*”BARKING RIVERSIDE” – the emergence of a new Town.

This Shoes’ blog topic is a rather strange one as it’s all about a location, that ‘technically’ hasn’t really begun to take shape as yet – but in a few years’ time, it will be a completely different story, as it will (or should be) fully flourishing.

So – the particular blog is all about the ‘new’ location called…..”BARKING RIVERSIDE”

Now – I grew up in 1960’s & 1970’s Ilford, situated to the east of London – and my ‘playground’ in my youth was Ilford and Barking.

Both towns are close to the River Thames, especially Barking – and a lot of the local industries had connections to the River.

I clearly remember, school trips a mile or so down the road to Barking Creek where there once stood the massive Barking Power Station – that provide energy for East London for many years.

In my early teens I would often cycle to neighbouring Barking, especially Barking Park – and now and again there were occasions when I would cycle a bit further down to Barking Creek/ Barking Reach, down by the River Thames.

I always found it an adventure to try and get as close to the Thames as I could – because the River down at Barking was a completely different backdrop than it was a couple of of miles West – where it flowed through the docklands concrete of East London and then the City.

The Thames down Barking way was just a massive tidal marshland – one road in, and one road out – very primitive – very bleak and always a bit dodgy. Not the sort of place you’d wanna hang around for too long.

Anyway – the old Barking Power Station eventually closed in 1981 and the site demolished. It was replaced by the masses of pylons and power lines of the National Grid – but apart from that, there was nothing else around in the desolate Barking Creek area.

In the early 1980’s I actually worked just up river to Barking Creek – at the Dagenham Dock branch of Barclays Bank, that was situated near the main gates of the Ford Motor Company – the next river settlement to Barking. But there were no road or transport links along the river front between Dagenham and Barking Creek – so I was never able to venture between the two stretches of water.

The area remained abandoned and desolate for a many years – but in the 1990’s the Department of Environment were looking for ‘brownfield’ sites along the Thames Gateway, downstream from the City – that would be deemed suitable to build new homes on – to accommodate London’s rapidly increasing population.

They became very interested in the waste land surrounding Barking Creek/Barking Reach/Creekmouth – and so it was at this time that the Barking Riverside Development Project started to take shape.

Being just 10 miles from Charing Cross – this desolate area of tidal marshland, the size of 84 football pitches – sitting in the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham – was deemed the perfect location for a new housing development.

However – planning permission was held back and considerably delayed – simply because there were no proper public transport links to the area – why should there be – as it wasn’t as if it was a popular area that people frequently inhabited!!!

There was only really one road in and one road out to the area (ie Renwick Road & River Road) – no train service or major bus routes.

So – it wasn’t until 2010 that the full scale projected started to move forward and gather momentum – when the first houses were built – but there were still no rail links.

The original plan was for the DLR (Dockland Light Railway) to run a spur off from Greenwich, on the other side of the River Thames, and for a new line to come across river to Barking Riverside. However – that idea never progressed beyond planning stage.

It was eventually agreed that an overground spur would be built from Barking mainline station – Barking Station being already served by the C2C overground – the London Overground and also the District Line tube.

Brand new track was laid that spurred off from Barking, a mile or so southwards towards the banks of the River Thames and the new Barking Riverside development site.

Following on from the first lot of new houses/flats – the brand new ‘Riverside School’ was built and opened in 2017 – providing Infants/Secondary & Special Needs schooling facilities.

In July 2022 the new “Barking Riverside Station” was officially opened – a massive station, that is basically in the middle of a building site.

The overall development plan for Barking Riverside is:-

>10,300 new homes by 2030 >

>26,000 new residents

>A new mainline station with direct links to the City and Greater London

>New roads leading into and out of Barking Riverside

>New Schools

>a GP Surgery

>Gymnasium

>Swimming Pool

>a network of Riverside Cycle Paths and Footpaths

>a Leisure Center

>a Community Center

>Direct River access

A big mission statement – but the work is already well underway.

The old Barking Riverside Pier that was once used to accept deliveries of coal for the Barking Power Station – has been completely renovated – and a new Thames Uber-River Clipper service has been launched which runs from Barking Riverside right along the River Thames to Putney Bridge – a fair old distance, and one of the longest shunts on the River, as most other ‘trips’ don’t go any further than Greenwich.

At the moment, the River Clipper service only operates early morning and late afternoon, on weekdays – probably to ferry workers/commuters to and from Central London. However, at the weekend, the service runs throughout the day.

From Barking Riverside Pier, you can look directly across the River at the huge Thamesmead area that spreads westwards – and to the east you can see the chimneys of the famous historic Crossness Pumping Station. On the same bank as the Barking Riverside Pier there’s Barking Point and Creekmouth to the west – with oil storage depots plus several riverside industries including Fords, to the east.

A ‘Rapid Transit Service’ has been set up and is now running – with buses every 5mins or so from outside of Barking Riverside Station, direct to Barking Station and then Ilford Station – with a few stops in between.

So – I started my day travelling via ‘overground’ rail from my home station at Romford, to Forest Gate Station – then walked a few hundred yards to Wanstead Park Station – where I boarded the ‘overground’ train from Gospel Oak straight through to the new Barking Riverside Station.

 

When I disembarked at the new Barking Riverside station – I found myself totally alone on a brand-new road – no one else in sight at all, except for station staff and a few site security staff.  I made my way to the Barking Riverside Pier, and apart from a sole workman, there was no one else in sight.

It is evident that a hell of a lot of construction work has already been undertaken throughout the past few years – but at times, it still felt that I was in the middle of some massive building site……which technically, I was.

After an hour or so, appreciating the transformation of the area and the work that’s taking place – taking in the views and obviously taking a few photos for London Shoes purposes – I thought to myself that, in a couple of years’ time, if I’m still around – I will return here – because it wont look anything like it does at the moment – as this is the spot where a completely new town will soon develop.

As the Barking Riverside development strap line says: –

Barking Riverside

“A place to be – become & belong”.

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So – following and enjoyable interesting couple of hours down at Barking Riverside – at a deserted bus stop, I hopped on one of the frequent, but deserted ‘Rapid Transport Service’ buses that stopped outside Barking Riverside Station – and headed off towards Ilford, just a mile or so up the road, and the town where I grew up.

It was a bit of a nostalgia trip – but I eventually ended up at the ‘Prince of Wales’ pub in Green Lane-Ilford – which was my local for a few years, when I bought my first house in 1980.

The demographic of Ilford has changed considerably throughout the past half-century and most of the pubs I knew when growing up, have long since been closed. However, the mid 1800’s-built ‘Prince of Wales’ building – a pub since the 1930’s – was still there and pleasingly, still going strong……and it felt good to ‘be back on home turf’.

So – the Prince of Wales was the ideal place for me to revisit and enjoy a couple of ‘cheeky’ Guinness’s – before setting off back home – very nice it was too.

 

Hope you enjoyed learning about Barking Riverside and its accompanying photos.

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See below the full gallery of photos taken to support the Barking Riverside blog