Riverside east of the tower, north bank. Barking Levels

Riverside east of the tower, north bank.
Barking Levels.

Riverside strip of marshland used as a dump.  Some small industrial and haulage sites, but huge plans for housing development

This post covers sites north of the river only

Post to the west Barking
Post to the east Dagenham Riverside
Post to the south North Thamesmead and Crossness


Barking Levels
Marshes. This was once extensive grazing made up of low lying land dissected by dykes reclaimed from saltmarsh by building seawalls. They are an important habitat. The amount of grazing marsh in the Thames estuary is now greatly reduced and the whole area is on development pressure.  Much of the site has been used to store coal and power station waste – however some plants and animals are here because of that and are not native to the area. Attempts at agriculture here have often failed because of flooding. Most of this area was called Ripple Level. In the late 19th ice was collected here to sell to fishing boats and for packing fish.  There are now tips of pulverised fly ash and at one point a crater from which the ash has been removed. Other pits were used as settling ponds for fly ash slurry.  There is also some landfill with problems of methane emissions. Grassland covers most of the area and there is now little grazing. There is a very large range of wild flowers and insects. There are many butterflies and moths.
Housing development plans exist for this whole area.


Choats Manor Road
1st Barking and Dagenham Scouts. This is the previous site office for Bellway Homes
Housing at the western end built by Bellway in the 1990s


Sources
London Borough Barking and Dagenham. Web site
Nature Conservation in Barking and Dagenham

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