How the Canning Town ecological regeneration project has, with the help of Nicholas Alexander and many others, delivered a heritage pavilion
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“I think The Boat House is probably the best thing I’ve done – of all the things I’ve worked on, this project has been the most complete process,” said Nick Runeckles, founder and director of Nicholas Alexander.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have been able to see it through from concept to being on site and sweeping up after the installation.
“I’ve done every bit with my team, all two of us, plus a couple of part-time staff.
“Usually in the built environment, design is kept quite separate from fabrication, but I’ve never seen it like that.
“For me, they are two sides of the same coin – making the structure informs the design.
“You can’t really say you’ve finished designing something until you’ve figured out how it works in practice.”
Nick won the contract from Cody Dock on the banks of the River Lea to come up with a way of using a restored, historic former Welsh lifeboat built on the Thames as the roof of a heritage pavilion, then turn it into a reality.
Already familiar with the ecological regeneration project near Canning Town, he’d previously worked with University Of Westminster architecture students to create The Growing Space on site – an angular building for horticultural propagation and workshops made from Douglas fir.
The Boat House project, however, presented a new kind of challenge for Nicholas Alexander, a business known for its creative construction projects.
Over more than 25 years, Nick has produced everything from a giant statue of Jeff Goldblum to machines that blend whisky on demand or serve expertly mixed cocktails, not to mention sensory experiences to showcase Tesco’s Devour range.
At Cody Dock, though, the task was to create a frame capable of supporting the 4.5-tonne Frederick Kitchen to form a glazed, multi-functional space for exhibitions and events that sensitively placed the boat in the environment without blocking the view of the Lea.
combining design, fabrication and installation
“We put this opportunity out to tender and selected Nicolas Alexander because of Nick’s unique combination of experience and ability,” said Simon Myers, CEO and co-founder of the Gasworks Dock Partnership, which has been transforming Cody Dock from an industrial wasteland into a functional community space for the last 16 years.
“Bringing together design, fabrication and installation is very rare and this was a company that was happy to set ego aside, really consider the materials used and deliver a structure to our brief that does everything we want it to.”
Funded through the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s support for Cody Dock’s wider Lighting Up The Lea project, Nick worked alongside the team restoring the Frederick Kitchen to realise The Boat House.
from scans to realisation
“The first thing we did was to scan the boat so I could have something to work with digitally,” he said.
“With a vessel like this you can’t just measure it up because there are no straight lines, no reference points.
“I needed to understand the process of construction and that, for me, means drawing it first and then working with materials.
“The central idea was that the Frederick Kitchen was a really beautiful working boat, so what we needed was to create a structure to support it physically, but also to reflect that.
“The space we’ve created underneath it is both literally and figuratively the working envelope that the vessel offered to people on board when it was sailing.
“One of the challenges for us was that the Frederick Kitchen’s construction is actually pretty modern, it’s a very lightweight design for its size that uses cross diagonal planking in mahogany.
“It doesn’t have heavy ribs so there wasn’t a lot of structure to work with and we’ve had to create a frame that distributes the weight as evenly as we can.
“We divided it into seven sections to split up the load.
“The most scary part of the whole process was the pinch point, the day of the crane when we had to move the boat 100 metres and connect it to the frame on a windy day.
“There was a big responsibility to Simon’s team, everyone who’d worked on the boat and the stakeholders – it was that moment that was responsible for delivering what Cody Dock had said it was going to use the funding for.
“I’d allowed maybe two millimetres of clearance so it was a very small target for a very big boat.
“But one of the things we’d done through the whole project was work together. I’d shown them the drawings and asked what they thought.
“One of the things we decided was to mount the boat on single pivot brackets to allow the whole thing to move – the polyurethane bushes enable it so shift as the wood swells and contracts.
“The core of this project was to deliver a space that really works for Cody Dock and I think we’ve achieved that.
“The building has to have a good relationship with the boat to allow passive ventilation to keep the timbers in good condition, but it also has to function as an exhibition space.
“We also have fold-down seating for events, workshops and talks.
“I think we’ve hit that brief.”
come and see it…
Now finished, The Boat House is set to be the centrepiece of Cody Dock’s forthcoming Lighting Up The Lea festival on September 19, 2026.
The free community event will include the unveiling of Remiiya Badru’s Common Threads, a year-long art project inspired by the local history of calico and Prussian Blue, some of which will be displayed in The Boat House.
Intended as a structure that will bring people together by showcasing local history and creativity, it’s apt that so many will have played a part in its construction.
In addition to the team restoring the Frederick Kitchen, Cody Dock’s staff and Nick’s operation, more than 100 volunteers excavated the land for the pavilion’s foundation.
“We decided it would be too disruptive to bring a digger onto the site, so Cody Dock enlisted teams of volunteers to dig it out by hand,” said Nick.
“With lots of people these things really are doable. It’s amazing what can be achieved.
“It’s also been important to include the history in what we’ve created.
“The castings we needed, for example, have been done by James Hoyle And Sons, an offshoot back in time from the Thames Ironworks which originally built the Frederick Kitchen.”
care and detail
Another local link are the metal doors to The Boat House.
Artist Bethan Maddocks – known for her intricate paper cut-outs – was commissioned to make a work inspired by the wildlife found along the River Lea and at Cody Dock, with the final design rendered in steel.
Elements like this, even the fact that the boat drains rainwater into a specially installed pond for plants and creatures to thrive in, are testament to the level of detail, thought and care taken with the pavilion’s creation.
“It’s a real privilege to be a part of something like this,” said Nick. “I’ve probably done more drawings for this project than any other, but it’s difficult to see on a computer screen just how beautiful an object that boat is – kudos to Tom Myers and his team for all their work over the two years that has resulted in making it so.
“I’m often working with brands on marketing campaigns, so it means something to have my name associated with this.
“My family came to the opening, which was really nice and I’d like to express my eternal gratitude to Simon and everyone at Cody Dock.
“I feel we’ve built something really good together and that’s the best reward of all.”
Projects like this don’t come about by chance.
The Gasworks Dock Partnership has taken what was once an industrial dumping ground, polluted with all sorts of foulness and has turned Cody Dock into an increasingly vital community asset.
With its rolling bridge, visitors centre, growing space, cafe and bar in place, the momentum is there and recognition should go to those with the foresight and imagination to fund such projects, not least the National Lottery.
Stuart McLeod, director, England – London And South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “We are delighted to support the creation of The Boat House at Cody Dock, an inspiring project that brings together heritage and community.
“Thanks to National Lottery players, the remarkable story of the Frederick Kitchen and the wider history of the River Lea will be preserved and shared in an engaging and meaningful way.
“This new space offers people the opportunity to connect with Newham’s industrial and maritime heritage, ensuring it is valued, understood and enjoyed for generations to come.”
key details: Lighting Up The Lea at Cody Dock
Cody Dock’s Lighting Up The Lea festival is set to take place on Saturday, September 19, 2026, from 11am-6pm and is free to attend.
You can find out more details here.
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