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Heritage
Canada Water is part of London's historic docklands area. The docks were known as Canada Docks and/or Surrey Docks, and nowadays, the surrounding neighbourhood has also become known as Canada Water.
London docklands is a vast area that extends east along the Thames from London Bridge, encompassing Southwark, Lewisham and Greenwich on the south bank, and Tower Hamlets and Newham on the north bank.
The area's heyday as a major world port was in the early part of the 19th century. Shipyards, jetties, piers and warehouses filled the landscape, processing everything from timber to grain.
Cooperages, chandler's shops, taverns, rope works and lodging houses served the communities that rapidly sprung up around the docks. By the end of the 19th century, the area was characterised by poor housing, high crime rates, overcrowding and widespread poverty.
Heavy bombing during World War two devastated large swathes of the docklands area. Local communities were badly affected, and many people moved further afield. When containerised cargo was introduced in the sixties, the docklands was too small to accommodate large ships, and trade moved twenty miles up the river to Tilbury and Felixstowe.
As a result the docklands began to decline, and by 1980 they were largely redundant, leaving approximately eight square miles of dereliction. As the docks closed, the area experienced catastrophic job losses over a short period of time.
The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was created in 1981 and disbanded in 1998. The Corporation was responsible for regeneration of the area, which included 1756 acres of former dock land and 417 acres of dock basins. The Greater London Development Plan in 1976 envisaged Rotherhithe as a residential, rather than an industrial area, and in 1981 LDDC was given the remit to redevelop all the vacant land.
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