Trinity Buoy Wharf

In 1998, Trinity Buoy Wharf was an empty, derelict site. Now it is a place with studios for people in the creative industries, workspace for people who work to provide transportation on the river, classrooms for education, and indoor and outdoor spaces for arts events and wide range of activities from conferences to product launches. With over 750 people working on the site, in enterprises large and small, established and start-up, Trinity Buoy Wharf has been given a new life.

Since Urban Space took over this vacant site in 1998, Trinity Buoy Wharf has seen a stream of artists, photographers, designer- makers, web designers and small businesses settle in its low-cost workspaces and studios.

The brick buildings are the heritage structures that were built by and for Trinity House, the organisation that designed, built and maintained the navigational equipment, buoys, lighthouses and lightships that kept Britain’s coastal water safe.

The recent buildings were constructed to house the new creative industries using a simple, efficient and sustainable system based on shipping containers.

London’s Docklands changed dramatically with the move down the river that was required by the introduction of the much larger ships. At the same time improved technology changed the business of providing navigational lights and Trinity House moved their workshops away from the Thames.

And, as in all creative enterprises, nothing stands still, things and the people doing them are constantly evolving. The mantra “always complete but never finished” fits Trinity Buoy Wharf today and will tomorrow.

Trinity Buoy Wharf was included in the land that was vested in the London Docklands Development Corporation. The LDDC worked heroically to enable Canary Wharf, the Docklands Light Railway, and Lower Lea Crossing and sowed the seeds for the regeneration of the spaces between Tower Bridge and City Airport. Towards the end of the LDDC life span their board decided that it should aim to keep some part of its land holding to make a place for creative activity rather than sell it all for another block of apartments or offices. 

This vision was brought to fruition by means of a competition to identify an organisation that would design, develop and manage the process. As a result of the open competition Urban Space was selected.

The Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust was set up to monitor the delivery of the vision and to hold it in trust for the people of London. It holds a 125 year lease, and Urban Space  in turn has a 124 year lease from the Trust. The terms provide for 25% of the Wharf’s rental income to be paid to the Trust for promoting arts activity in the area.

Taking over the site in 1998, Urban Space set about creating a stimulating yet affordable environment for creative people to work without risk of being evicted for a more profitable use. At the outset, Urban Space undertook to restore the historic buildings and add a rich mix of workshops, studios, live-work units, exhibition galleries, events and performance spaces, cinema, museum, cafés and educational facilities, and to open the site to water-transport by installing a pier. All these objectives and many more have been achieved in less than 20 years.