Proposals are being worked up to redevelop 77 Marsh Wall.
Currently office block Sierra Quebec Bravo sits on the plot, occupying the corner of Millwall Cutting and West India South Dock.
It’s also home to street food market Canary Garden and provides access to arts venue Theatreship.
Areli Developments, together with architects Patel Taylor, are currently engaged in a public consultation on their ideas to demolish the existing building and replace it with a tower.
While plans are at an early stage, the mixed use scheme could include a blend of co-living space, an aparthotel and apartments for private rent as well as affordable housing.
The mix of tenures will allow residents to stay for any length of time, whether that be one night, two years or more”.
Occupation will, however, be on a rental basis with no mention of apartments for sale in what will likely be the latest tall tower to arrive on the strip of land south of Canary Wharf.
900 residential units to rent
The consortium says its vision includes providing 900 residential units, offering flexibility for those moving in and aimed at attracting a range of inhabitants.
Alongside the accommodation, it promises to provide leisure amenities, green spaces, a lounge, gyms, shops, cafes and bars.
Early sketches show three connected towers set on a communal plinth that will have spaces for “residents’, community and public use”.
Public space will be partially sheltered, allowing people to spill out of the building at street level without getting wet.
The developer says the plans will create a new waterside destination on Marsh Wall, provide jobs both during construction and in the future, deliver opportunities for a programme of activities including a market and community events and deliver new cafes and restaurants.
The scheme aims to create “a place for people at all stages in life – for families, couples or individuals”.
Many developers have turned away from building homes for sale in recent years in favour of build-to-rent.
The advantage is these projects are often easier to finance with the promise of steady returns.
However, they can also lead to more unstable communities with people having less security over whether they remain in a property long-term.
key details: 77 Marsh Wall consultation
The public consultation on 77 Marsh Wall ends on March 31, 2025.
Interested parties are invited to have their say on the proposals via an online survey.
You can also email your thoughts to 77marshwall@kandaconsulting.co.uk
But, according to London-based creative, Willy Amott: “There’s always someone singing as the boat goes down.
“Whether it be Titanic, The Poseidon Adventure or in real life, that entertainment still happens even in those dark moments.
“The show must go on, is a saying some people really do live by.
“I thought that was a really interesting angle and it would be fun to put an audience in that situation – then make it very silly and not scary.”
On September 26, 2024, Willy is set to bring Get Your Ducks In A Row to Theatreship on the Isle Of Dogs – a Cabaret-style show that promises to thrust the audience into a world which is, well, ending.
“The idea is that the audience and performers are all on the last known ship because the climate crisis has happened and sea levels have risen,” said Willy.
“The uber rich have gone up in the sky and are probably living on the moon.
“The middle rich, however, are on this boat and the performers are providing the entertainment for the evening.
“There will be some sort of prize –maybe joining the rich on their blimp in the sky – which will add a sort of game show element to this surreal, post-apocalyptic cabaret.”
Drag act Jean will perform. They wear denim. A lot of denim
stepping into the arts
Originally from Bristol, Willy had a varied career journey before “tripping” into the arts and culture world for the first time during the pandemic.
He said: “I never studied live art or performance at university, but I think sometimes there’s a great benefit in that.”
In the last four years he has mainly spent time producing other people’s shows including performances for Fierce Festival, Beatfreeks and Fatt Projects.
He has also managed stages at Manchester Pride and Birmingham Pride, toured with drag artists like Bailey J Mills and cabaret collectives like Send In The Clowns, filling in the gaps with odd jobs as a performer, facilitator, panellist and researcher.
In January, he took the plunge and moved to London to pursue his dream of creating his own shows under company name Willy Does Productions.
He got his chance after successfully bidding for £1,000 seed funding for this year’s Totally Thames Festival, which “takes off some pressure” and has allowed him to really play around with the concept for Ducks.
“Initially, I applied with slightly different idea – a bit lower key,” said Willy.
“It was just going to be a sort of light touch environmental quiz with performance elements.
“Then someone from the festival said I should check out Theatreship.
“The second I saw inside it, I knew we had to be there.
“I decided to make it more performance heavy and amp up the immersive elements.
“The idea has transformed into something I think will be very wacky and very silly.”
Willy Amott
bringing a different Energy to Theatreship
The evening will be hosted by comedian and West End star Richard Energy, who Willy has worked with before.
“He performs stand-up, lipsyncs, sings live and will be providing a little narrative sense to the chaotic evening,” said Willy.
Beyond Richard, there’s a trio of performers, namely Cyro, a trans drag performer and co-host of Man Up London, Jean, winner of Top Of The Slops 2024 who wears denim ensembles and Jamie Fuxx, a cheeky heartthrob who has performed across the capital.
“In general in my work I try to platform more drag artists,” said Willy.
“It’s important to make sure that other people are getting their moment in the spotlight, including people I think are really good and these performers certainly are.
“Usually I put on this kind of show for other people – they present their ideas to me and I work out how to make it happen in a really pragmatic way.
“Being the creative is very different.
“My notes for this show have been so long my finger gets tired scrolling through them.
“It’s full of silly little things I’ve seen on Tiktok or YouTube – songs I think might work for a particular moment.
“When I was producing for other people I would always try to make it work – whatever they wanted. Now I’m trying to do that with myself and not cut off ideas.
“The reason the show has grown is because I gave myself permission to say: ‘What you really want to do is something that is a bit mad and requires the imagination, but that’s fine. You can make people buy into it if you buy into it yourself first’.
“I’ve learned to say yes to myself in the last couple of months and that’s a skill.
“Sometimes we don’t let ourselves play like that as we get older, we start to get too practical.
“But I just allowed myself to play with the idea.”
The former bulk dry cargo carrier is moored in Millwall Cutting between West India South Dock and Millwall Inner Dock.
It used to carry up to 300 tonnes of grain and coal but was brought across from the Netherlands as part of a project with the Canal And River Trust to reopen the dock as a public space.
Fully converted, it boasts a 110-seat auditorium suitable for theatre performances or film screenings and a cafe-bar area within its steel cargo hold.
The aim is to make it into a mixed arts space with the help of its impressive role call of staff.
They include head of film programming, Natalie Hill, who has won multiple BAFTAs and head of music programming Karl Lutchmayer – a multi-award winning Steinway artist and former professor at Trinity Laban in Greenwich.
Theatreship is moored at South Quay on the Isle Of Dogs
key details: Get Your Ducks In A Row at Theatreship
Get Your Ducks In A Row will be performed aboard Theatreship on September 26, 2024.
Doors open at 5.30pm for a performance at 7.30pm.
Tickets start at £9.42 and are available through Totally Thames.
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
One of the criticisms levelled at regenerated parts of London is that they can lack atmosphere.
Crisply manicured parks might look great as the promise of “public realm” is dangled before planning officials.
But the Isle Of Dogs is littered with odd chunks of land that don’t really do anything. Perhaps there’s a tiny kids playground, a few benches, a fountain or a sculpture.
So it was with a paved area of dockside waterfront on the corner adjacent to Sierra Quebec Bravo (a rebrand from the rather unimaginative South Quay Building) and South Quay Plaza’s Hampton Tower.
Despite its impressive views over West India South Dock towards Canary Wharf and Wood Wharf, this neatly finished open space had no obvious function – other than as a thoroughfare for pedestrians enjoying a waterside walk east, before diverting down to Marsh Wall to cross the Millwall Cutting bridge.
Canary Garden’s Oscar Tang
Enter Canary Garden founder Oscar Tang, local resident and entrepreneur.
“My wife Nadine and I live in one of the towers at South Quay Plaza and one of the things we’ve observed is that people have started to move in after the pandemic and the demographic is ever-changing,” he said.
“There are younger people from every corner of the world coming to the Island, but we’ve also found there are not many activities going on.
“The developers have built this infrastructure for a high density of residents, but not necessarily the amenities – there’s not much feeling of community.
“That’s why we thought it would be good to do something.”
Thus Canary Garden was born, a project to inject some life into an underused patch of land that’s just about to get into its stride.
Part cafe, part farm shop, part florist and part street food market, Oscar’s vision has arrived in the form of a series of greenhouse-like structures and wooden kiosks that will offer an array of attractions.
“We thought this place was really under-used and it could be much more fun – that’s where it all started,” he said.
“During Christmas we started to test out a few things to see what the neighbourhood was interested in and what people wanted.
“The immediate local area can be awfully boring at weekends – even the Pret is closed on Saturday and Sunday or after 4pm or 5pm on weekdays.
“We wanted to make this somewhere people could bring their family for a chilled out session and to enjoy a bit of sunshine, hopefully.
Florafind sells bouquets and offers floristry workshops
“We often go out to the countryside for a bit of freshness, a change of mood from the concrete city.
“That’s what we wanted to create here at Canary Garden.
“It’s based on wooden structures because we really wanted to build this as a reflection of nature.
“One of the disadvantages of living in an apartment in a city is that you don’t have a back yard and nowhere outdoors to spend time.
“At Hampton Tower there are 56 storeys, 2,000 people living on-site, but there is not much around the area – why not create something like a backyard?
“The idea is not too complicated.”
Already in place is a cafe, with indoor seating spread through three greenhouse-like structures.
Also up and running is Florafind, a florist offering bouquets and workshops.
Then there are a series of pine food kiosks which, from this month, will offer an array of culinary delights.
“We will have five food traders in total,” said Oscar.
“We’ve picked them from all across London and have tried to create a theme – at the moment the focus will be on oriental dishes.
“Each will celebrate a different cooking technique or niche dish.
“The first has a focus on the marination of ingredients, for example.
“The second will serve a particular type of noodles from the Chinese city of Suzhou, which is close to Shanghai.
“It’s a very traditional soup dish with one kind of noodle, two kinds of base, three kinds of topping.
Richly flavoured vegetarian noodles from Lu at Canary Garden
“The third will be Hong Kong street food, cooked by a lovely couple who graduated a few years ago and started their own business to bring the younger generation’s understanding of the cuisine there over to the UK.
“Then, the fourth will be a halal barbecue – who doesn’t like that over the summer with a bit of drink?
“Finally, we will also have a rotating trailer spot, where we’ll have guest traders when we sense there is a seasonal thing people might want.
“The next will be serving Malaysian cuisine with laksa on offer.”
With matcha brownies at the cafe, already a firm favourite, readers could be forgiven for thinking that Canary Garden is simply a food hall with great views and plenty of outdoor space.
But Oscar’s vision for the site is wider.
“We also intend to host other workshops and events including afternoon teas,” said Oscar.
“We’re already in touch with other organisers to see what we can include.
“That might include calligraphy, watercolour painting and aromatherapy.
“We’re also looking at theoretical beekeeping without the insects.
“We’re also working in partnership with the Wutian Martial Art Institute, which is based around the corner, so when the weather is warmer their kids can come and enjoy the outdoor space and do some activities.”
While separate entities, recent arrival Theatreship and forthcoming arrival Artship, will be neighbours to Canary Garden – something Oscar believes fits well with what it offers.
“We have collaborated and for me, I call it toothbrush and toothpaste – two things that go together very well,” he said. “It works perfectly for their audiences.”
key details
Canary Garden’s cafe is currently open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10.30am-5.30pm. Food stalls are open from noon-8pm.
Group workshops at Florafind take place on Saturdays and Wednesdays and cost £90 per person for two hours.
Times vary and refreshments are included. Children’s workshops are available too and start at £55.
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
