Trinity Buoy Wharf

London’s most creative community is windswept, secluded and far away from the centre of the action. And that’s why residents love it.

 

Trinity Buoy Wharf is a mix of London’s only lighthouse, artists and art organisations, and container city of offices and homes. By London standards, it’s remote. Bus connections are patchy and it’s a long way from the tube.

But this seclusion has helped it become a truly creative community.

 

A lighthouse, boats, and Bond

 

The site has London’s only lighthouse. It no longer works, but is the home of art projects like Longplayer.The Wharf is surrounded on all sides by water, and the main non-creative tenant are boat operators Thames Clippers.

It’s also a setting for great films. Bond film The World Is Not Enough saw Pierce Brosnan running his boat through a restaurant built especially for the stunt on the Wharf. But the highlight is 'Container City”, developed by Urban Space Holdings in 2001, a studio and office complex made from recycled sea shipping containers.

 

Container City

 

"Container City 1" took 5 months to complete, but just 4 days

to install. And it was a hit, so in 2002 "Container City 2" was completed delivering a further 22 studios across 5 floors.

A further extension to the Container City Complex was the "Riverside Building" located next to the Thames facing The O2 dome. This was yet another architectural design providing an additional 22 studio spaces.

And the initial creative residents have attacted others. The University of East London opened Fine Art studios at the wharf, and a few years later, two dance studios.

It’s becoming a community in its own right, with Faraday School, a not-for-profit primary school run by the New Model School Company Limited, opening in September 2009.

Now, it’s a creative hub that benefits from its location on the fringe. Recent prestigious tenants have included English National Opera and the London International Festival of Theatre.

There are more than 500 people living and working there now, in industries ranging from fine arts and sculpture to design, photography and music.

And by living as well as working their, it’s a creative community whose residents really have a stake in the success of the place. While  it’s bleak, windy and on the fringes, it’s the perfect place to try out new ideas.

 

Banner image: Claire Sambrook