A planning application for a cruise liner terminal, hundreds of new homes and a new hotel has been approved by Greenwich Council.
The mixed use development will be built at the disused Enderby’s Wharf adjacent to Christchurch Way on the south western side of the Greenwich Peninsula.
In addition to 770 new homes and a 251 bedroom hotel, the 3.6 hectare site will also include shops, a creche and a gymnasium. The cruise ship terminal will have one cruise liner berth capable of accommodating ships up to 240m in length. There will also be two berths for Thames riverbus services.
The land includes the Grade II listed Enderby House which was built in the mid 19th century. The property will be extended and converted into a restaurant “with accompanying exhibition and tourist” space.
Once completed, 365 full time equivalent jobs are expected to be created and a “skills academy” will train 16 – 21 year olds for opportunities at the cruise terminal and hotel.
The site itself was formerly owned by Alcatel Lucent – still based on adjacent land – and it was from here that the Enderby Brothers were pioneers in the development of telegraph cables that would be laid across the Atlantic.
The proposals received the unanimous backing of councillors at last week’s meeting of the council’s Planning Board.
James Blakey, commenting on behalf of developers Mason Properties who are behind the scheme, said:
“We are delighted that the Planning Boardhas decided to endorse the recommendation to approve the Enderby Wharf proposals. The collaborative approach to preparing the proposals over the past 18 months has resulted in a comprehensive mix of uses, which will bring a range of economic, environmental and social benefits to the borough and London as a whole. At the heart of the proposals is the provision of an international cruise liner terminal in the maritime heartland of Greenwich and London. The proposals have optimised the deep water within the River Thames to create a new tourist destination in a highly accessible location”.
Mary says
I suppose I would quite like to go on at length about the historical importance of this site and how we must hang on to that heritage.
In the 17th century it was home to the Government gunpowder testing depot – where all the nation’s then explosive force came in from private manufacturers and was assessed.l
Then the Enderby family – who were basically rope and canvas makers who married into whaling – hope to have some exciting stuff about their Antarctic explorations soon.
Enderby probably didn’t make much cable – they may have made the first ever bit of telegraph cable, but we are not really sure about that. The site was eventually bought up by a consortium who were involved in cable manufacture. It is impossible to understate the importance of this – this is the first tranch of international communications, and it really did transform the world, really, really.
By the 1920s most of the world was cabled up and the vast majority of that cable- over 90% – had been made here on the Greenwich riverside. If you talk to engineers now they will tell you that the internet and all our communications world wide are carried efficiently, not by satellite, but by the underwater cables. As technology in those cables has developed through the past 150 years, so the Greenwich works has been at the forefront of that development – many many devices and materials have started here – and can we point to the recent Nobel prize for optical fibre technology.
The new development will not mean the end of this since the factory will carry on working on part of the site where it has provided the means of pushing international communications forward since 1834.
Why don’t we talk about this a lot more and stop going on about royalty???
Paul G says
Yippee, another hotel for Greenwich
Yola Dragon says
Further to Mary’s comments there is another legacy of the submarine cable works which is the dredged pocket where the cable ships moored to three (now removed) dolphins while they were loading the cable from the factory. The dredged berth pocket has not silted up since it was last in use and the cruise ship berth will be located within it. Without the presence of this self scouring berth pocket it is unlikely that there would ever have been a proposal for a cruise berth at Enderby Wharf.
jackie Smith says
thanks for the interesting information about Enderby’s origins & history- fascinating stuff indeed! If this site does become a cruise ship berth, the origin use of the site should & must be prominently displayed, permanently, for all visitors to learn about!
daniel lewis says
nice to see you getting a turnaround cruise terminal , but why all the fuss over liverpools bid to do the same ,i’am sure puplic and private money is being used . danny