The City Of London Waste Transfer Station
Tucked discreetly away on Walbrook Wharf down on the Thames path near Cannon Street railway bridge is the facility that handles all of the City of London’s non-recyclable waste.
Since Roman times there have been many wharves along the river handling the import of all types of commodities – wine, garlic(k), timber and stone for example, but this wharf is dedicated to exporting material and is the only freight wharf still operating in the City.
The wharf is near where the Walbrook river feeds into the Thames. The river was a feature of Roman London rising in Shoreditch and flowing down to the Thames separating the hills of Ludgate and Cornhill.
Life As A Waste Transfer Station
Today the wharf enjoys safeguarded wharf status meaning it cannot be redeveloped for non-port use or residential or commercial buildings. It was originally a dock but was infilled, and is now a containerised facility.
Today the river is all underground as part of London’s sewer system. Its route takes it south from London Wall, under the Bank of England, under buildings on the west side of Walbrook and Dowgate Hill, and it discharges from an outlet in Walbrook Wharf.
The area opened as a waste transfer station in 1963 and underwent a major redevelopment in 1995. It has a capacity of around 85,000 tonnes of waste per year but presently handles around 50,000. Of this 5-10,000 tonnes is domestic and street cleaning waste and 40-45,000 is commercial waste.
It is operated by Cory Environmental who can trace their foundation back to 1896 and celebrated 125 years of activity on the Thames in 2021. The company originally brought coal inwards and backloaded rubbish to dump in the Kent and Essex marshlands.
Waste is brought to the station by road and you can often see the lorries queuing up to enter from Bell Wharf Lane.
Today the station operates 7 days per week and typically loads 12 x12 tonne FCLs (full container loads) per day Monday-Friday and 5 per day Saturday and Sunday. The containers are loaded onto barges at the site and the Thames Path has to be closed to pedestrians while this is happening.
Positive Environmental Impact
The barges take the waste to the Belvedere incinerator in Bexley – this facility also takes waste from 4 other boroughs and generates enough electricity for 100.000 homes
Moving the waste in containers by river avoids around 100,000 road movements each year in the City. The City is also proud of the fact that they are one of the first local authorities in the UK to achieve zero waste to landfill.
Steve
