Silvertown Quays: building on £3.5bn project due to start almost 20 years after plans first drawn up
The backers of the £3.5 billion Silvertown Quays development in the Royal Docks area won the approval of Newham council last week and have said construction will start in early 2021.
Phase one of the project will see about 1,000 homes built — of which 20 per cent will be designated affordable — and long- abandoned industrial buildings including the Millennium Mills landmark and a listed Twenties concrete grain store called Silo D returned to use.
There will also be a public space called Mills Square capable of hosting events for up to 1,500 people and a new park alongside the dock. Silvertown Quays — named after the factories established by Victorian industrialist Stephen William Silver in the mid 19th century — has been largely abandoned since the Eighties when the Royal Docks closed.
Early blueprints for bringing life back to the area included a £1.5 billion plan centred on a vast aquarium called Biota! which was first proposed in 2001 but abandoned in 2009. There were also plans from Indian industrial group Essen for a peace park and cultural centre celebrating India’s history.
Silvertown Partnership, a consortium made up of property companies Chelsfield and First Base and investor Macquarie Capital, bought the land from the Greater London Authority in 2012.
It drew up its own plans for a new corporate park of pavilions showcasing major global brands, which gained planning permission in 2015.
The scheme was sold on to the current owners, Australian property giant Lendlease and US investors Starwood Capital, in 2018.
Graham Stark, project director for Lendlease, said: “We are really looking forward to crafting and delivering a new part of London at this historic 63-acre waterfront site in the heart of the Royal Docks.
"The opportunity to bring the iconic Millennium Mills building back to life as part of the first phase of Silvertown Quays is hugely exciting. It is a site that already benefits from good transport connections, and which will be further improved when Elizabeth line services begin at Custom House.”
The 15-year scheme is expected to generate over 20,000 jobs across the largely vacant site, which supports just 200 workers at the moment. It will eventually create seven million sq ft of residential and commercial space.
Millennium Mills and the buildings around it have been used as the setting for many movies and TV shows, including Paddington 2, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, Derek Jarman’s The Last Of England and the drama series Ashes To Ashes.