Stratford City is a project to create a major new mixed use urban centre in East London on the site of a former railway goods yard at Stratford. The project will cost £4 billion funded from both public and private sources. The site lies to the north of the existing Stratford town centre around Temple Mills.

A shortlist of three bidders for major elements of the project was announced in August 2006,¹ work started in 2007 and the entire project will be finished in 2020.². The development totals 13.5 million ft² (1,300,000 m²), including 5 million ft² (460,000 m²) of offices, 1.6 million ft² (150,000 m²) of retail and 4,850 new homes. The retail element will be anchored by three department stores and it is hoped that it will become the third most important retail centre in London after the West End and Knightsbridge shopping districts in the city centre. There will be a cluster of tall buildings including towers of 50 and 30 storeys designed by Richard Rogers.

The main developer of Stratford City is the Westfield Group, after it bought out the previous shareholders³. However, land owner London and Continental Railways is pressurising Westfield to form a consortium with a house-builder and a construction company⁴.

Stratford City was planned with the possibility in mind that London would host the 2012 Olympics, but was not dependent on the success of the bid. The Olympic Park will be immediately to the west. It is the largest single development in the wider Lower Lea valley regeneration scheme, which in turn is an element of the Thames Gateway project. These 21st century schemes in East London and the Thames Estuary build on the successful regeneration of London Docklands which first began to shift the growth of London eastwards in the 1980s. The outline planning application for Stratford City was one of the largest ever submitted in the United Kingdom and was approved on 17 February 2005. Many more detailed planning applications will be required for specific aspects of the development.

Proposed structure

Stratford City will be divided into four districts. Each of them will have a mixture of uses, but the predominant uses will vary, giving each district a different character:

• Town Centre district (roughly to the southeast): Closest to the existing town centre, and containing the main retail area and some office space. There will also be many catering and leisure facilities, and several hotels. The shopping will be largely street based, rather than in an enclosed shopping centre. It will include Westfield Stratford City
• Carpenters district (southwest): This will be a major office district with supplementary retail and catering outlets and some smaller sized housing units.
• West Leyton district (northeast): A mainly residential district close to the parkland to the north of Stratford City. There will be a health centre and an education campus with two new schools, as well as a small amount of office space. This district will form the main part of the Olympic Village for the 2012 Summer Olympics and will then be converted to its long term use.
• Lea Valley district (northwest): A largely residential district with some significant open spaces. The most striking feature will be The Cascades, a series of stepped lakes, with quiet waterfalls between them. Part of this district will also be in the Olympic Village.

Transport links

The site is adjacent to the existing Stratford London Underground and National Rail train station, which is the best connected public transport hub in East London and is due to receive major enhancements. The Stratford International station will be in the centre of Stratford City and the High Speed 1 project is a key catalyst for the project. Crossrail Line 1 will connect to Stratford. The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) serves a large purpose in Stratford and provides an efficient route to Canary Wharf and The City of London; a DLR extension will serve Stratford International directly. The adjoining Stratford station (to become Stratford Regional) is served by trains from Liverpool Street to East Anglia and by the London Overground.

References

1. ^ lcrhq.co.uk press release, 10 August 2006
2. ^ Stratford City
3. ^ Westfield Group (2006-06-13). "Westfield to control 100% of Stratford City, Major East London Regeneration Project". Press release. Retrieved on 2006-12-04.
4. ^ Morrison, Doug (2006-06-15). "Construction matters", Daily Telegraph. Retrieved on 4 December 2006. 

See also

• Westfield London - another Westfield development in London.

External links

• Official Stratford City website
• Stratford City section of futurestratford.com (no longer updated)
• Skyscrapercity - Stratford City Forum on Skyscrapercity

Geo links

Ideally geo links should be integrated into the main article

• 51°32′45″N 0°00′33″W / 51.545935, -0.009248Coordinates: 51°32′45″N 0°00′33″W / 51.545935, -0.009248 - Stratford City

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