Could Barking and Dagenham rival Berlin as creative and film quarter?
The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is in the middle of major regeneration with the creation of 50,000 new jobs and 20,000 new homes, where a core theme is the addressing of inequalities while it develops its creative quarter.
Acting Head of Regeneration at LBBD, David Harley, described at Future Cities Forum last week, how London has been losing its artists and this is a trend that the borough wants to reverse. With catch phrases and posters like 'Don't move to Berlin, move to Barking' the borough has been busy creating affordable workplaces and residences that are designed for artists.
The Ice House quarter - where fish used to be stored on ice when Barking was one of the leading fishing ports in the UK - is an area which has been recently developed into attractive work environments for the creative industries.
Film production is another area where the borough intends to build competitiveness having seen a seven-fold increase in filming and location use over the last five years. Films and series such as 'Humans', 'The Avengers' and 'Black Mirror' have all been shot there. In response, the borough is now building the biggest London film studios for 40 years.
Click on the film below to see more about the borough's locations and innovative developments: