The Isle of Dogs: Four development waves, five planning models, twelve plans, thirty-five years, and a renaissance … of sorts

The story of the redevelopment of the Isle of Dogs in Londonʹs Docklands is one that has only partially been told. Most professional and academic interest in the area ceased following the property crash of the early 1990s, when the demise of Olympia & York, developers of Canary Wharf, seemed to bear out many contemporary critiques. Yet the market bounced back, and so did Canary Wharf, with increasingly profound impacts on the rest of the Island. This paper takes an explicitly historical approach using contemporaneous professional critiques and more reflective academic accounts of the planning and development of the Isle of Dogs to examine whether we can now conclude that an urban renaissance has taken place in this part of London. An extensive review of the literature is supplemented with analysis of physical change on the ground and by analysis of the range of relevant plans and policy documents that have been produced to guide development over the 35-year period since the regeneration began. The paper asks: What forms of planning have we seen on the Island; what role has design played in these; what outcomes have resulted from these processes; and, as a result, have we yet seen an urban renaissance?