How did we get here today? This year’s Planning School sheds light on the city’s last fifty years of urban development. How did we get to where we are today, and what do we owe these various eras? Each week, we’ll explore a decade - its policies, its battles, its formative projects - from the mouths of those who know them best.

Eric Sorensen on the 1980s - Canary Wharf emerged, the Greater London Council was dissolved, Thatcher was in power and market economics ruled. This was the decade we rediscovered the River Thames and the power of the City.

Eric Sorensen was Chief Executive of the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) from 1991 until 1997, where he was responsible for regenerating London’s Docklands and delivering the Canary Wharf financial district. He was later Chief Executive of the Millennium Commission, distributing lottery grants, and then Chief Executive of the Thames Gateway Partnership and London Development Partnership, the latter of which advised Ken Livingstone the first elected Mayor of London on strategic priorities in preparation for a new London Development Agency.

Join The London Society for this informative series of Saturday morning talks with some of London's leading experts and discover how the system works and what planners try to achieve, from the level of 'the site' up to planning for the whole city.

*We are sorry, but there is no disability access to The Old Waiting Room.