Explore
FAQs
We will keep this section updated, as new information comes available and we will show clearly what information has been added after the website was launched.
Royal Victoria Dock West
Royal Victoria Dock West is at the heart of our long-term vision for the Royal Docks. These questions cover the proposals, the engagement process and how to get involved or find out more.
Head to the Floating Wellness or Floating Residential pages and then download the Expression of Interest form from the relevant page. Once complete, please email to rvdw@royaldockswaterways.com with any other relevant documents. The details of the opportunity and the application deadlines are clear on each page.
Royal Docks Waterways will decide which Expressions of Interest are to be progressed, in collaboration with the Royal Docks Team and with the support of appointed advisors. For both Wellness and Residential, a shortlist of bidders will then be invited to submit more detailed proposals, which will then be reviewed and decided on by the same group, in consultation with some local anchor institutions. Each opportunity page is transparent about what information is required and the weighting of different topics. All applications and proposals will be treated in the strictest of confidence, subject to the obligations imposed on Royal Docks Waterways by law.
Please email rvdw@royaldockswaterways.com to set up an online meeting.
Royal Victoria Dock West is managed by Royal Docks Waterways (the new trading name for the Royal Docks Management Authority, or RoDMA). Royal Docks Waterways is a not-for-profit organisation that holds a long lease for the water within the Royal Docks, along with small parcels of land at key access points. It is responsible for the management, maintenance and safe operation of the dock water and its supporting infrastructure. Royal Docks Waterways works closely with local landowners, stakeholders, water users and the Royal Docks Team to encourage and support a wide range of activities across the docks. The Vision for Royal Victoria Dock West was commissioned by Royal Docks Waterways, which is also responsible for progressing the next stages of work and delivery in collaboration with partners.
The freehold of the Royal Docks is owned by the Greater London Authority (GLA) and this is overseen by the Royal Docks Team. The Royal Docks Team is a partnership between the Mayor of London and the Mayor of Newham. The team is responsible for steering the regeneration of the Royal Docks, driving significant levels of inward investment, and supporting the delivery of 36,000 new homes and 55,000 new jobs across the area.
The wider Royal Docks regeneration area and therefore the entirety of Royal Victoria Dock West is within the London Borough of Newham. This means that it is the Local Planning Authority, whose policies will govern future planning applications. Its strategies and priorities around public health, economic development and a just climate transition are also highly relevant for Royal Victoria Dock West.
The areas available for the Royal Victoria Dock West Vision are within the lease area of Royal Docks Waterways, with the Greater London Authority as freeholder. Term of lease for discussion with interested parties.
Royal Docks Waterways is a not-for-profit organisation with responsibility for managing and maintaining the dock water and its supporting infrastructure. Generating income allows Royal Docks Waterways to build a long-term sinking fund to meet future costs associated with replacing major infrastructure as it reaches the end of its operational life. This includes essential assets such as bridges, pumping stations and lock gates.
Any financial surplus generated through successful development or activity within the docks is reinvested back into the Royal Docks, helping to secure their long-term safety, resilience and public use.
Royal Docks Waterways is organising several online and in-person public meetings during February and March 2026. And there is an ongoing commitment to engaging with stakeholders and the public as the wider Vision is brought forward. The News & Events pages of this website and our newsletter are the best ways to stay informed. All projects will need to secure planning permission prior to trading and this will provide stakeholders with an opportunity to formally raise any concerns they might have, or express support for a particular proposal.
Royal Docks Waterways has created a broader, strategic, and long-term Vision for all of Royal Victoria Dock West as a whole. Where third-party proposals align with and support the objectives of the Vision, including public access, long-term social value and responsible stewardship of the water, they will be welcomed and considered on their merits. Based on the information available during 2025, Royal Docks Waterways objected to the Good Hotel’s planning application. Further details can be viewed on Newham’s Planning Portal, linked to application 25/02185/FUL.
Royal Docks Waterways has worked closely with existing water operators, including NOWCA / Love Open Water, Wake Up Docklands and Oiler Bar, throughout the development of the Vision. Open water swimming remains a core and valued activity within the Vision for Royal Victoria Dock West. Requirements to support open water swimming, including appropriate infrastructure, are reflected within the brief for the Floating Wellness project.
The Vision concludes that Royal Victoria Dock West is not the most suitable location for wakeboarding and other higher-intensity water uses over the long term. Royal Docks Waterways is therefore working with Wake Up Docklands to explore alternative locations within Royal Victoria Dock, further to the east, where these activities may be better accommodated. The Oiler Bar is run by the same business as Wake Up Docklands, so it is likely that they would relocate at the same time to the same place, although this is all subject to further discussions.
There will be no short-term impact on the current operations of NOWCA / Love Open Water, Wake Up Docklands or Oiler Bar. Royal Docks Waterways will continue to communicate closely with operators as the Floating Residential and Floating Wellness projects progress, ensuring that businesses and their customers have clear information and sufficient time to plan ahead.
In 2025, Royal Docks Waterways worked with stakeholders to create a deliverable Vision for RVDW. This was followed in January 2026 by the Mayor of London deciding to alter the GLA’s lease with Royal Docks Waterways, specifically to enable Royal Docks Waterways to take on a new development role. 2026 is therefore the first time that the leaseholder of the Royal Docks water has had the authority to make development happen and a deliverable plan to work towards.
The timeline is subject to change, because third parties still need to be procured or contracted with, however the aspiration that everyone is working towards is that people can benefit from the RVDW Vision before 2030. Achieving this goal would rely on starting the Floating Residential feasibility and choosing the developer-operator for Floating Wellness in 2026 and progressing to design development, engagement and Planning in 2027 and then construction and openings 2028-2029. The Priority Projects will come forward in a staged way, rather than one big bang and will be subject to decisions by at least Royal Docks Waterways, the Royal Docks Team / GLA and London Borough of Newham.
Royal Docks Waterways is a non-profit business with a board that includes anchor institutions including the GLA, London Borough of Newham, Excel London, London City Airport and University of East London.
It has built up reserves through its trading activity and will allocate its own funds to support the early stages of the Vision. In parallel, it will seek to work with third-party partners and investors to bring forward the Priority Projects in line with the Vision.
Any funding approach will be guided by public-interest objectives, long-term stewardship of the docks and the requirement to reinvest surpluses back into the Royal Docks.
Royal Victoria Dock East
Royal Victoria Dock East connects the ExCeL quayside with key pedestrian crossings and licensed water activities. These questions cover what is happening on site and how the dock is managed.
As part of the Vision for Royal Victoria Dock West, it was concluded that the West side isn’t the most suitable long-term location for wakeboarding and other higher-intensity water activities. Royal Docks Waterways is working with operators, including Wake Up Docklands, to explore relocating these activities further east within Royal Victoria Dock, where they can be better accommodated.
Royal Victoria Dock East falls within the same lease area managed by Royal Docks Waterways (the trading name for the Royal Docks Management Authority), which holds a long lease for the water across the Royal Docks. The freehold is owned by the Greater London Authority, with oversight from the Royal Docks Team, a partnership between the Mayor of London and the Mayor of Newham.
There’s no confirmed timeline yet. Discussions with Wake Up Docklands (and the Oiler Bar, run by the same business) are ongoing, and any relocation is subject to further planning before it’s finalised. Royal Docks Waterways will continue to communicate with operators and their customers to ensure there’s sufficient notice ahead of any change.
Pontoon Dock
Pontoon Dock sits at the centre of the Silvertown regeneration, one of London’s most significant waterside development projects. These questions cover the dock’s history, location and current status.
Pontoon Dock was originally built in the late 1850s as the Victoria Graving Dock, a ship repair facility on the south side of Royal Victoria Dock. It used a floating pontoon system, raised and lowered by hydraulic jacks, to lift vessels out of the water for repair. By the late 19th century, ships had outgrown the equipment, and the site switched to handling grain imports, with large silos built on the quayside.
Pontoon Dock is served by its own DLR station, which opened in December 2005 on the King George V branch. It sits in the east of Silvertown, within the regeneration zone known as Silvertown Quays, in the London Borough of Newham.
The original graving dock function ended long ago, and much of the site has since been redeveloped. Several of the historic granaries and flour mills were damaged in the 1917 Silvertown explosion and rebuilt before the Second World War. Today the area forms part of the wider Royal Docks and Silvertown regeneration, alongside new residential and public realm developments nearby.
Royal Albert Dock
Royal Albert Dock is one of the most historic stretches of water in the Royal Docks network. These questions cover its history, what is on the site today and how the water can be used.
Royal Albert Dock opened on 24 June 1880, at a cost of around £2.1 million, and was once the largest of the three Royal Docks. Like the others, it went into steady decline from the 1960s onward and closed as a working dock in 1981.
The dock has been transformed since closure. London City Airport was built on its south bank and opened in 1987, offering a single runway close to central London. The University of East London opened its largest campus on the dock’s north side in 1999 London’s first new university campus in over 50 years. The London Regatta Centre, a rowing and watersports venue, opened nearby in 2000.
Yes, the dock remains an active part of the wider Royal Docks, with the London Regatta Centre hosting rowing, canoeing and other watersports events, alongside the university campus and airport that now define the area.
Albert Basin
Albert Basin sits at the eastern edge of the Royal Docks, where the network meets the River Thames. These questions cover the basin’s role in the wider dock network and the plans for its future.
Albert Basin is a roughly 20-hectare site at the eastern end of the Royal Docks, historically serving as the entrance basin linking Royal Albert Dock and King George V Dock to the River Thames. It’s near the Gallions Reach and King George V DLR stations.
Yes, plans announced in 2004 set out proposals for a permanent marina, new slipways, waterside access, and up to 8,000 sq m of marine-related workspace on the site, as part of the wider regeneration of the Royal Docks alongside Royal Albert Dock and Silvertown Quays.
Albert Basin sits within the same regeneration corridor that includes London City Airport, the University of East London, and ExCeL London, and is one of several major projects contributing to the area’s transformation, expected to bring thousands of new homes and jobs to the Royal Docks overall.
King George V Dock
King George V Dock is the final and most southerly of the Royal Docks, home to the active KGV Lock connecting the docks to the Thames. These questions cover the dock’s history, infrastructure and what is on site today.
Construction began in 1912, built by the Port of London Authority, but was delayed by the First World War and not completed until 1921, making it the last of London’s great enclosed docks. Like the others, it closed to commercial traffic in 1981 once modern container ships had outgrown it.
London City Airport was built on the dock in 1987. Part of the dock was filled in with rubble from demolished buildings to create the site, and the runway itself sits on a concrete raft floating over steel piles driven into the old dock bed.
Yes, King George V DLR station, on the London City Airport branch, opened in December 2005 and takes its name from the dock.
Get In Touch
We’re keen to hear from you, whether it is about pursuing an opportunity, or finding out more as a local stakeholder or resident.
Leave your name, email and organisation (if relevant) and we’ll keep you posted with updates.