London's Docklands on the Isle of Dogs
saw their last cargo ship in the 1970s, and the area - already
run-down - became essentially derelict. Never the most accessible
part of London (with only a couple of roads in and out, one bus route
and the foot tunnel to Greenwich) the south of the Isle of Dogs was
made up largely of council housing, the north with empty warehouses.
In 1981, the Government set up the
London Docklands Development Corporation - a quango with planning
powers, to kickstart growth in the area. At the height of the early
Eighties recession, and with little in the way of concrete plans for
how new business or industry would be attracted to the area, the
LDDC's ruthless attempts to use planning law and tax breaks to
attract big business caused real ructions in a politically febrile
London.
