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a town built from shipping containers

Container City

FreeHidden gem
Trinity Buoy Wharf · East India (DLR)
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Stacks of bright shipping containers turned into studios at Trinity Buoy Wharf, an early and photogenic experiment in modular building.

Getting there. At Trinity Buoy Wharf by the mouth of the Lea, a short walk from East India DLR.
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Trinity Buoy Wharf · East India (DLR)
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The lowdown

Out at Trinity Buoy Wharf, where the Lea meets the Thames, stands one of Britain's first and brightest experiments in building from shipping containers. Container City stacks dozens of recycled steel boxes into cheerful, jigsaw-like blocks of artists' studios and workspaces, painted in bold reds, blues and yellows.

Built from 2001, it helped kick off the whole movement of container architecture now seen everywhere. You can wander the wharf around it for free, taking in the containers, London's only lighthouse and the moored lightship, a genuinely offbeat and very photogenic corner of the east.

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It is part of the wider Trinity Buoy Wharf, also home to the Longplayer lighthouse and a vintage American diner. Go on a bright day for the boldest photos of the stacked, primary-coloured containers.
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