A temporary beacon, designed by DK-CM Architects, shines brightly at Erith riverside

The ‘Erith Lighthouse’ is a temporary pavilion erected adjacent to the Thames in Erith, south London. Conceived by DK-CM and The Decorators to host a series of events over the summer months, it comprises a structure of theatre rigging clad in coloured polycarbonate.

The Erith Lighthouse builds on an earlier ‘Meanwhile Use’ strategy developed by DK-CM and The Decorators for the London Borough of Bexley in 2016. The project is funded by the Mayor’s London Regeneration Fund and forms part of Bexley’s Greater Erith Programme that aims to help reactivate the town centre and exploit the town’s unique but under-appreciated riverside setting.

Through August and September guest chefs will host 17 dinners at the Lighthouse, with menus inspired by Erith’s riverside location on the border of London and Kent that combine the capital’s food culture and the ‘Garden of England’s agricultural heritage with its abundance of allotments, fruit growing and hop gardens. The Lighthouse will also host a series of family events connected with Erith’s ‘people and places’.

The Erith Lighthouse was conceived by DK-CM, the architecture, planning and research studio founded by David Knight and Cristina Monteiro, whose Barkingside project was awarded in the 2016 European Prize for Urban Public Space, and The Decorators, a multidisciplinary design collective founded by Suzanne O’Connell, Xavi Llarch Font, Carolina Caicedo and Mariana Pestana, whose work aims to reconnect the physical elements of a place with its social dimension by designing infrastructures for social interaction.

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