London Docklands Development Corporation - Operation 1981-1994

Operation 1981-1994

LDDC's first Chief Executive was Reg Ward, a former Chief Executive of Hereford and Worcester County Council and Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council. It was assumed that LDDC's success would rest on trying to identify and encourage 'suitable' alternative industrial uses for the vast sites it administered. The unemployed former dock workers and their families wanted equivalent skilled trades in warehousing or manufacturing to replace their lost jobs.

Billingsgate Market had already relocated from the City to Docklands, and this was thought to be typical of the type of industry which might be accommodated. There was some success, however it became apparent that the market for large industrial sites in central London no longer existed. The LDDC was competing with similar organisations based in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Tyneside, Glasgow and other British cities affected by industrial decline. Lower labour costs and land costs coupled with cheap availability of transport made these cities - and those abroad - more viable as industrial locations.

However, Docklands was close to the City of London and this made it an attractive secondary office location as well as a possible site for riverside residential development to accommodate the phenomenon of yuppies, the young high income single person households created by new jobs in the financial services industry. In the first few years of LDDC's operation several offices and flats schemes were given the go ahead including on Heron Quays and Surrey Quays. Many of these buildings demonstrated unique architecture, such as the Baltic Quay building in the Surrey Docks.

LDDC's success was due to seizing opportunity and making maximum use of its assets. When American/Swiss banker Michael von Clemm visited West India Docks looking for a restaurant site, he became interested in the idea of building a back office. Reg Ward jumped on this and the resulting scheme became the successful Canary Wharf development, with 95,000 jobs so far (see Canary Wharf entry for full details.)

When faced with a large amount of redundant railway infrastructure, the LDDC created a cheap light rail scheme, the Docklands Light Railway to make use of it. This in turn made the whole area more accessible to the public and helped create the conditions for further development.

The LDDC tapped into the boom in air travel by creating a small business airport making use of the vast open spaces of the Royal Docks. London City Airport is now a fast growing and popular airport. A huge site to the north of the airport became the ExCeL Exhibition Centre, a vast modern venue, which in turn led to the development of hotels and other services.

During the 1980s private housing was developed in Docklands which with some minor exceptions were the first to be built in the area.Soon many people from outside the area saw the opportunity of buying a house close to the city at what appeared to be cheap prices. On many of the developments local council tenants were given first opportunities to buy at discounted prices but this led to a number of abuses. Then again in the later 1990s London had a huge house price boom. By encouraging the development of attractive waterside apartments along the River Thames and the old docks, the LDDC brought new, middle class residents into the area, closely followed by shops, restaurants and bars.