Chelsea Harbour

The Belvedere Tower and Marina

When planning permission was granted on 15 April 1986, the whole site, including the lock, was derelict. Both the Coal Dock and the lock had been infilled with contaminated materials, which had to be excavated and disposed of. The design required the contractor to reduce the size of the Dock by 1/3rd from the north end, to form the 75-berth Marina; and to re-construct the lock chamber, lock-gates, and cill. Work on-site began in early May 1986, and within twelve months the contractor had excavated the dock, constructed a new north wall, re-puddled the dock floor and renovated the lock. The site was equipped with 14 tower cranes, and had approximately 1500 personnel on-site during most of the build phase. In April 1987 a "commissioning Champagne Party" was held on two pontoons in the newly flooded "marina" for all the staff directly involved.

Lock, entrance into Chelsea Harbour

Between April 1986 and April 1987, the construction team achieved the following:

• 2,000 piles had been sunk over 30 metres down to the London clay without problems, despite some being within two metres of both a London Underground main electrical supply cable and of a huge Victorian-built storm sewer.
• 250,000 cu. Metres of earth had been excavated and removed from the site;
• 55 acres of floor space were built, using 70,000 cubic metres of concrete and 8,000 tons of steel; one continuous concrete pour on Chelsea Garden Market's foundations totalled over 400 cu. Metres, with mixer trucks queueing-up for several hundred yards along Townmead Road. To ensure an uninterrupted cement supply for the concrete, 5,000 tons of cement were stockpiled in a hulk moored in the London Docks; and a concrete supply company was bought outright, to devote priority of supply to the project:
• the reinforced structural concrete frame of "Chelsea Crescent" (which contained 64 apartments as originally designed) was built in just eight weeks;
• three new bridges had been completed on-site, including the largest "thrust bore"[7] tunnel in Europe (over Townmead Road), which was hydraulically jacked into position under an operating rail line in a single weekend;
• two buildings had been completed to "shell & core" status, and the interior spaces were already being occupied by the contractors of incoming tenants;
• a further eight buildings were under construction including "Chambers" and "Chelsea Garden Market";
• The 18-storey "Belvedere" tower was "topped-out" within six months of the start of work. The constructors managed to pour a new floor every four days, with pre-fabricated sub-sections of Rebar built on the ground using "go; no-go"Jigs, using a quick-curing high-strength concrete. Flat soffits with no "downstand beams", and pre-fabricated, steel, wheeled jack-up Forms were placed-, removed-, and re-positioned by the building's tower crane (with the aid of temporary-support platforms cantilevered off the side of the structure), erected in what would become one of the Belvedere's lift shafts.

Construction work against Chelsea Harbour backdrop

All the buildings – save for the hotel – were built as "shell & core" contracts, with tenants leasing their spaces from Chelsea Harbour Ltd. through their letting agents. Once each building was wind and weather-tight, and connected to the external services, tenants commissioned their own contractors for the internal finishings. Bovis project-managed the construction of the hotel from piling-level to roadway-level, and the remainder of the structure above-ground was completed by a client who had concluded a long lease with Chelsea Harbour Ltd. The civil and structural engineers for the project were Clarke Nicholls and Marcel of Hammersmith, London W6.

Harrods Estates were asked to manage the residential aspects such as the sale and letting of properties. The 310 apartments were marketed with prices starting at around £2 million per property. The 261,000 sq ft of land has 24-hour security patrols, and residents have 24-hour porterage.[8]

River bus services are provided at peak hours by London River Services from Chelsea Harbour Pier, and provide transport to Putney and Blackfriars Millennium Pier.[10]