East London Green Grid

During one of our project we were told to look into The Lea Valley within the East London Green Grid but first I wanted to know what exactly is the East London Green Grid.

East London Green Grid (ELGG) is one of four sub-regional Landscape frameworks in the governments "Greening the Gateway vision" by integrating economic growth with environmental enhancement. A strong framework into using the existing green infrastructure to tackle economic issues and overall quality of life. This is see to major housing redevelopment sites across East London creating life changing changes to people. These are some of the most deprived areas in London and is largely due to lack of transportation and links. This is a half a billion pound project of which 300 projects have been identified and 70 prioritised. The key here is to use the existing green corridors identified within Eats London and use then to create connections and links between towns.

The East London Green grid is a sub regional Landscape framework designed to target economic growth with environmental enchantment. The existing green infrastructures will be used to tackle the economic issues and overall quality of life. This will see to major housing development across East London and transportation, costing around half a billion pounds. With the economy in the state that it is at the moment this is a perfect time to optimise on potential land use.



This Map shows the outlining areas of what make the East London Green Grid. The part highlighted in Lilac is the Lea Valley.



This is an image of the flood relief channel above King George’s reservoir on the East side of the Lea Valley. The Lea is tidal uptill Prescot lock. The tidal river and freshwater marshes create one the most distinctive wetlands habitats found in the Lea Valley. Although this is a great it is essential that a flood prevention scheme is set up to enhance safety and future use. As you can see in the Image you can see the potential flood risk illustrated by the dotted lines.
Infrastructure can be seen along the Lea Valley on either side which act as an obstacle entering and exiting the Lea Valley. This causing a dead end to potential site access and possible transportation. We are talking about some of the most deprived area not just in London but in the UK. The valley fractures the movement of local networks and damages the public transportation system. A system that is crucial when aiming for a greater economy. There vision is to create strong accessible edges to the completed green spine. Overcome infrastructural barriers to access and establish high quality links into and across the Lea Valley open space spine to neighbouring communities and to a wider transportation access.

The current open space area within the Lea Valley offers a range of extraordinary open spaces and recreational facilities. However they are still working on improving the existing open space within the lower Lea Valley. Open spaces were dominated by focusing on the sports and recreational aspect but now include diverse habitats for plants and animals, a wide range of social, cultural, health, educational and economic opportunities. They also recognise now that open space areas can help to combat sustainable urban living such as production of food and energy. Victoria Park and Mile End Park found in the lower Lea Valley area showcase an intriguing contrast as one is the traditional Victorian style park design and the other represents what parks of the 21st century should be like.



Two major strategic projects are identified within the Lea Valley area – the Olympic Park and southern extension of the Lee Valley Regional Park within a Lea River Park, stretching from the new Olympic Park site to the River Thames.
Both of these projects have potential in achieving to strengthen and extend the green space corridor, resulting in forming accessible links between neighbouring communities. Again this goes back onto creating new forms of transportation that don’t really exist.