One of the most planned for spaces in the world

This walk, led by artist, Eloise Hawser will explore how new infrastructure has been implanted into the Royal Docks, and its older forms subsequently estranged. With the new roads, railway, closure to marine traffic, and airport, for example, the Docks’ surrounding cranes are now ornamental, urban furniture; the grand Victorian municipal buildings are boarded up; the once famed Gallions Hotel oscillates between use and dereliction; the pumping stations maintain water levels for Docks that no longer employ any dockers. 

This three-hour walk will begin at Beckton Park DLR, going on to explore some of the most Eastern parts of the Docks. We’ll be tracing the history of the dock’s infrastructure, especially its water systems, including the redevelopment of the marina, pumping stations, draining systems for the construction of London City Airport, and the newest plans for a proposed shipyard on the overgrown and near-derelict Albert Island, the first in London over three hundred years. We will discuss how this knot of infrastructural change has enabled a highly mobile, transient population of passengers, commuters, students, workers, and visitors, and simultaneously attracts and expels people from the Docks.  The walk will begin at Beckton Park DLR station.