Waterloo Community Development Group - WCDG
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Waterloo Community Development Group - WCDG

WCDG History

Establishment

Achievements

WCDG > History

 

Around 80,000 people lived cheek by jowl in Waterloo in 1900, along with wharfs, yards and industrial sites. But the population declined to under 50,000 by the war, and was zoned for a massive expansion of offices and national arts venues.

By 1972 there were only around 4,000 households remaining in Waterloo, and plans afoot for some of the biggest offices in Europe. A critical mass of schools and shops had been closed, and there was nowhere for a new generation of Waterloo residents.

 

Waterloo roundabout before the Imax

 
WCDG was formed in 1972 by local residents to address these problems. The first battle was to stop the Imperial War Museum building all over Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park. A local architect provided WCDG with an alternative proposal which demonstrated that there was no need for a blade of grass to be lost. The case went to a public inquiry and the Inspector agreed with us, and the park saved!

 

South Bank 1950

 
One of the major campaigns in Waterloo in the 1970’s and 1980’s was the ‘battle of Coin Street’, where 13 acres of prime real estate on the then emerging South Bank were zoned for offices. Eventually it was agreed that the land should be used for housing and community spaces, and in 1984 the land was finally sold to the campaigners who became the Coin Street Community Builders… but that’s another story: see here

 

Coin Street Public Inquiry

Around 60% of Waterloo has been redeveloped since the war, causing stresses which threatened to destroy the local community in the 1970’s. Since then the community has gradually rebuilt itself and begun to flourish. Today planning in general has caught up with WCDG’s vision, and sustainable communities and mixed development are now key policies of central and local government.




WCDG - Waterloo Community Development Group 14a Baylis Road, London SE1 7AA
Phone: 020 7633 9291 Fax: 0870 051 2709 E-mail: admin@wcdg.org.uk

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