Leven Road, Poplar, London

The Elite Metal Group won the contract to work with the various Teams transforming a historic building in the heart of Poplar. The building had been unused and had fallen into a state of disrepair before planning consent was given to regenerate the building on the condition that the historic façade was retained and integrated within the design of the new build. Poplar Riverside, formerly known as the Leven Road Gasworks development, will provide up to 2,800 new homes, commercial space, a riverside park, a riverside walk with access to the River Lea and land for a new secondary school.

This is a substantial development scheme for the local area that will include a combination of residential and commercial outlets. There will be luxurious highrise living and more affordable shared ownership housing options available to make the scheme as inclusive as possible. The scheme focuses on wellbeing and includes over 1-hectare of park land, green space along the river and a number of children’s play areas including a range of spaces for recreation and relaxation.

With decades of experience in supplying structural steel, we are well positioned when it comes to accuracy which was the most significant challenge of this project. For this reason, the Elite Surveying Team deployed their Trimble SX12 GPS surveying system at the very start of the project to undertake an in-depth survey on this historic building.

The greatest challenge for the project was ensuring that the beautiful and historic façade of the old gasworks weren’t harmed or damaged in the construction process. For this reason, Elite provided a number of heavy duty temporary proppings to support all the external walls that were being retained.

The Finished project

This breath-taking development was a dream job for the Elite Team. The project blends the new and old perfectly and the space feels modern with a historic blend.