The Canada Water development is creating many new streets and spaces, and they’re all going to need names. Having spoken to more than 700 local people who shared what the area means to them and fed their insights into the ‘Naming what’s new’ project, we are pleased to announce our first new place names.  

Rafter Walk is the name for the new 170m boardwalk that officially opened on Saturday, 2 November, as part of the revitalised Canada Dock (click here to see the official opening) Rafters were dock workers whose job was to float timber from the ships up to the timber ponds where it was kept to season, hopping between the floating deal planks.

Dock Office Gardens takes its name from the Dock Office, the Grade II-listed red brick and white building that was the hub of activity in the bustling working docks, and now serves as British Land’s project hub for the Canada Water development.   

Marker Way will be a new street that when completed will connect Deal Porters Way with Lower Road, providing access to the new Canada Water Leisure Centre. It’s named after  dock workers who used to mark the timber and cargo packages as they came ashore at Surrey Docks, to show where they’d come from and where they were going. As Marker Way will feature in postal addresses, we needed to get this name approved by Southwark Council. We also followed Southwark Council guidance when choosing the names for Rafter Walk and Dock Office Gardens. 

Rafter Walk, opened in early November. 

These names reflect the themes and ideas gathered from a series of 22 workshops British Land held at 14 locations across the area. We worked in partnership with third parties City ID and Plot Studio to gather diverse perspectives from every corner of the local area. Hundreds of people of all ages and backgrounds came along to share their thoughts on the unique character of Canada Water, with many more giving their input online.  

People told us how Canada Water is a hidden gem. People of all ages are proud of the Docklands heritage, value how the area is so well connected both to the rest of London and to nature, and say it has a calm and peaceful feel.  

Among other things, you told us street and place names should be unambiguous, evocative, inclusive and fun, and shouldn’t be political, boring or hard to pronounce.  

Dock Office Gardens, located behind the Dock Offices and Plot A1, accessed via Surrey Quays Road.

The project also brought in the voice of the next generation via a project with Year 5 pupils at Redriff Primary School. After developing their own research methods and engaging their peers, the students presented their findings to the wider community. Their main messages were that young people place high value on fun, friendship, community, relaxation and self-care.   

Six big themes emerged from the workshops to inspire names for new streets and spaces: Our Place/History, Our Community, Our Culture, Our Identity, Our Wellbeing and Our Secret. These six themes, along with a longlist of words and phrases that relate back to them, form a framework that we’ll use over the coming years as new streets and spaces are created. Where a new street or public space will also be a postal address, we’ll select names from this framework to submit to Southwark Council, who will make the final decision on names following consultation with the emergency services.  

Southwark Council are keen for the suffixes of place names to suggest how spaces should be used. For example, “Walk” should be used for a pedestrian-only route, while “Way” refers to a path for pedestrians and cyclists.  

You can read more about our naming strategy in our report on the project here.

You can also read about our Findings Workshops here.

Keep an eye on canadawater.co.uk and Canada Water’s social media channels for further deep dives into the new street names, where we’ll be exploring their history and place in Canada Water.