Canada Water

Canada Water is an area of the

Canada Water tube, Overground and bus station is immediately north of the lake, along with Canada Water Library which overhangs the lake and Deal Porter Square.^[1] Surrey Quays Shopping Centre is also adjacent, sitting immediately to the south. The surrounding area, which forms the town centre of Rotherhithe

, is now increasingly known as Canada Water, after the transport interchange as much as the lake itself.

History and development

The lake is named after the former Canada Dock, of which Canada Water is the surviving northern third, and which was mainly used by ships from

Stave Hill in nearby Russia Dock Woodland.^[2]

Following the earlier

Liverpool Street Station

.

Much of the area is now going through a phase of rapid development, with new residential developments, a new library which opened in November 2011,[4] cafés and restaurants planned around the lake, and plans to redevelop the shopping mall^[5] in a first step towards creating a more traditional town centre. Canada Water Surrey Quays lends its name to local property developer CWSQ.^[6]

Freshwater lake

Canada Water is the only body of fresh water in London Docklands. The lake is now kept topped up with fresh water using a windpump. This arrangement was put in place following research by the landscape architect Fraser Borwick, which revealed that ground water had historically been extracted to supply various industrial processes using wind power. After checking the borehole results of the Jubilee line construction team, it was established that large amounts of potable water were available, and a borehole 80 metres long was sunk into the ground. The borehole is lined for 60 metres, and the bottom 20 metres is into chalk. The investigation of how best to keep the lake topped up with fresh water was the result of some damage to the lining of the old dock during construction works in the 1980s. Another solution considered involved securing a water supply from the flooded tunnels of London Underground, but this was considered too risky.