How the East London Green Grid Helped Reimagine Industrial Land, Transport, and Urban Nature
Originally published December 28, 2016
Updated May 2026
Long before “green infrastructure” became a mainstream planning phrase, parts of East London were already undergoing a major transformation designed to reconnect industrial communities with transport, employment, flood resilience, and public open space.
The Belvedere Green Links project formed part of the wider East London Green Grid (ELGG), an ambitious regeneration and environmental initiative intended to improve connectivity, ecological resilience, and urban quality across sections of East and South East London bordering the Thames Estuary.
By the late 2000s and early 2010s, East London had become one of Europe’s largest regeneration corridors, shaped by infrastructure investment, housing pressure, Olympic legacy planning, environmental restoration, and long-term efforts to unlock former industrial land for future development.
Within this context, the Belvedere Green Links programme emerged as a significant £10.6 million infrastructure and environmental improvement initiative involving Belvedere, Erith, Crossness Marshes, and surrounding employment corridors in the London Borough of Bexley.
Dean Jones managed five major projects linked to the programme, including access improvements, environmental works, marshland infrastructure upgrades, restoration of open spaces, and sustainable drainage interventions designed to support both regeneration and climate resilience objectives.
The programme included:
• Access and environmental improvements across Belvedere and Crossness Marshes
• Infrastructure upgrades across Belvedere and Erith Links
• A new link road between Church Manorway and Mulberry Way
• Pedestrian and cycle access enhancements
• Installation of signs, gates, fencing, and entrance features
• Restoration of dykes and open landscape systems
• Creation of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS) along the River Shuttle
The link road became one of the project’s most strategically important components because it improved access to key industrial and employment areas while supporting future development opportunities within North Bexley.
At the time, local authorities and economic development agencies were actively attempting to reposition parts of outer East London as major logistics, employment, and regeneration corridors connected to wider Thames Gateway growth plans.
The road infrastructure was also designed to support the proposed North Bexley Transit system, part of broader ambitions to improve public transport connectivity in historically underserved industrial zones.
The wider East London Green Grid programme itself represented an important shift in urban planning philosophy.
Rather than treating environmental infrastructure as separate from economic growth, planners increasingly sought to integrate:
• Flood resilience
• Biodiversity and ecological restoration
• Active transport routes
• Public realm improvements
• Employment access
• Sustainable urban drainage
• Long-term regeneration planning
This became especially important following growing concerns around climate adaptation, urban flooding, and environmental degradation across London’s river and marshland environments.
Crossness Marshes and surrounding Thames-side landscapes held both environmental and industrial significance. Historically shaped by drainage systems, infrastructure corridors, rail links, utilities, and industrial activity, the area later became central to regeneration efforts associated with the Thames Gateway programme, one of Europe’s largest urban renewal initiatives.
The Belvedere Green Links project was funded through a partnership involving the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and the Greater London Authority (GLA), alongside key stakeholders including Bexley Council, Thames Water, Transport for London (TfL), Network Rail, English Heritage, and the London Development Agency (LDA).
Urban planners increasingly point to projects like these as early examples of modern integrated infrastructure thinking, where transport, environmental restoration, economic development, and placemaking are treated as interconnected systems rather than separate policy areas.
The themes raised by such projects continue resonating globally today, including in Jamaica and the Caribbean, where conversations around drainage, flood mitigation, infrastructure resilience, transportation, and sustainable urban growth are becoming increasingly urgent.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated in May 2026 to provide additional historical, environmental, and regeneration context relating to the East London Green Grid and wider infrastructure planning trends.