Thamesmead

One of those dreaded sixties new towns full of tower blocks, roundabouts and funny sculptures. Well, we’ve got the tower blocks and roundabouts, but never got the funny sculptures. What we did get was actually quite a well designed pleasant town full of green space, lakes and canals, nice well built homes, employment areas and a hugely diverse and lively population of people from all walks of life.

It took some years, but we now have a vibrant and popular town centre that brings people from far and wide to shop. Easy parking and congestion-free internal roads all help to make most of Thamesmead an attractive place to live.

All this is a huge change from derelict arsenal land, Crossness sewage works and miles of grazing marsh that used to flood regularly. In 1965 work was started by the then Greater London Council to build a new town for Londoners in London that has become the Thamesmead of today.

Where the problems lie, and I don’t think there is a place in the world without some concerns, are that Thamesmead is split between two London Boroughs, Bexley and Greenwich, with all the inequalities you would expect from such differing Councils. It is because Thamesmead does not have one voice that causes some to consider that opposition to some of the more madcap schemes would be minimal. How wrong they are. The madcap schemes include a huge motorway bridge, Britain’s largest waste incinerator and wholesale destruction of some of the last remaining Thames marshes.

Thamesmead will surmount most of these challenges and take its rightful place as a valued and important part of Bexley Borough.

Article prepared by Tim Chapman

Area Representative post currently vacant

Bexley Civic Society