Trinity Buoy Wharf

Trinity Buoy Wharf is the Thames-side site where all the buoys and markers for the English coast were once made and repaired. The site was rescued from dereliction and now its lighthouse (the only one in the capital) overlooks a growing creative community. Preserving the Grade II-listed warehouses, the developers have constructed artists’ studios, offices and a riverside café from recycled shipping containers and forged relationships with London’s art colleges, whose students are delighted to have access to the site’s large spaces for ambitious projects. LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre) has its offices at Trinity Buoy Wharf, and the fleet of Thames Clippers is based there – at London’s longest pier, which was built almost entirely from recycled materials. Also located on the site are a nostalgic ’40s food joint, FatBoy’s Diner, and what may be London’s smallest museum, The Faraday Project. Housed in a tiny wooden hut, it’s devoted to the Victorian scientist Michael Faraday who conducted experiments into electric lighting in the lighthouse in 1863. Today the lighthouse is an unusual art venue, hosting Jem Finer’s ‘Longplayer’, a digital musical composition designed to last, without repetition, for a millennium.