Travelstead managed to persuade the London Docklands Development Corporation and the Government of Margaret Thatcher that a new financial services district of ten million square feet, located at the old West India Docks, was viable.
The London Docklands Development Corporation was established by the then Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Heseltine, under section 136 of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980.
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When American/Swiss banker Michael von Clemm visited West India Docks looking for a restaurant site, he became interested in the idea of building a back office.
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The park was created by the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) in 1994, after a survey identified rare and unusual plant species in the area, some presumed carried in by shipping, such as Hairy Buttercup (Ranunculus sardous), Walthamstow Cress, and Unreel’s Wormwood.
Regent's Canal Dock, now named Limehouse Basin has the remains of a hydraulic accumulator, dating from 1869, a fragment of the oldest remaining such facility in the world, the second at the dock, which was installed later than that at Poplar Dock, originally listed incorrectly as a signalling cabin for the London and Blackwall Railway, when correctly identified, it was restored as a tourist attraction by the now defunct London Docklands Development Corporation.
In 1981, the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher established the London Docklands Development Corporation to redevelop the former dockyard areas of east London, including the Surrey Docks.