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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
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Nick Bowes

The Crystal: Shiny new City Hall can turbocharge our East End

A pedestrian walks past The Crystal building on Royal Victoria Dock

(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

Set against a backdrop of derelict Thames riverfronts, classic Eighties gangster flick The Long Good Friday saw Bob Hoskins play crook-trying-to-go-straight Harold Shand and his grand plan to regenerate London’s docks.

Fast forward 40 years, and a lot of what Shand envisaged has come to fruition. A Thames from Tower Bridge to Canary Wharf lined with flats and apartments. The Isle of Dogs like a mini-Manhattan and further afield, the Olympics transformed a moonscape north of Stratford.

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