Local people help name new streets and spaces

With the Canada Water development creating many new streets and spaces, map-makers are going to need some need some new names. Having spoken to more than 700 local people who shared what the area means to them for the ‘Naming what’s new’ project, British Land have announced the first new place names for the development.

Dock Office Gardens takes its name from the Dock Office, the Grade II-listed red brick building that was the hub of activity in the bustling docks, and now serves as British Land’s project hub for the Canada Water development. The gardens have been planted with more than 90 species of plants, inspired by the pioneering botanists of the 19th century, and the name is typical of Victorian place names. The vision for this space includes food and drink outlets around the edge of the gardens, where people can sit out and enjoy the setting. With access via Marker Way (see below) and Surrey Quays Road, this open expanse right in front of the new Canada Water Leisure Centre will form a social hub within the development.

Interested in occupying one of the food and drink retail spaces surrounding Dock Office Gardens? Email team@canadawater.co.uk

Marker Way will be a new pedestrian and cycle route connecting Deal Porters Way with Lower Road, providing access to the new Canada Water Leisure Centre. It’s named after dock workers who used to mark the timber and cargo packages as they came ashore at Surrey Docks, to show where they’d come from and where they were going. As Marker Way will feature in postal addresses, British Land needed to get this name approved by Southwark Council. They also followed Southwark Council guidance when choosing the names for Rafter Walk and Dock Office Gardens.

Rafter Walk is the name for the new 170m boardwalk that opened in November as part of the revitalised Canada Dock. In the working docks of the 19th and early 20th centuries, rafters were workers who manoeuvred timber in the water from the ships up to the ponds where it was kept to season, hopping between the floating deal planks.

These names reflect the ideas gathered from 22 workshops and an online consultation British Land held with hundreds of people earlier this year. The project also brought in the voice of the next generation via a project with Year 5 pupils at Redriff Primary School.

Six big themes emerged from the workshops to inspire names for new streets and spaces: Our Place/History, Our Community, Our Culture, Our Identity, Our Wellbeing and Our Secret. These themes, along with a longlist of words and phrases that relate back to them, form a framework to be used over the coming years as new streets and spaces are created. Where a new street will feature in postal addresses, British Land will select names from this framework to submit to Southwark Council, who will make the final decision on names following consultation with the emergency services.

Read more about British Land’s naming strategy in their ‘Naming what’s new’ report, available from the downloads page at canadawater.co.uk. For more on the new names, check out the website and Canada Water’s social media channels, where British Land are exploring their history and place in Canada Water

Scan the QR code to watch Redriff Primary School pupils present a video about the new names