Erith Lighthouse
A Thames-side pavilion hosting community events, evening dinners and a daily café whilst rewriting the narrative of Erith’s regeneration.
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Erith Lighthouse stood at two locations alongside the Thames at Erith in Summer 2017. It hosted a community events programme, a daily café and a season of evening dining events, and aimed to celebrate Erith’s connection to the river and identity in the context of significant growth.
The Lighthouse is a flexible structure which folds open on all four sides to exploit views and adjacencies. With a structure made of theatrical rigging clad in polycarbonate, it is a distinctive and colourful presence on the riverfront. In its siting, form and function, it evokes the fragile structures that once lined the Thames locally whilst also borrowing languages from Erith’s industrial history.
Context
During a 6-week programme, the Lighthouse hosted 16 sold-out dinners by notable young chefs, each of whom developed menus inspired by the culinary and agricultural history of the Thames Estuary and Kent. During the day it served as a community café that opened up the riverside to local residents, and as a venue for a wide variety of community-facing cultural events including walking tours, local beer tastings, community oral history sessions and concerts.
The Lighthouse emerged out of Erith Meanwhile, a study undertaken by DK-CM and The Decorators which explored the potential of temporary projects to re-engage Erith with its waterfront and celebrate the town.
Credits
- Client: London Borough of Bexley, Mayor of London
- Date: 2017
- Collaborators: The Decorators, Europa, Amy Gill, Nicholas Alexander, Blue Engineering
- Photographs by DK-CM and The Decorators
- Status: Completed
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Erith Resident Frequencies
As part of the programme of events organised for Erith Lighthouse by The Decorators, a podcast was recorded with local residents to record their views on the impact of the Lighthouse and its legacy in the local area.
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