In October 2024, Network Rail Group Property, the commercial division accountable for the management of all of Network Rail’s land and property assets, had its first independent planning submission unanimously approved by the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) – the Bow Goods Yard Project.
Located in East London, Bow Goods Yard is the last major parcel of land to be regenerated as part of the London Olympics legacy, with the approved masterplan set to revamp over 30 acres of brownfield land into a rail freight campus and last-mile logistics hub.
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In its current form, Bow Goods Yard is a major supply point to the city’s construction industry, supplying over one million tonnes of concrete and aggregates each year, and removing an equivalent amount of construction spoil.
An isolated spot, large parts of Bow Goods Yard aren’t accessible to the local community, and many residents overlooking the site consider it a dusty eyesore.
Becoming a better neighbour
Those involved in the design of the masterplan have ensured Network Rail’s new centralised rail and freight operations will “be a better neighbour” to surrounding communities, while also expanding its light and heavy industrial capacity.
It aims to achieve this by reducing the impact of freight operations on the local community, in part by moving it to the far part of the site nearer the rail head and covering over aggregate storage.
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By GlobalDataIt will also provide the surrounding community with up to 21,000m2 of office space, 36,000m2 for leisure use and up to 7,000m2 of new public green open spaces alongside the Olympic Park. Furthermore, the new and updated facilities are anticipated to create approximately 5,000 jobs (including construction-related roles) and add between £90m-£150m a year to the local economy.
“Previous applications have been very inward-looking and the site has been under considerable pressure for some years to redevelop as a better neighbour,” notes Ushma Samani, real estate development manager, Network Rail.
“As a strategic industrial freight site, it was important to safeguard these operations in propensity, but lessons learnt from previous applications really helped shape how we’re working with our tenants and neighbours. We’re not just looking at sustainability from an environmental perspective, we’re also looking at constructability and the socio-economic benefits we want to bring to our site.”
Community engagement
The team behind this project worked closely with local communities and businesses to ensure they understood their needs and concerns. This involved extensive early-stage community engagement in the form of attending existing community events and visiting local schools to ask what people liked and didn’t like about the area and whether there were things Network Rail could proactively do to improve it.
“We had a local specialist engagement company out doing young designer programmes; even walks around the perimeter of the site to really capture local voices. We went to our Greenway partners… we met with everyone on our key boundaries. It’s the most extensive engagement exercise I’ve ever been part of,” says Samani.
In total the engagement team participated in 45 in-person events, receiving input from 700 people, as well as consulting with the surrounding boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Newham. This information was then used to develop a community charter and inform how the site’s space would be best utilised, resulting in near-unanimous support for the proposed designs.
Maximising freight capacity
Network Rail approached the Bow Goods Yard project as a way of demonstrating corporate responsibility and showcasing what is possible when sustainability is embedded into design.
One of the key strategic objectives was to maximise the freight capacity of the existing railhead, whilst minimising the impact on local residents, making the most of what has historically been an underutilised site.
This included consolidating industrial heavy freight, introducing lighter industrial freight and then opening up the rest of the site to softer, public-facing uses closer to the Greenway footpath and cycleway, Olympic Park and transport nodes.
“We’ve reconfigured the heavy freight area to maximise capacity, through which we’ve been able to achieve a 30% increase,” says David Clarke, freight estate development lead at Network Rail Group Properties.
“This includes replacing a road-fed concrete plant with a rail-fed one and expanding aggregate storage – but upwards rather than outwards, which enables us to introduce a second concrete plant. This optimisation will double the potential for concrete in East London to come through this site.
“The masterplan also includes a new express freight platform for lighter parcel and/or retail goods last-mile delivery, which will be market-led,” Clarke continues. “It’s estimated this could take up to 50,000 HGVs off the road – while the heavy freight could reduce HGV numbers by an additional 40,000. That’s pretty powerful stuff.”
In terms of green public spaces, Bow Goods Yard’s new public realm will enhance the Greenway bank and Old Ford Wood, adding 150 trees and new pedestrian and cycle routes.
Samani is particularly proud of the fact the masterplan offers a minimum 10% biodiversity net gain without any offsetting.
“We’re looking at green roofs and walls, renewable energy through PV panels, and street-side planting as part of a sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS), which will also enable us to harvest and recycle water,” she gives as examples.
Flexibility for futureproofing
It’s also worth noting that flexibility has been written into the masterplan to ensure the site is futureproofed.
“This is a 30-50-year facility, hence we’re looking ahead at multi-modal and last mile,” Clarke notes. “We’ve got a whole team at Network Rail trying to encourage that. It’s all about safeguarding for the future. We’ve also built in flexibility in terms of changing construction techniques in the future, or new market opportunities.”
“There’s been massive capacity assessment around electric vehicles and what might be needed,” Samani explains. “We envisage electric vans and smaller vehicles rather than big diesel HGVs doing that last mile piece, so we’ve made sure to futureproof for on-site parking that will be suitable for electric vehicles.”
Looking forward, the next step for Bow Goods Yard is to get Phase One of the project detailed consent worked up and submitted, which Clarke hopes to achieve by the end of 2025.
“It’s quite an ambitious bill, but it feels doable, given how much work we’ve already done,” he says. “This will probably entail the freight aspect of the site and some commercial development. The wider work could easily be a 10-year programme.”
