King Edward Memorial Park Foreshore

It took nine years to build the Thames Tideway tunnel from Acton to Abbey Mills, a massive drainage project to detain and divert London's Victorian sewage overflows. But it's taken even longer to finish off the additional public realm on top of the capped shafts, with the last of seven offshore worksites now finally transformed. It's the King Edward Memorial Park Foreshore and by extending into the Thames it's made the east London park 8% larger. [8 photos] King Edward Memorial Park hugs the river where Wapping meets Shadwell and has already been infiltrated by another tunnel shaft. The Rotherhithe Tunnel passes directly underneath because Edwardian engineers decided this was the ideal spot for a ventilation shaft and also a spiral staircase for pedestrians (not used since the 1970s). The road is 23m down and the Thames Tunnel more like 60m so there was no chance of the two ever clashing, but the new bore does in fact pass directly beneath the old shaft. The park was a bit glum during…