Albert Joseph Ward (5 October 1927 – 6 January 2011), known as Reg Ward, was the first Chief executive [1] of the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC), [2] serving in that capacity from 1981 to 1988. [3]
The son of a miner, Reg Ward was born on 5 October 1927 in the Forest of Dean and educated at East Dean Grammar School, Cinderford, Gloucestershire. [4]
While lecturing on radar equipment as a young RAF pilot, he was encouraged to apply for University – the first in his family to do so. [4]
He went to Manchester University to study Medieval History and then Fine Art and Architecture. However he rejected the possibility of becoming an academic, preferring instead to join the Inland Revenue as a Tax Inspector.
A series of local government appointments followed, culminating in him becoming Chief executive of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and later of Hereford and Worcester County Council.
Ward was a surprise choice by Secretary of State Michael Heseltine to lead the new Docklands body on its inception in 1980 and for 9 months was the only member of staff during its "shadow period" of operation. However this long period gave him the opportunity to walk extensively through Docklands, drawing pictures of the old warehouses and imagining what possible redevelopments could take place. A story told by ex LDDC staffers was that his first work for the organisation took place using a bucket for a seat and an old upturned tea chest as a desk. [5]
Docklands had been the subject of many redevelopment frameworks and plans over the years, none of which had come to fruition. Ward's genius was to be open to new ideas, and to seize opportunities which came along, rather than to create reports and paperwork. Ward said if he had created some grand plan..."we would still be debating and nothing would have got built. Instead, we have gone for an organic, market-driven approach, responding pragmatically to each situation." [4]
It was Ward who invited Michael von Clemm of Credit Suisse First Boston to Docklands, originally to look for a site for a food factory. When von Clemm suggested that the Canary Wharf site might be suitable for offices to house bank trading floors, Ward leapt upon the idea and helped sell it to Government. (For full story see Canary Wharf entry).
At the LDDC Ward was responsible for progressing the ideas of Docklands Light Railway, London City Airport, Canary Wharf and he helped Iain Shearer on the ExCeL Exhibition Centre.
According to the Daily Telegraph: "Ward’s greatest achievement was to persuade hard-nosed City and property investors that Docklands revival was going to work. By 1986, the LDDC had spent around £300m of public money, but had succeeded in attracting £1.4 billion in private investment." [4]
His forthright style did not sit well with his colleagues in central government, in particular the Secretary of State for the Environment Nicholas Ridley, appointed to replace Heseltine in 1986. Ward's disregard for Civil Service protocol and rules caused one colleague to remark: "the corns he has stepped on would fill more shoes than even Imelda Marcos possessed". [4] He is said to have once avoided answering phone calls from the Secretary of State for several days because he knew the call was to say that one of his road projects would be cancelled. [4] [5]
Ward was eased out of his job shortly after the deal on Canary Wharf was signed. However, he is now viewed as the main driver in Government behind the extraordinary change and development in London Docklands. If there is one single person that was responsible for London's Dockland being transformed into London Docklands, that person is Reg Ward.
Ward went on to work in Barcelona and Sydney on major regeneration projects before being appointed to head the regeneration of St Kitts in the Caribbean.
In his later years, he ran his own consultancy company and was a regular contributor to debates on urban regeneration and the future of the Thames Gateway.
Ward married Betty in 1954. They had met in nursery school and she predeceased him in early 2010. They had two children.
London Docklands is the riverfront and former docks in London. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Newham, and Greenwich. The docks were formerly part of the Port of London, at one time the world's largest port. After the docks closed, the area had become derelict and poverty-ridden by the 1980s. The Docklands' regeneration began later that decade; it has been redeveloped principally for commercial and residential use. The name "London Docklands" was used for the first time in a government report on redevelopment plans in 1971 and has since been almost universally adopted. The redevelopment created wealth, but also led to some conflict between the new and old communities in the area.
The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England, which includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Hamlet, Parish and, for a time, the wider borough of Poplar. The name had no official status until the 1987 creation of the Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood by Tower Hamlets London Borough Council. It has been known locally as simply "the Island" since the 19th century.
Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is 3.9 miles (6.3 km) east of Charing Cross, on the northern bank of the River Thames. Its proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, such as The Grapes and Limehouse Stairs. It is part of the traditional county of Middlesex. It became part of the ceremonial County of London following the passing of the Local Government Act 1888, and then part of Greater London in 1965. It is located between Stepney to the west and north, Mile End and Bow to the northwest, Poplar to the east, and Canary Wharf and Millwall to the south, and stretches from the end of Cable Street and Butcher Row in the west to Stainsby Road near Bartlett Park in the east, and from West India Dock and the River Thames in the south to Salmon Lane and Rhodeswell Road in the north.
Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located on the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central London. With the City of London, it constitutes one of the main financial centres in the United Kingdom and the world, containing many high-rise buildings including the third-tallest in the UK, One Canada Square, which opened on 26 August 1991.
One Canada Square is a skyscraper in Canary Wharf, London. It was completed in 1991 and is the third tallest building in the United Kingdom at 770 feet (235 m) above ground level containing 50 storeys.
London City Airport is a regional airport in London, England. It is located in the Royal Docks in the London Borough of Newham, approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) east of the City of London and 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Canary Wharf. These are the twin centres of London's financial industry, which is a major user of the airport. The airport was developed by the engineering company Mowlem in 1986–87. In 2016 it was bought by a Canadian-led consortium of Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), OMERS, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Wren House Infrastructure Management of the Kuwait Investment Authority.
Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of Rotherhithe, west of Cubitt Town, and has a long shoreline along London's Tideway, part of the River Thames. It was part of the County of Middlesex and from 1889 the County of London following the passing of the Local Government Act 1888, it later became part of Greater London in 1965.
The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was a quango agency set up by the UK Government in 1981 to regenerate the depressed Docklands area of east London. During its seventeen-year existence it was responsible for regenerating an area of 8.5 square miles (22 km2) in the London Boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets and Southwark. LDDC helped to create Canary Wharf, Surrey Quays shopping centre, London City Airport, ExCeL Exhibition Centre, London Arena and the Docklands Light Railway, bringing more than 120,000 new jobs to the Docklands and making the area highly sought after for housing. Although initially fiercely resisted by local councils and residents, today it is generally regarded as having been a success and is now used as an exemplar of large-scale regeneration, although tensions between older and more recent residents remain.
The Limehouse Link tunnel is a 1.1-mile (1.8 km) long tunnel under Limehouse in East London on the A1203 road. The tunnel links the eastern end of The Highway to Canary Wharf in London Docklands. Built between 1989 and 1993 at a cost of £293,000,000 it has been calculated as the most expensive road scheme in Britain per mile, working out at £50,500 per foot at 2011 prices. It is the second largest non-estuarial road tunnel in the UK, after the Hindhead Tunnel in Surrey.
Canada Water is an area of the Docklands in south-east London. It is named after a freshwater lake and wildlife refuge. Canada Water tube, Overground and bus station is immediately north of the lake, along with Canada Water Library which overhangs the lake and Deal Porter Square. Surrey Quays Shopping Centre is also adjacent, sitting immediately to the south. The surrounding area, which forms the town centre of Rotherhithe, is now increasingly known as Canada Water, after the transport interchange as much as the lake itself.
Heron Quays is an area of the Canary Wharf development on the Isle of Dogs, part of the London Docklands. It is served by a railway station on the London Docklands Light Railway network, Heron Quays DLR station, which was moved south after the development was expanded.
Dr Michael von Clemm (1935–1997) was an American businessman, restaurateur, anthropologist and president of Templeton College, Oxford. Although in one interpretation of his life, he was merely a high-flying banker, he could also have been said to have helped start the restaurant revolution in the UK of the 1980s, and to have been the original father of the Canary Wharf development. He helped found the London Eurodollar market, saving London's position as a global financial centre. He also made a huge impact in his work for charity and the English Speaking Union. All this despite his training being as a professor of anthropology.
Cabot Square is one of the central squares of the Canary Wharf Development on the Isle of Dogs.
Sir George Iacobescu is the Chairman and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Canary Wharf Group, the London-based owners and developers of the Canary Wharf estate in London Docklands. His successor, Shobi Khan, now runs the group and Sir George Chairs the board. He is one of the most successful Romanian-born businessmen. He is the only Romanian-born person to have been given a full British Knighthood.
The London Docklands bombing occurred on 9 February 1996, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a powerful truck bomb in South Quay. The blast killed two people and devastated a wide area, causing an estimated £150 million worth of damage. The IRA had sent warnings 90 minutes beforehand, but the area was not fully evacuated. As well as the two people who were killed, more than 100 were injured, some permanently.
Thomas Gordon Cullen was an influential British architect and urban designer who was a key motivator in the Townscape movement. Cullen presented a new theory and methodology for urban visual analysis and design based on the psychology of perception, such as on the human need for visual stimulation and the notions of time and space. He is best known for the book Townscape, first published in 1961. Later editions of Townscape were published under the title The Concise Townscape.
Silvertown Quays is a redevelopment scheme of 50 acres (20 ha) of former London docklands warehousing in the East London district of Silvertown. It is situated on the northside of the River Thames, the southside of the Royal Victoria Dock on the opposite quay to ExCeL exhibition centre, and immediately west of London City Airport.
Eric Kenneth Sorensen is an English former civil servant. He was chief executive of the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) from 1991 until 1997, where he was responsible for regenerating London’s Docklands and delivering the Canary Wharf financial district.