Dziedzictwo Docklands a transformacja dawnych terenów portowych Londynu. Obszar Bermondsey Riverside: od Tower Bridge do King’s Stairs Gardens

Abstract

After the rise of the British Empire, London docks have become the center of the world’s commerce. Their unparalleled heritage is the result of their cultural and spatial uniqueness. Following their fall into disrepair in the second half of the 20th century, a revitalization project was undertaken in the area under the blanket name of Docklands. In the 1980s, financial prosperity and the resulting boom in the construction industry enabled an accelerated transformation resulting in the gentrification of the district. The article aims at presenting the issues regarding marketization of the Docklands urban renewal processes in the context of its material and immaterial heritage. The author attempts at a cross-sectional view on the transformation taking a selected fragment of the Docklands, i.e. Bermondsey Riverside, focusing on the architectural changes. The author visited the area taken under scrutiny several times during the years 2008–2018.