BOLD Town centre
Streets ahead With a raft of transformative schemes poised to unfold, Barking town centre is set for substantial redevelopment. Lucy Purdy unpicks the proposals
RECENT MONTHS HAVE seen a flurry of activity in Barking and Dagenham Council’s planning office, as a host of major applications for Barking town centre have been lodged. They make for exciting reading, collectively marking a wave of redevelopment and change about which residents can be as excited as the council is. Proposals from the likes of be:here, Benson Elliot, East Thames and Swan Housing are not all: the borough heard in January that the mayor of London had pledged £250,000 from the London Regeneration Fund – a pot that the council has pledged to match
fund to the tune of £3.83 million. The money will fund proposals for a Creative Industries Zone, which includes turning a vacant councilowned site behind the Barking Enterprise Centre into affordable, sustainable and flexible work and living space for artists. It will also help consolidate the borough’s growing reputation as a hub for arts and culture, one kickstarted by the Ice House Quarter on the River Roding. Announcing the funding, London mayor and chair of the London Enterprise Panel, Boris Johnson, said: “High streets and town centres
Above: As one of the capital’s housing zones, Barking town centre is about to undergo a major transformation.
21