A £1 billion transformation is underway for the neighbourhood
(Picture: Daniel Lynch)More than 800 years ago, Lesnes Abbey was built at the borders of London and Kent amidst woodland. Little remains of the abbey today, but it is honoured in the name of the local neighbourhood: Abbey Wood.
This one time railway suburb was marred, post war, by extensive and low grade social housing estates, notably the terrifyingly isolated dystopian Thamesmead, on the banks of the River Thames.