"Chelsea Harbour" stands on land that was once the 28-acre estate of Sandford Manor House. Among other occupants, it is reputed to have been the residence of Nell Gwyn.[3] At the start of the 19th-century, it was in decline and was bought by a gas company.[4] Part of the land was used as a Victorian-era railway coaling dock on the River Thames. Latterly it had been a coal yard for predecessor companies of British Rail. The 20-acre site lies in a triangle bounded by the Thames and Counter's Creek to the south and east, and to the west by the West London Line (Overground Network and National Rail) on a viaduct. At the inception of the redevelopment, the Conservative-led Hammersmith and Fulham Council, having granted planning permission, approached the Boundary Commission to have it re-designated as part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The Commission reported in 1992 proposing a shift of boundary to the middle of the West London Line rail tracks. In the event, the Royal Borough passed on the offer of Chelsea Harbour in the then Leader's following terms: The Royal Borough has completed its submissions to the Boundaries Commission. No suggestion that we should take Chelsea Harbour into this authority was among them. That will remain our position. (Nicholas Freeman)[5]
Regeneration
Chelsea Harbour was designed by architects Moxley Jenner & Partners, developed by Mansford, with Bovis Homes Group serving as project management consultants.[6] It was the biggest single construction project in the United Kingdom for decades. The original design was for 16 buildings covering some 14 acres. Only 12 buildings were completed due to a downturn in the UK economy during the construction period.
Remediation
The Belvedere Tower and Marina
When planning permission was granted on 15 April 1986, the whole site, including the lock, was derelict. Both the Coal Dock and the lock had been infilled with contaminated materials, which had to be excavated and disposed of. The design required the contractor to reduce the size of the Dock by 1/3rd from the north end, to form the 75-berth Marina; and to re-construct the lock chamber, lock-gates, and cill. Work on-site began in early May 1986, and within twelve months the contractor had excavated the dock, constructed a new north wall, re-puddled the dock floor and renovated the lock. The site was equipped with 14 tower cranes, and had approximately 1500 personnel on-site during most of the build phase. In April 1987 a "commissioning Champagne Party" was held on two pontoons in the newly flooded "marina" for all the staff directly involved.
Lock, entrance into Chelsea Harbour
Achievements
Between April 1986 and April 1987, the construction team achieved the following:
2,000 piles had been sunk over 30 metres down to the London clay without problems, despite some being within two metres of both a London Underground main electrical supply cable and of a huge Victorian-built storm sewer.
250,000 cu. Metres of earth had been excavated and removed from the site;
55 acres of floor space were built, using 70,000 cubic metres of concrete and 8,000 tons of steel; one continuous concrete pour on Chelsea Garden Market's foundations totalled over 400 cu. Metres, with mixer trucks queueing-up for several hundred yards along Townmead Road. To ensure an uninterrupted cement supply for the concrete, 5,000 tons of cement were stockpiled in a hulk moored in the London Docks; and a concrete supply company was bought outright, to devote priority of supply to the project:
the reinforced structural concrete frame of "Chelsea Crescent" (which contained 64 apartments as originally designed) was built in just eight weeks;
three new bridges had been completed on-site, including the largest "thrust bore"[7] tunnel in Europe (over Townmead Road), which was hydraulically jacked into position under an operating rail line in a single weekend;
two buildings had been completed to "shell & core" status, and the interior spaces were already being occupied by the contractors of incoming tenants;
a further eight buildings were under construction including "Chambers" and "Chelsea Garden Market";
The 18-storey "Belvedere" tower was "topped-out" within six months of the start of work. The constructors managed to pour a new floor every four days, with pre-fabricated sub-sections of Rebar built on the ground using "go; no-go"Jigs, using a quick-curing high-strength concrete. Flat soffits with no "downstand beams", and pre-fabricated, steel, wheeled jack-up Forms were placed-, removed-, and re-positioned by the building's tower crane (with the aid of temporary-support platforms cantilevered off the side of the structure), erected in what would become one of the Belvedere's lift shafts.
Construction work against Chelsea Harbour backdrop
Contracts
All the buildings – save for the hotel – were built as "shell & core" contracts, with tenants leasing their spaces from Chelsea Harbour Ltd. through their letting agents. Once each building was wind and weather-tight, and connected to the external services, tenants commissioned their own contractors for the internal finishings. Bovis project-managed the construction of the hotel from piling-level to roadway-level, and the remainder of the structure above-ground was completed by a client who had concluded a long lease with Chelsea Harbour Ltd. The civil and structural engineers for the project were Clarke Nicholls and Marcel of Hammersmith, London W6.
Marketing
Harrods Estates were asked to manage the residential aspects such as the sale and letting of properties. The 310 apartments were marketed with prices starting at around £2million per property. The 261,000 sq ft of land has 24-hour security patrols, and residents have 24-hour porterage.[8]
Marina
Chelsea Harbour Pier
The marina itself is not used commercially but accommodates luxury yachts and speedboats, and can be accessed from the Thames at high tide. The lock accessibility was indicated by a huge hollow sphere rising-&-dropping on a mast topping The "Belvedere", visible for a long way both upstream and down, and connected to a tide gauge by the lock gate giving into the Thames.
The Chelsea Harbour Design Centre is home to over 70 showrooms, occupying nearly 66,000 sq ft gross internal space topped by three large glazed domes over a galleria. The offices are in two buildings known as "Harbour Yard" and "The Design Centre East".[11]
Notable residents
Chelsea Harbour is off the Lots and Townmead roads and has been home to some notable past and contemporary residents who have included:
Chelsea Harbour against Lots Road Power Station, beyond the creek
A neighbouring, large-scale development called, "Chelsea Waterfront", planned by Terry Farrell is under way on the site of Lots Road power station.
John Roque's 1746 Map
The extract below of John Rocque's Map of London, 1746 shows Fulham in the loop of the Thames, with Counter's Creek distinctly visible to the left, just below the 'elbow' in the river. Sands End and the future Chelsea Harbour area lies immediately to the left of the mouth of the tributary, which is called 'Chelsea Creek' at this juncture.[17]
B
2
This sheet extract is a clickable image for enlargement
References and notes
↑ Barton, Nicholas (1992). The Lost Rivers of London. London: Historical Publications. p.71. ISBN0-948667-15-X.
The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham is a London borough in West London and which also forms part of Inner London. The borough was formed in 1965 as the London Borough of Hammersmith from the merger of the former Metropolitan Boroughs of Fulham and Hammersmith. The name was changed to Hammersmith and Fulham in 1979. The borough borders Brent to the north, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to the east, Wandsworth to the south, Richmond upon Thames to the south west, and Hounslow and Ealing to the west.
Fulham is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, 3.6 miles (5.8 km) southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, with which it shares the area known as West Brompton. Over the Thames Fulham faces Wandsworth, Putney, the London Wetland Centre in Barnes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
Chelsea is an affluent area in West London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately 2.5 miles (4 km). It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the south-western postal area.
The Metropolitan Borough of Fulham was a metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965, when it was merged with the Metropolitan Borough of Hammersmith to form the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was a riverside borough, and comprised the many centuries-long definition of Fulham so included parts often considered of independent character today Walham Green, Parsons Green, Hurlingham, Sands End and that part of Chelsea Harbour west of Counter's Creek. The SW6 postal district approximately follows this as does the direct, though less empowered, predecessor Fulham civil parish.
King's Road or Kings Road is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both in west London, England. It is associated with 1960s style and with fashion figures such as Mary Quant and Vivienne Westwood. Sir Oswald Mosley's Blackshirt movement had a barracks on the street in the 1930s.
Sands End is an area of the ancient parish of Fulham, formerly in the County of Middlesex, which is now the southernmost part of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England. In a deep loop of the River Thames, between the tidal Chelsea Creek and the old Peterborough estate, west of Wandsworth Bridge, its northern edge is New King's Road. While wharves, industrial acres and workers' cottages gave way to intensive re-development such as Chelsea Harbour and Imperial Wharf in the last quarter of the 20th-century, it still contains some 300-year-old cottages and 19th century streets.
Lots Road Power Station is a disused gas- and oil-fired power station on the River Thames at Lots Road in Chelsea, London in the south-west of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, which supplied electricity to the London Underground system. It is sometimes erroneously referred to as Fulham Power Station, a name properly applied to another former station a mile south-west along the Tideway.
Imperial Wharf is an interchange station between National Rail services and the Mildmay line of the London Overground, located in Sands End in West London. Opened on 27 September 2009, the station is located on the West London line in between West Brompton and Clapham Junction stations. The station is managed by London Overground. Chelsea Harbour Pier is located 250 m (820 ft) away, providing interchange with Thames Clippers boat services.
Parsons Green is a relatively small triangle of former common land in the Parsons Green area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It is named after the rectors of the parish of Fulham whose residence once adjoined this patch of land and subsequently the name was adopted for the district. From the late 17th-century onwards, the area surrounding the green became the focus for fine houses and grounds built by merchants and the gentry within easy distance of London, yet in a more salubrious setting than the urban environs. A number of Georgian houses have survived, some of them replacing earlier Tudor and Elizabethan buildings.
Hammersmith and Fulham was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The constituency was abolished at the 2010 general election with its wards being split between two new constituencies of Chelsea and Fulham & Hammersmith.
Parsons Green is a mainly residential district in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The Green itself, which is roughly triangular, is bounded on two of its three sides by the New King's Road section of the King's Road, A308 road and Parsons Green Lane. The wider neighbourhood is bounded by the Harwood and Wandsworth Bridge Roads, A217 road to the east and Munster Road to the west, while the Fulham Road, A3219 road may be said to define its northern boundary. Its southern boundary is less clearly defined as it merges quickly and imperceptibly with the Sulivan Court Estate and Hurlingham.
The Battersea Railway Bridge is a bridge across the River Thames in London, between Battersea and Fulham. It is used by the West London Line of the London Overground from Clapham Junction to Willesden Junction. Dating from 1863, the bridge is one of the oldest crossings over the Thames in London.
West Kensington, formerly North End, is an area in the ancient parish of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Charing Cross. It covers most of the London postal area of W14, including the area around Barons Court tube station, and is defined as the area between Lillie Road to the south, Hammersmith and Fulham Palace Road to the west, Hammersmith Road to the north, and West Brompton and Earl's Court to the east. The area is bisected by the major London artery the A4, locally known as the Talgarth Road. Its main local thoroughfare is the North End Road.
Wandsworth Bridge crosses the River Thames in west London. It carries the A217 road between the area of Battersea, near Wandsworth Town Station, in the London Borough of Wandsworth on the south of the river, and the areas of Sands End and Parsons Green, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the north side.
Chelsea and Fulham is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Ben Coleman of the Labour Party.
Walham Green is the historic name of an English village, now part of inner London, in the parish of Fulham in the County of Middlesex. It was located between the hamlet of North End to the north, and Parsons Green to the south. To the east it was bounded by Counter's Creek, the historical boundary with the parish of Chelsea, and to the south-east is Sands End.
Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in London, England. The council is elected every four years.
Chelsea Harbour Pier is a pier on the River Thames, in London, United Kingdom. It is located on the North Bank of the Thames, in the Sands End area of Fulham. The pier serves the redeveloped Chelsea Harbour, a former commercial wharf which has been converted to luxury residential use.
Lillie Bridge is a road bridge that links Old Brompton Road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea with Lillie Road in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham. It crosses two railways: the West London Line on the London Overground and the Wimbledon branch of the London Underground at West Brompton station.
Hammersmith Town Hall is a municipal building on King Street in Hammersmith. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building.
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