The Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf Crossing was one of several proposals for new crossings of the Thames in East London that have been planned and then abandoned in the last 30 years. Some of those schemes – such as the Thames Gateway Bridge – were envisaged as huge structures to carry road traffic and also offer separate cycle and pedestrian lanes. Each of those was conceived as a fixed bridge. This would have necessitated structures that offered a minimum of 50 metres clearance for shipping yet were not tall enough to impinge on the flight paths for London City airport. The complication then was for traffic to reach that height would have demanded huge approach ramps. Other proposed and abandoned schemes include the Belvedere Bridge and the Gallions Reach Bridge.

The Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf scheme was less ambitious in that it was proposed to be only for pedestrians and cyclists. Knight Architects and Arcadis worked together on feasibility studies to develop the preferred option to Concept Design, in preparation for the Transport and Works Act planning process.

The two firms developed an iconic design that would allow cruise ships to access the Pool of London and would have resulted in a world-record pedestrian bridge with a vertical lifting span of 180m, to be raised up to 65m above water level. The choice of the vertical lift design removed the need to construct huge approach ramps – so saving huge amounts of expenditure compared with previous proposals.

The estimated cost of the scheme was £400 million.

Despite the significant amounts spent on developing plans for the site the scheme was cancelled in 2019 – following in the pattern of abandoned projects in the area.

A new crossing of the lower Thames eventually became a reality with the opening of the Silvertown Tunnel in April 2025 – over 50 years since the first proposal for a new bridge was raised in the 1970’s. While the cost of various bridge proposals had been estimated at up to £600 million the Silvertown Tunnel cost £2.2 billion.