planning in the advanced stages to build one of the worlds biggest urban regenerations ever undertaken. the site formerly owned by blue circle cement is to be transfromed into a small city consisting of 7,500 homes, offices and links to bluewater and the channel tunnel.

http://www.bartonwillmore.co.uk/content/projects/eastern_quarry/images/01lrg.jpg

at the moment the quarry is being leveled. and once final designs are approved by Dartford council construction can begin.

below are the plans so far and a render of the proposed development

http://www.bartonwillmore.co.uk/content/projects/eastern_quarry/images/02lrg.jpg

http://www.bartonwillmore.co.uk/content/projects/eastern_quarry/images/03lrg.jpg

Very nice - looks like something you'd see in Dubai (plonked in England anyway!)

Dartford council gave the goahead to the project during the last summer, so it's all ok for this big one.

Land securities website on Eastern Quarry:
http://www.easternquarry.co.uk/index.asp?PageID=1

EQ will be part of the linear city that will stretch from Dartford in the West to Gravesend in the east.

The A2/M2/M25 are or will be widened, the first phase of Fast Track (a guided bus) has been given the goahead and finances are secured by the DfT.

Eastern quarry is the residential element of the new city with Bluewater the retail element and Ebbsfleet International Station, the office element. Some mid rise were visible on previous renderings of Ebbsfleet city.

So vast is the project that five strategic areas have been named: a new metropolitan district of Inner East London, capable of sustaining almost 48,000 new houses; Outer London Riverside (27,750 homes); Ebbsfleet and Mid Gateway City (47,300 homes); Medway City (40,610 homes) and South Essex towns, involving expanding Basildon and Southend (15,900).

Developments
Before 2003 most conspicuous development was situated west of Beckton. There have been substantial housing schemes at Chafford Hundred, Chatham and Greenhithe and there is a large shopping centre at Bluewater.


Channel Tunnel Rail Link
Main article: Channel Tunnel Rail Link
Phase II of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link is currently under construction and runs through the redevelopment area from Stratford International station in Stratford City, crossing under the Thames near Dartford, to Ebbsfleet. Domestic high speed trains will also operate on the route as part of an new intergrated Kent rail franchise with services terminating at St Pancras.


London

Thames Gateway Bridge
Main article: Thames Gateway Bridge
Transport for London is currently proposing a bridge between Beckton and Greenwich to be called the Thames Gateway Bridge. Along with the extensions of the Docklands Light Railway across the river to Woolwich, this will improve links between to two sides of the river and it is hoped this help spur economic growth and reduce the stress on existing road transport links.

During public consultation, 85% of respondents were in favour of the proposed bridge. However 74% supported keeping the Woolwich Ferry open "in some form". (Source: TFL Board paper on the bridge) While the volume of traffic using the ferry would diminish with a new bridge open, no decisions on the future of this traditional resource have been made, except that usage and viability of the ferry will be reviewed after the TGB opens.


Stratford City
Main article: Stratford City
The disused railway lands around Stratford are being redeveloped by the Stratford City project and will also form part of the Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympic Games.


East London Transit
Main article: East London Transit
An intermodal transport scheme to connect housing developments to rail and tube.


East

London Gateway
Proposals for a container port, to be called London Gateway, on the Essex side of the Thames, on the site of the former Shell Haven oil refinery, looks likely to be approved. [1]. As a redevelopment of an exisiting industrial site, there is less of a detrimental environmental impact. The proposal includes plans for a large insdustrial and business park in the area.


Southend-on-Sea
Also on the Essex side of the Thames, at Southend-on-Sea the council is using money provided through the scheme to redevelop the town centre and seafront and create a "transport corridor" along the A13.


South East

Ebbsfleet Valley
In the area around Ebbsfleet International station an area of 790,000 sq m (8.5 million sq ft) is planned as a mixed-use development including housing, retail, residential, hotel and leisure sites.


Swanscombe Peninsula
Previously the location of the Swanscombe Cement Works, this 320 acre site, partly in both Dartford and Gravesham, is planned to have 2,700 homes and 500.000 sq ft of offce space.

Kent is a nice town, went there past summer, nice to see it growing

Kent is a nice town, went there past summer, nice to see it growing


Kent is a county of the United Kingdom, not a town :crazy2:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/EnglandKent.png

The red highlighted area is the county of Kent

Kent is a county of the United Kingdom, not a town :crazy2:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/EnglandKent.png

The red highlighted area is the county of Kent
Sorry, my mistake :bash:

This project will only make the South East more crap than it already is. This sprawl has got to stop... :ohno:

Bloody hell, all this is to happen on my doorstep... well 5 Miles away, I knew about the houses and the guided bus but a city??? :eek:

This project will only make the South East more crap than it already is. This sprawl has got to stop... :ohno:

i tried to ignore such a stupid remark but alas i could not help myself. How is providing more homes and regenerating the dump crap? and to my personal knowledge the south east is a wonderful place to live. :bleep:

As ever difficult to see from a couple of renders what it will look like. Just pray it doesn't look like Chafford Hundred which is one of the most soul destroying places I have had the misfortune of setting foot in.

As ever difficult to see from a couple of renders what it will look like. Just pray it doesn't look like Chafford Hundred which is one of the most soul destroying places I have had the misfortune of setting foot in.

I couldn't agree more, and yet so much of the British public believe that type of residential urbanity is what people should aspire to.

It really isn't difficult to work out why we have so much urban sprawl and commuting problems when you look at attitudes like that.

You cannot force families or ppl that aspire to country living to live in high density shiny glass buildings in Inner London. Many wont even be able to afford that.

Chafford Hundred is depressing, but on the opposite bank of the Thames, Ingress Park looks pretty ok IMO.

I would be very interested to know what people would like to see instead of these new fairly high density developments around major cities.

Would you prefer Madrid style new very high density urban quarters located at junctions with the new ring roads (Alcorcon...)?
or Lower Earley (Reading) style developments with endless 2 storeys brick houses that look the same ?

Is there something in the middle ?

I couldn't agree more, and yet so much of the British public believe that type of residential urbanity is what people should aspire to.

It really isn't difficult to work out why we have so much urban sprawl and commuting problems when you look at attitudes like that.

I know, its an aspiration formed by decades of government policy and commercial pressure. It wasnt that long ago that the town house was the aspiring dream however over the past century dense urbanity has been systematically attacked by government policy to quickly relieve overcrowding issues and more importantly commercial desire to maximise profit using low density, greenfield building without the expensive requirement to consider any other factors such as employment, culture and identity. With Rogers distancing himself from the current schemes along the Thames Gateway Im concerned that the whole project will turn out to be one sprawling Wimpy semi detached hinterland with a dual-carriageway running through it.

A mixed-use city with high density urban quarters that doesn't involve massive pressure on moving people in one specific direction during rush hour.

I know you can't force people to live in the cities. But Britain has a real image problem (mainly stemmed from generational attitudes and Thatcherism) with that you aren't 'somebody' unless you own a big house with a garden outside of a city. The surburban 'sprawl' that occured earlier last century has contributed to the pressure on the transport system, with commuters crowding the same routes in one direction into a city in the mornings and the reverse in the evenings.

Barcelona has an interesting set up, with residential and office spread somewhat more evenly across the city. Because of this, rush hour is more balanced across the network with people taking their own individual journeys randomly across the city. Paris is partly the same as London, but learnt ages ago that the suburban sprawl needs fast direct transport links to cope with the daily pressure of commuters, and built the RER network.

London and the SE still isn't learning that you can't keep sprawling out and out without bettering transport - as shown by the complete lack of definite, tangiable movement over Crossrail.

You cannot force families or ppl that aspire to country living to live in high density shiny glass buildings in Inner London. Many wont even be able to afford that.

Thats the whole point! Its not a simple matter of consumer choice but a limitation of choice by a systematic movement to the low density commuting structure. Country living? Hardly anyone aspires to that apart from people who can afford to consider it as a weekend retreat!

People desire some private space from where they can get to work, educate their children, see them play safely, join in a community, feel some identity, find entertainment, enlightenment, joy. All of these things can be found in a dense urban setting it is just that we have let things go and vast swathes of towns and cities are now unattractive and the decent bits are too expensive

the problem with london and the south east is that land is either very hard to come by or that it is too expensive. the city has turned into a place where not many people live anymore, the only work there because they can get more for there money if they live in the suburbs and commute to work.

this project alothough vast in scale is needed to help the so called "housing crisis" in the south east of the country.

i live in the region of bluewater in a town called erith and imo if the current infrastructure isnt improved before this project is complete there will be a huge rise in the amount of cars on the road and in this region of the city trust me this is a very big mistake, i live around 3 miles from bluewater and on a busy day it can take me u to anything around 45mins to get there by car, sometimes even longer

I'd like more of London to look like Kensington and Chelsea which is the most densely populated borough and yet arguably the most desirable.

Another favourite of mine is the Shad Thames area. This is dense, has character, life and to some extent even the chance to work within it.

London has a lot of misused space. There are loads of converted victorian houses which between 4 and 10 young adults share. The garden is generally unused or converted to a car park. Sound proffing is rubbish and space limited. As someone who has lived in such a place I would have prefered my own flat in a purpous built block or tower. I would like to see much more accomodation built in central London, including the city. This could be in high rise. I think Vauxhall will be a good testing ground for this should the 6 50 floor towers come off. I am also keenly watching the Dome area which looks to be developed much like city centre living in Berlin or Paris. This level of density enables local markets, shops, transit to work best and those living there have little need to use a car. Should they want to drive away for the weekend they can because others aren't clogging up the roads picking up a pint of milk.

I would like to see London's Victorian terraces turned back into single houses for families so that fewer people would have to move out of the city to bring up a family. This would actually decrease the population density in the inner suburbs and reduce congestion there where it is difficult to supply mass transit.

I could go on about this for a while!

My ex-wife would love this place, she almost lives in Bluewater as it is!

^ She probably knows my Girlfriend ;)

where are the skyscrapers?

Hmmm sounds ok but not sure till I see more renders and it looks rather low rise. I'd love them to build this new area in the style of Kensington and Chelsea but it's not going to happen unfortunately. Also it would be great if it had a "city-feel" to it with apartments and townhouses and it wasn't just rows of suburban homes.

i agree with the comments above,

it would be great if this development incorporated a central shopping area (more like a town centre than a shopping centre), with offices and appartments too.

However, it will probably end up being row after row of souless, monotonous suburban houses with an out of town shopping centre plonked on the outskirts.