g r e e n w i c h g e o p eo nne iti nrn sys uu ll aa p e n i n s u l a G r e e n w i c h P e n i n s u l a The Sorcerer’s Apprentice , no. 68-69 (March-April 2014) thesorcerersapprenticeonline.wordpress.com/ A Geopoetry Reading The struggle of man against power is the struggle of by memory against forgetting. Simon Elmer & Geraldine Dening – Milan Kundera LOCATIONS READINGS Start: Foyer, Ravensbourne College MORNING READINGS MORNING WALK: 10.00-1.00 1. Shelley, Ozymandias (1818) Mayor of London, Greenwich Peninsula (2013) 1. Tunnel Avenue, Peninsula Quays SHCA, Peninsula Quays Master Plan (2013) 2. Blackwall Tunnel House Barron, Greenwich Peninsula (2013) 3. Dreadnought School Chamberlain, Social Cleansing (2013) 4. Holiday Inn Roundabout 2. Homer, The Odyssey (800 B.C.) 5. Greenwich Millennium Village 3. Mills, Gas Workers Strike in South London (1989) 6. Bugsby’s Causeway 4. Ballard, Concrete Island (1973) 7. Central Park 5. Countryside Properties, GMV (2013) 6. Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea (1906) Lunch: Entertainment Avenue, O2 Arena 7. Mayor of London, Park Rules AFTERNOON WALK: 2.00-5.00 AFTERNOON READINGS 8. Peninsula Square 8. Knight Dragon, Peninsula Square (2013) 9. Blackwall Point Home Office, Dispersal Powers (2013) 10. Greenwich Meridian, Thames Path 9. Anon. Captain Kid’s Farewell to the Seas (1701) 11. Victoria Deep Water Terminal 10. Elmer, The Nation’s Favourite Poem (2012) 12. Primrose Public Pier 11. Hanson UK, Biodiversity and Geodiversity Strategy 13. Enderby House and Action Plan (2012) 14. Piper’s Wharf 12. Deptford Discovery Team, East Greenwich Riverfront Industrial History (1999) End: Cutty Sark Public House, Ballast Quay 13. Melville, Moby Dick (1851) 14. Cage, 4’33” (1952) Shelley, Peter Bell the Third (1819) PENINSULA QUAYS I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay MORNING Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away. – Percy Bysshe Shelley, O2ymandias (1818) The Politician The Peninsula Quays scheme, which has been designed by Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, provides for towers of up to 32 stories, offering residents unrivalled views of Canary Wharf on the adjacent riverbank. The 1,683-apartment district will be connected to Peninsula Square and The O2 through landscaped gardens designed by Gillespie Landscape Architects, and benefit from two stories of underground parking, two hotels and almost 90,000 square feet of restaurants and shops. The scheme was approved by the Royal Borough of Greenwich in July, 2013. – Mayor of London, Greenwich Peninsula (2013) The Architect The Financier Peninsula Quays forms part of a larger master plan strategy Knight Dragon and Quintain Estates and Development PLC being developed by Knight Dragon for the redevelopment of today announce that they have agreed terms on a the Greenwich Peninsula district in East London – one of the transaction that will see Knight Dragon take sole ownership largest examples of urban regeneration in London. The 7 of the ambitious Greenwich Peninsula scheme in a deal hectare site benefits from a major river frontage and worth £186 million. The deal comes only 16 months after proximity to the O2 Arena entertainment facilities and major Knight Dragon acquired an initial 60% stake in Greenwich transportation nodes. Peninsula Regeneration Limited, the joint venture holding The master plan design approach achieves a number of company. urban design attributes, in particular the creation of a The transaction to acquire the remaining 40% stake from pedestrian priority landscaped environment which links the Quintain extends Knight Dragon’s commitment to the central district of the Greenwich Peninsula to the river development of the 147 acre site. Greenwich Peninsula frontage – providing access and amenity to residents and the Regeneration Limited has development rights to public alike. approximately 14 million square feet of residential-led, The master plan introduces a variety of uses, spaces, mixed-use development, including 18.6 acres of land within architectural forms and materials to create a rich and Peninsula Quays already owned by the group. Following the diverse neighbourhood, and ensures linkages with existing deal, all responsibility for project and development and future anticipated street patterns. Through attention to management will reside with Knight Dragon. cross-sectional design, the master plan successfully Sammy Lee, Director of Knight Dragon, said: ‘Greenwich overcomes a complex set of constraints, including airport Peninsula represents a unique opportunity to deliver one of height limits, road tunnels and cuttings, and historic view the largest regeneration schemes in Europe, and Knight corridors, to deliver a phaseable and implementable Dragon is fully committed to delivering this landmark development. development for London, creating thousands of new jobs, new homes and a community where people will want to live.’ – Swanke Hayden Connell Architects, Peninsula Quays Knight Dragon, a company incorporated in Hong Kong, is Master Plan (2013) an investment vehicle owned by Dr. Henry Cheng Kar-Shun. Dr. Cheng and the wider Cheng family control Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited, a Hong Kong listed conglomerate that has a substantial interest in New World Development. – Nick Barron , Knight Dragon deal paves the way for the transformation of Greenwich Peninsula (2013) The Resident up to between 54% and 58%, mostly for social rent rather than shared ownership. Imagine that your local council had begun the process of Greenwich Council says that, overall, the 11 plots allowing a massive new development of luxury housing, considered together will be 21% affordable housing – far less exclusively for the affluent, towering over the skyline. than the 35% they expected – and all those properties will Imagine if that development included its own private now be pushed to the south, towards City Peninsula and school and a luxury hotel. Greenwich Millennium Village. And imagine that it had decided to renege on its past There was no consultation on this change, which was plans to create mixed communities, where people who pushed through so that developers could gain access to £50 wanted homes for social rent or affordable housing would million of the affordable housing grant that is currently have a fair shot at living in new developments. allocated for use on Greenwich Peninsula. What’s more, imagine that it had approved plans to Greenwich Council’s frustration with the pace of shunt the non-affluent into a plot half a mile away, creating development on the peninsula is well-known. In 2004 it a little ghetto as far away from the luxury homes as expected 500 homes a year to be built over the next 20 possible? And imagine that it never asked you about it? years. In fact, only 229 homes have been built over the past This is what has happened on Greenwich Peninsula as decade. Greenwich Council yields to the demands of private developers. – Darryl Chamberlain, Social Cleansing: End of the Controversial plans for the peninsula were backed at Greenwich Peninsula Dream? (2013) a planning meeting held in public at the end of February, 2013, but it went completely unrecorded at the time. This meeting saw councillors agree to reduce to 0% the proportion of affordable housing to be offered at Peninsula Quays – the development planned for land just to the south- west of the Dome, surrounding the northern end of Tunnel Avenue. Effectively, the council’s planning board approved the idea that a development which will sit opposite Canary Wharf should be built in Canary Wharf’s own image – exclusively for the affluent. It’s envisaged this will be up and running by December 2019. To make up the difference, new developments to the far south of the Dome will see levels of affordable housing shoot BLACKWALL TUNNEL Nekyia to the seven men killed, and 600 people made homeless, in the construction of the Blackwall Tunnel between 1892 and 1897. Now down we came to the ship at the water’s edge, We hauled and launched her into the sunlit breakers first, Stepped the mast in the black craft and set our sail And loaded the sheep aboard, the ram and ewe, Then we ourselves embarked, streaming tears, Our hearts weighed down with anguish. But Circe, the awesome nymph with lovely braids, Who speaks with human voice, sent us a hardy shipmate, Yes, a fresh following wind ruffling up in our wake, Bellying out our sail to drive our blue prow on as we, Securing the running gear from stem to stem, sat back While the wind and helmsman kept her true on course. The sail stretched taut as she cut the sea all day And the sun sank and the roads of the world grew dark. And she made the outer limits, the Ocean River’s bounds Where Cimmerian people have their homes – their realm and city Shrouded in mist and cloud. The eye of the Sun can never Flash his rays through the dark and bring them light, Not when he climbs the starry skies or when he wheels Back down from the heights to touch the earth once more – An endless, deadly night overhangs these wretched men. There, gaining that point, we beached our craft And herding out the sheep, we picked our way By the Ocean’s banks until we gained the place That Circe made our goal.