The Future is Bright for Silvertown Quays

30th December 2015

A £3.5 billion redevelopment project on the site of an abandoned flour mill has been awarded planning approval by Boris Johnson, Mayor for London.

The sixty-two acre site, known as Millennium Mills, is home to London’s largest surviving industrial building. Out of use since the 1980s, the disused flour mill will soon feature a school, cafés, restaurants and centres for product and cultural innovation.

Close to the London City Airport, the site is currently run down and derelict, but is set to become a new neighbourhood, renamed Silvertown Quays.

Proposals for this new technology ‘hotspot’ on the Royal Docks in east London will provide over 5,000,000 square feet of business space as well as 3,000 new homes, 35 percent of which will be deemed ‘affordable’. The centrepiece of Silvertown Quays will be a ten-storey leviathan designed in the style of New York’s fashionable Meatpacking District.

Masterminds behind the scheme are Fletcher Priest, a company responsible for significant developments in urban design, including architectural, interior design and graphic design research projects. Other contributors to the project include AHMM, Allies and Morrison, Stanton Williams, Eric Parry and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.

Earlier this year some work was completed following a £12 million investment by the UK government. Parts of the interior were demolished and asbestos removed in preparation for work commencing on site early in 2016.

The Millennium Mills site has been used as the setting for several dystopian films and television series in the past. Derek Jarman filmed scenes for ‘The Last Of England’ and ‘Ashes To Ashes’, while indie band Snow Patrol made the video for their hit song ‘Take Back the City’ here.

Silvertown Quays will also become home to the world’s first permanent ‘business experience’ park. It is hoped some of the world’s biggest brands will set up visitor centres on the site to engage better with prospective customers. Developers have included plans for over a hundred workplaces at the site, returning the area to its commercial roots by 2017.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, said: “By breathing new life into this wonderful old flour mill we can rejuvenate this area of east London and contribute some serious dough to the capital’s economy. Silvertown Quays will provide thousands of new jobs and thousands of much-needed new homes and facilities for local people as we return the area to its former glory. This energetic and exciting new London destination will also bring forward 3,000 new homes, thousands of jobs and long term benefits for the local and London economy.”

A spokesperson for developers Silvertown Partnership, Sir Stuart Lipton, said: “Silvertown will be an exciting new London destination with more than a mile of waterfront plus restaurants, cinemas and a curated events programme.”

Once completed, the Greater London Authority anticipate Silvertown Quays will draw in 13,000,000 visitors every year, contributing £260 million to London’s economy annually.

Written by Ian Johnson