Greenwich Peninsula

Greenwich Peninsula is a triangular piece of land in South East London, bounded by a loop of the River Thames on three sides. It lies between the Isle of Dogs to the west and Silvertown to the east, with Greenwich to the south. Once known as Greenwich Marshes, it was drained by Dutch engineers in the 16th century and used as pasture. By the 17th century, Blackwall Point at its northern tip became notorious for displaying pirates’ corpses in cages. The Board of Ordnance later built a gunpowder magazine on the west side, which operated until the 1770s. The peninsula was steadily industrialised in the 19th century, with works producing guns, chemicals, submarine cables and linoleum. For over a century it housed the largest gasworks in Europe, covering 240 acres and producing town gas, coke, tar and chemicals. At its peak in the mid-1960s it manufactured 400 million cubic feet of gas per day. The complex included two giant gas holders, one of which was the largest in the world until damaged by explosions in 1917 and 1978. The site also contained a power station, a deep-water terminal and a succession of famous submarine cable companies at Enderby’s Wharf. Today the peninsula is being transformed into a mixed community of homes, offices, schools and parks. New riverside walkways and cycle paths link public artworks such as Antony Gormley’s Quantum Cloud and Richard Wilson’s A Slice of Reality. The former Millennium Dome now stands as The O2, an indoor arena, while Greenwich Millennium Village provides housing, a school and a nature reserve. North Greenwich Underground station opened in 1999, and a pier offers commuter boat services along the Thames. Ravensbourne University London, a media and design university, sits beside The O2, marking the peninsula’s shift from industry to education and culture.