopping Park is up the road, as is New Beckton Park, The Royals’ largest green space. The first Gallions Point residents started to move in at the beginning of this month and the development is set to complete this summer.
GET IN AT THE START
As new residents begin to fill up The Royals, the major concern is that this is a regeneration hotspot being put together jigsaw puzzle-style, by a string of different housebuilders and with little in the way of overall planning and integration with the back streets.
Undoubtedly, the revamped docks will prove to be a superb new asset for London — but for now, the district has the distinct air of a starter home dormitory town.
Donna Lightbown works for the Royal Docks Team, a collaboration between the Mayor and Newham council tasked with turning the docks into a thriving destination. The team has a budget of about £340 million to spend around Royal Victoria Dock and Silvertown.
“We recognise that there is a deficit,” she says. “The Mayor has really put culture and activation at the centre of our plans.”
This will mean funding events such as music festivals and installations, markets and sporting contests, while next year is set to bring a 1,150-seat new theatre. The pandemic scuppered plans to hold a Formula E electric car racing event and for hosting the Clipper Round the World Race finale.
“We want to make use of the water,” says Lightbown. “Last year we had a floating lido at the Royal Docks.”