Where to buy in east London: Canning Town to get £3.7bn revamp with 10,000 new homes and transport upgrades

From slums thrown up for factory workers by Victorian speculators to the disastrous experiments in social housing that followed the Blitz, historic attempts to turn Canning Town into a great place to live have not had a great track record.

But with £3.7 billion now being spent on 10,000 new homes and transport upgrades, the latest attempt to re-imagine E16 is looking far more robust.

Since 2010 a series of major developments have already provided hundreds of new homes — more than 650, plus a new market square, at Rathbone Market, and almost the same again at East City Point, which was completed this year.

Jay Clarke of Johns & Co estate agents was brought up locally and can already see a difference in Canning Town.

“It has always been known as a deprived part of east London,” he said. “Ten years ago there were not many shops, and no Costas or Starbucks, which we have now.”

But Clarke points out that, much like the Isle of Dogs, most investment to date has been in the area’s prime sites — either very close to the station or clustered beside Bow Creek.

Inland, however, Canning Town remains a gloomy swathe of council estates.

And while local amenities have improved, with a couple of supermarkets, some local restaurants, and traditional pubs, it still feels more like a dormitory for people who work half-an-hour’s walk away at Canary Wharf and certainly not a thriving community.

The game-changer could be the ongoing £600 million Hallsville Quarter, where 1,100 new homes are being built on a 15-acre site opposite Canning Town station.

Around a third are affordable and earmarked for low- and middle-income Londoners.

Its first two phases — a total of 528 homes — were completed in time for the first residents to move in during 2015.

Phase three, which will add another 620 homes plus a badly needed “high street” with shops, restaurants, and facilities including a health centre, won planning permission this summer.

Homes in its current phase, the 18-storey Discovery Tower, start from £550,000 for a two-bedroom flat.

Meanwhile, at Hallsville’s build-to-rent development Argo Apartments, prices start from £1,650 a month for a one-bedroom flat.

On the back of these new homes — plus the lure of Crossrail, which will stop at nearby Custom House — Canning Town prices have been on the rise since last summer, reaching a record average of £439,000.

At Western Gateway, once a desolate car park close to the ExCeL London convention centre, house builder Mount Anvil is already at work on Royal Docks West.

Prices start from £685,000 for a two-bedroom flat.

Last May Newham council granted permission for a separate scheme of 796 homes, around a third of which will be designated “affordable”.

The site will feature shops, restaurants, and open space.

Nearby, the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company once built warships at the Limmo Peninsula, which overlooks Bow Creek.

It is currently a Crossrail site but after the rail project is completed it will be handed over to housebuilder Grainger.

The company is a build-to-rent specialist and although this 1,500-home project is very much in its infancy the firm has pledged to provide “mid-market rental homes aligned to local residents’ wages”.

A planning application will be unveiled next spring.

Yet another major project is on the cards at Stephenson Street, where Berkeley Homes was last year granted planning permission for one of London’s highest-density projects.

Almost 4,000 homes will be built on a 29-acre former Parcelforce depot, in towers up to 377ft tall.

By 2029 it is estimated that Stephenson Street could be home to around 10,000 people.