The redevelopment of London Docklands set a new standard for urban regeneration. City governments all over the world now aspire to the high-rise, high-gloss, high-cost ‘office-residential-retail’ formula (just add iconic casino/luxury hotel/state-of-the-art stadium) that passes for mixed use in the early 21st century. Waterfront cities are especially captured by this vision of the spectacular: the sparkling, once-in-a-lifetime break that will catapult that city onto the world stage. Most of these waterfronts are former docks, shipyards and city utilities, deindustrialised in the late 20th...