Reurbanisation Case Study: London Docklands

Re-urbanisation is the process that people are moving back into the city from the suburb. It is a common process in some parts of the world especially in MEDCs. London Docklands would be a typical example.

Pull factors of London Docklands:

After the London Docklands Regeneration Program in 1981 by London Docklands Development Corporation. Docklands was no longer a zone of discard and instead, it became the home of more than 1120 million pounds public-sector and 8420 million pounds private-sector investment. Number of businesses doubled from 1100 in 1981 to 2300 in 1990, 17000 newly created jobs and 24000 relocated, which brought the total employment nearly doubled from 27000 in 1981 to 53000 in 1990. From a social perspective, 15200 new homes were created, 5300 homes were improved and the total resident population raised doubled from 39429 in 1981 to 61500 in 1990, also, new shopping facilities and universities such as a Technology College were built to meet the rising population.

Yet most of all, the most important and significant was the regeneration of the transportation, which around half the corporation’s money was spent on. The 18 miles, 128 stations Dockland Light Railway was built, which is now carrying more than 80000 passengers daily and only take passengers 10 minutes to Central London. The Corporation has also promoted an integrated transport policy which has delivered a modal split, on the Isle of Dogs Central Business District for example, of 27% private to 73% public transport at peak hour travel. The Corporation gained a great success at the end and all these pull factors pulled people to move back to the city from the suburbs.

Push factors of suburbs:

Many governments have been setting various policies to encourage people to move from the suburbs back to the cities. Such as in Britain, the government sets up greenbelt area, where has no buildings are allowed to be built on it and therefore to stop the urban growth. However the cities were worn out and population was decreasing, therefore the government has to renew the urban cities in order to attract the population back. Also, London for example, had already been urbanized and had less and less suburb places, people have to go back to the declined city as they have nowhere to expand outside it.