West Thamesmead & Plumstead Existing Context and Character

THAMESMEAD & ABBEY WOOD OPPORTUNITY AREA PLANNING FRAMEWORK 149

P5 West Thamesmead & Plumstead 5.2 Existing context and character

URBAN STRUCTURE PUBLIC SPACE • Industrial functions in the White • Well served by strategic green Hart Triangle are supported by good infrastructure, such as the Thames access to major highways Path and the Ridgeway • Road and rail infrastructure create • Some of the green space is a barrier to pedestrian and cycle inaccessible and there is poor movement, particularly between legibility between open spaces residential and employment areas • The Ridgeway has few points of • Pettman Crescent gyratory dominates access and mostly acts as severance the urban landscape at the gateway to • Lack of formalised green amenity the area, via Plumstead station space in the industrial area • The Thames Path and Ridgeway • Gallions Hill park provides playspace provide daytime east/west cycling but is poorly activated by and and pedestrian connections connected to the surrounding • HMP Belmarsh & Thameside are properties prominent uses but create a • Broadwater Dock is a prominent significant barrier to movement local feature and has a function for • Higher density development along the flood mitigation but it is not publicly river has started to reflect more urban accessible and has low amenity value characteristics of Woolwich, although this remains relatively low density and suburban in nature THAMESMEAD & ABBEY WOOD OPPORTUNITY AREA PLANNING FRAMEWORK 149

BUILDINGS + STREETS HERITAGE + COMMUNITY ASSETS • 1-3 storey brick and metal-clad, large- • Grade II listed Council Depot has span industrial sheds in the industrial funding to redevelop into shared area. Detailing on older brick workspace, workshops and other warehouses adds character uses for the community • Residential areas are predominantly • Lock and Swing Bridge, Grade II, at late twentieth century, brick-built with Broadwater Dock / Thames River. some render and minimal detailing Swing Bridge on Buildings at Risk • Housing is mostly 2-3 storey terraced register 2019 or semi-detached, with some taller • Neighbouring Woolwich Royal Arsenal, waterfront residential buildings Grade II - Grade II* provides key water • Lack of active street frontage and frontage poor boundary treatment in the • A new library, leisure and cultural industrial area; elsewhere, homes complex in neighbouring Plumstead turn their backs on major routes, is under construction as of autumn increasing car dominance 2019 • There is no consistent grid layout, with few directly connecting streets and with buildings largely arranged in car-dominated cul-de-sacs, reducing legibility across the area THAMESMEAD & ABBEY WOOD OPPORTUNITY AREA PLANNING FRAMEWORK

P5 West Thamesmead & Plumstead 5.2 Existing context and character

Thamesmead Town Centre

White Hart Triangle Prisons 4 3 Ridgeway Nathan Woolwich Way Town Centre

Plumstead High Street

FIG 5.4 West Thamesmead and Plumstead - Existing context

District/town centres Potential contaminated land Strategic Industrial Locations Air quality focus areas Open space SINC

PHYSICAL SEVERANCE Ridgeway Major roads Railway tracks 151

1 3

FIG 5.7 Existing roads and rail infrastructure at FIG 5.9 White Hart Triangle industrial area (photo by Paul Plumstead create barriers for pedestrian and cycle Upward Photography) movement

2 4

FIG 5.8 Gallions Hill park provides playspace but its FIG 5.10 The Lock and Swing bridge at Broadwater Dock location can feel isolated and disconnected from its is Grade II Listed. Although it is a prominent local feature, surroundings it is not publicly-accessible. THAMESMEAD & ABBEY WOOD OPPORTUNITY AREA PLANNING FRAMEWORK 153

What this OAPF means for 5.2 West Thamesmead & Plumstead

3 White Hart HM Prisons Triangle

Prisons Nathan Way

2 1 Ridgeway

Woolwich Town Centre Plumstead High Street

FIG 5.11 Potential improvements to West Thamesmead and Plumstead

EXISTING Approved/outline permission sites Local centres Potential areas of change Strategic Industrial Locations Open space Proposed BRT pilot Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) Key destinations Proposed key routes Ridgeway Proposed major intervention THAMESMEAD & ABBEY WOOD OPPORTUNITY AREA PLANNING FRAMEWORK 153

VISION FOR WEST THAMESMEAD AND PLUMSTEAD

West Thamesmead and Plumstead will become an area where the town centre, high street and growing industrial and residential populations meet. Intensified employment areas will bring economic growth and strategic functions, such as the safeguarded waste site, will be protected. Highway works will overcome complex level changes, reduce the dominance of roads and better integrate the area with Plumstead. It will allow for a new green link between the Ridgeway and the Thames Path via Broadway Dock. Development around the station will create a welcoming place for people, carefully manage the transition between a mix of uses and integrate with the Woolwich regeneration area to become a melting pot of creative, industrial and residential uses.

Mayor of London Housing Zone 1 This site is in a prominent location with potential to improve the arrival experience at Plumstead. There are potential opportunities to intensify and consolidate industrial land to support the release of land for non-industrial uses at this location, provided that the reprovision of existing industrial floorspace capacity is secured. See pg 92. FIG 5.12 Aldgate Square & gyratory 2 Industrial Intensification Potential for industrial intensification across the Strategic Industrial Location. There is also an opportunity for an intensification pilot project, with support from the GLA

3 Broadwater Dock Potential ecological improvements and wetlands.

Bus Transit route 4 FIG 5.13 Walthamstow Wetlands Any major proposed developments along this route should consider proposals for a BRT pilot and consult TfL. THAMESMEAD & ABBEY WOOD OPPORTUNITY AREA PLANNING FRAMEWORK 155

DLR

What this OAPF means for 5.2 Connecting West Thamesmead & Plumstead

9 White Hart 8 12 2 Triangle Broadwater Dock 1 6 16

ELIZABETH LINE 15 4 5 11 DLR 7 14

Plumstead station 10

FIG 5.14 Potential local connections at West Thamesmead and Plumstead

Proposed bus transit route Transit-related projects Potential new connection Major intervention projects Potential new/improved walking/cycling routes Walking, cycling & public realm projects Potential improvements to existing connections

Existing off-carriageway connection THAMESMEAD & ABBEY WOOD OPPORTUNITY AREA PLANNING FRAMEWORK 155

West Thamesmead & Plumstead Potential local connections 1 Western Way transit works 9 Battery Road link Princess Alice transit hub Potential for safe, direct walking and 2 North Plumstead transit hub cycle connections to Princess Alice to 3 Potential for Healthy Streets improvements create an attractive option for people in arising from bus transit scheme (transit West Thamesmead to get around and stops, corridor treatments and local encourage a shift away from using cars. walking and cycling accessibility) 10 Connecting to Crossrail 4 Pettman Crescent Aspiration for improved links between Potential changes to the highway and West Thamesmead communities and gyratory to help improve the transition the key walking and cycling routes along between Plumstead station, existing Plumstead Road and Beresford Road. residential areas and new sites. Opportunity to make walking and cycling 11 Green Infrastructure connections more comfortable; and to improve 12 Potential improvements to signage connections. 13 and legibility of routes to Gallions Hill from the Thames Path. New and 5 Nathan Way upgrades improved green links around Broadwater Opportunity for public realm improvements Dock, connecting to Gallions. Further 6 and traffic calming to support more connections north and east towards the activity arising from intensification of Thames Path and Birchmere. industrial land. Potential to improve walking and cycling routes to reach employment 14 Ridgeway accesses Improvements at the western entrance areas. 15 and White Hart Road/Nathan Way; and a 16 7 White Hart Road potential new access at Sewell Road, to Opportunities for enhancing the public encourage more active use of the route, realm (eg traffic calming, lighting and celebrate the Ridgeway as an asset, boundary treatments), connected to a connect it into the wider network of proposed cultural offer and link onwards to walking and cycle links and to enhance the Ridgeway and Nathan Way. feelings of safety and security for users.

8 Reactivating the pier Opportunities to celebrate the pier at West Thamesmead as one of a series of interventions and points of interest along the Thames Path. This could take the form of public art or lighting.