Erith Lighthouse
A Thames-side pavilion hosting community events, evening dinners and a daily café whilst rewriting the narrative of Erith’s regeneration.
More info
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
Close More info
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.
Related entries
A strategy proposing impactful, socially-produced meanwhile use projects for Erith.
A major new history of the London pub, explored through multiple voices and perspectives and edited by David Knight and Cristina Monteiro.
Other Public Building
Adaptive reuse of an existing toilet block to create a quietly civic public building on the Sussex coastline
Bruce Grove Public Conveniences
Adaptive reuse and extension of a listed and ‘heritage at risk’ public convenience in the heart of Bruce Grove.
A masterplan for the expansion and consolidation of an inspiring primary school in Wevelgem, Flanders.
Delivering the first phase of DK-CM’s masterplan by bringing a number of redundant or underused buildings back into use.
Acklam Public Toilets, Westway
Revitalised public toilets in the heart of Portobello Market, part of DK-CM’s Westway Community Street strategy.
A refurbishment of a four storey end-of-terrace building with a fascinating civic history to host the Rebel Business School, a social enterprise piloting free and alternative business education to young entrepreneurs.
Secondary Academy, Staffordshire
A masterplan to rejuvenate and expand a 1950s secondary school in Staffordshire
A new contemplative space for a primary school in Bethnal Green, East London.
Royal Docks Watersports Centre
Helping to expand the offer and accessibility of this vital watersports and rowing charity.
A new reception and link building for Wroughton Academies, a school in Gorleston, Great Yarmouth.
Working with the local community to develop options for a new Community Hub in this unique Essex village.
Proposal for a new civic and commercial Market House in the heart of Romford town centre.
A competiton entry for a new Nature and Wellbeing Centre situated within Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, Kent.
A proposal to extend & refurbish a suburban church in the Metropolitan Green Belt.
