BOLD DAGENHAM EAST
Data Based
Big things are coming to Dagenham East, with the former Sanofi pharmaceutical site set for a huge transformation over the next few years. What will this mean for the borough? Sarah Herbert investigates
T
he former Sanofi site was one of Dagenham’s major employers, with more than 4,500 staff at its peak. Exciting developments promise a return to similar levels as a range of new industries will soon be based there. The site has a long and distinguished history. Originally home to the Wilkins family of Tiptree jams fame, it was bought by May and Baker in the 1930s, and became a major chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing and production facility, stretching to over 108 acres. By 2009, May and Baker had become Sanofi, and the decision was
made to shift production overseas and to close the Dagenham site. Sanofi finally left in 2013, but was determined to leave a legacy and thus sowed the seeds for the current plans for the area’s regeneration. Having donated over 50 acres of sports fields and the May and Baker Social Club to a local community trust, Sanofi sold a major part of the site to AXA, and the front 10 acres to a supermarket chain. Subsequently, Barking and Dagenham Council bought the supermarket site and two-thirds of the AXA holding. The remaining one-third of the AXA holding, on the eastern side of the site, is where
a data centre is being built, by owner NTT Communications. Such large-scale data hosting infrastructure is critical for sectors such as digital media or cloud computing, so will support east London’s emerging technological industries, and make the borough the digital hub of the capital. Occupying a site of 55,000sq m, the hyperscale data centre will open for business in the summer of this year. The flexible and scalable campus, offering wholesale and retail collocation as well as hybrid IT, will also include an innovation test lab facility for customers, service providers and partners.
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