Flood Risk Assessment in Wapping

A flood risk assessment in Wapping begins at the river wall. The tidal Thames runs along the whole southern edge of the district, from St Katharine Docks past Wapping High Street to Shadwell Basin, and about two-thirds of the land sits in Flood Zone 3 on the Environment Agency's planning map. Most of the rest is Flood Zone 1: the raised ground of the old London Dock and Tobacco Dock beside The Highway. We prepare flood risk assessments in Wapping for planning applications, property purchase, mortgages and insurance, along with sequential and exception tests and surface water drainage strategies.

On this page Wapping means the St Katharine's and Wapping ward of Tower Hamlets, almost all of it in the E1W postcode district. It runs from the Tower of London and St Katharine Docks past the Hermitage, along Wapping High Street and Wapping Wall, and inland over London Dock and Tobacco Dock to Shadwell Basin and King Edward Memorial Park. Shadwell north of The Highway, and Limehouse beyond it, fall outside the outline.

Tower Hamlets' flood study models five breaches in the river wall on this stretch alone, at Tower Bridge Wharf, Watsons Wharf, St Johns and Phoenix Wharf, Riverside Gardens and Pelican Wharf. For 2100 it shades most of the riverside behind them as a danger to most people, and parts as a danger to all.

To ask about a site, call one of our flood risk consultants on 01293 214444 or email enquiries@unda.co.uk.

Which parts of Wapping are in Flood Zone 3?

The riverside and the dock basins, and most of the streets that join them. Our reading of the Environment Agency's Flood Map for Planning data on 20 October 2026 puts about 66% of the ward in Flood Zone 3, 3% in Flood Zone 2 and 31% in Flood Zone 1. Those zones show the land as if the Thames Barrier and the river wall were not there, which is how planning reads them.

The government's long-term flood risk service does allow for the defences, so many of the same addresses come out as low or very low risk there, and postcode websites built on that data repeat the result. Both readings are correct for their purpose. A lender or insurer looks at the defended picture; a planning officer starts from the zone. Our notes on flood zones 1, 2 and 3 and what the Flood Map for Planning shows explain the difference.

Look up a Wapping or St Katharine's postcode

Type a postcode into the map below to screen an address for its flood zone and surface water risk, or use our full flood risk map for any site in England. The coral line traces the St Katharine's and Wapping ward.

Five modelled breaches on two kilometres of river wall

The Thames Barrier and the river walls protect Tower Hamlets to about a 1-in-1,000-year standard, according to the borough's 2017 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment, so the risk to Wapping is a residual one: the wall being overtopped, or failing. For that study the Environment Agency's 2014 model opened a 20 m gap in the wall at fifteen points in the borough during an extreme tide, and five of them are on the Wapping and St Katharine's frontage.

• Where the gaps were opened. Tower Bridge Wharf by St Katharine Docks, Watsons Wharf, St Johns and Phoenix Wharf and Riverside Gardens along Wapping High Street, and Pelican Wharf on Wapping Wall. Each was run for present-day, 2065 and 2100 tide levels.
• How far the water spreads. The breach maps fill a band from the Tower moat and St Katharine Docks east to Shadwell Basin. They stop short of the raised London Dock land, which is why the site profile for London Dock steers homes north.
• Floors go above the 2100 breach level. The study asks for homes in the tidal flood zone to have their floor levels above the anticipated 2100 breach level, and its London Dock profile adds 300 mm on top with a dry route out towards Flood Zone 1. Our article on residual flood risk covers how breach depths and hazard are used, and our explainer on AOD covers the levels themselves.
• The wall is due to go up. Wapping is the eastern end of the Thames Estuary 2100 London City policy unit, which runs along the north bank through Westminster and the City and falls under policy P5: defences upgraded for sea level rise, with owners adapting and raising them by 2050. The SFRA expects walls in the borough to rise by up to 0.5 m by 2065 and a further 0.5 m by 2100.
• Room has to be left beside it. Policy D.ES4 sets new development back at least 16 m from the tidal Thames unless there are significant constraints, so that the wall can be maintained and raised. On a narrow wharf plot that line can decide the footprint before any flood level is worked out.

Floods on record in Wapping, from 1928 to the council's latest report

One tidal flood is recorded inside the ward. Since then the defences have held, and the borough's records of rain and sewer flooding are thin, which the council's own flood study warns should not be read as low risk.

1. 6 to 7 January 1928. The Thames overtopped its defences across central London. The Environment Agency's recorded flood outlines show water in the Tower moat and over about 1.5 hectares of riverside off Wapping High Street, west of Wapping station. Fourteen people died across London.
2. 31 January to 1 February 1953. The North Sea surge breached defences down the estuary. Within Tower Hamlets the SFRA places the flooding mainly where the Lea meets the Thames, and no outline is recorded for Wapping. Our article on the 1953 flood tells the wider story.
3. 1982. The Thames Barrier came into use downstream in east London. It had closed 221 times against floods by November 2025.
4. August 2014. When the SFRA was written, the council's incident log held two surface water flooding reports for the whole borough, both from this month.
5. January 2024. Flooding at Fish Island, in the north of the borough, became the event the council chose to investigate formally. It is not in Wapping, but the council's October 2025 report to scrutiny cites it as an example of flooding from several sources at once.

Today's tide can be followed at the Environment Agency's Tower Pier gauge, on the river at the western end of the outline, and on our live river levels map, which shows gauges and warnings around London.

What the docks and basins mean for a Wapping site

Wapping still has three pieces of the old dock system: St Katharine Docks, Hermitage Basin and Shadwell Basin, with the Ornamental Canal running east towards Shadwell Basin across the infilled London Dock.

• They connect to the tide. The SFRA lists St Katharine Docks and Shadwell Basin among the borough's docks joined to the Thames by lock gates, rates the risk from them as very low for as long as they are actively managed, and expects the St Katharine Docks gates to need raising as the river rises.
• They store water in a breach. The study notes that docks usually sit about a metre below their walls and would take in breach water. Infilling one pushes that water onto the land around it.
• The council protects them. Part 5 of policy D.ES4 protects existing water spaces and flood storage and asks schemes to add capacity where they can, so building over a basin, or decking out across one, starts from a policy objection.
• They can take clean runoff. The SFRA and the Greater London Authority's 2026 regional flood study both favour sending clean rainwater straight to docks or tidal water, which keeps it out of the combined sewer. A site beside a basin should check this route with the dock owner early.

Rain, sewers and groundwater on the Wapping riverside

Away from the wall, the sources to check are surface water, the combined sewers and groundwater that rises and falls with the tide. Wapping lies outside the four critical drainage areas the borough mapped, all of them on the Isle of Dogs and around Poplar, but that does not clear an individual plot.

Basements are the weak point for all three. The Mayor's warning about flash flooding in London basements and the 2025 to 2030 London Surface Water Strategy both apply to lower-ground flats in converted warehouses.

Tower Hamlets policy that a flood risk assessment in Wapping must answer

Tower Hamlets Council is both the planning authority and the Lead Local Flood Authority for Wapping. Its Local Plan 2031, adopted on 15 January 2020, sets flood risk in policy D.ES4 and drainage in policy D.ES5. National policy sits in chapter 18 of the August 2026 NPPF, where policy F4 sets when an assessment is needed, F5 and F6 the sequential and exception tests, and F8 the 2025 national standards for sustainable drainage.

• D.ES4 Flood risk. An assessment for any site in Flood Zone 2 or 3, sites over a hectare in Flood Zone 1, and land at risk from other sources in the SFRA. It has to cover tidal breach, climate change, and safe access and escape, with the most vulnerable uses on the lowest-risk part of the site.
• D.ES5 Sustainable drainage. Reuse water and manage it close to source. Wapping lies outside the critical drainage areas, so schemes here should aim for greenfield runoff, with at least 50% attenuation of peak runoff compared with the site before redevelopment. Major schemes submit a drainage strategy, which policy F8 expects to follow the 2025 national standards for sustainable drainage.
• The 2017 SFRA. The Level 1 and Level 2 study by AECOM, finalised in 2017, holds the breach mapping and site profiles. The new plan's evidence list refers to a 2024 SFRA, but the version published on the council's website is the 2017 study.
• The plan that will replace it. The Local Plan 2038 went to the Secretary of State on 16 February 2026. Its July 2026 hearings were postponed after a ministerial direction concerning the Tower of London World Heritage Site, which lies inside this outline, and the examination page gave no new dates in September. Until it is adopted, D.ES4 and D.ES5 apply.
• The flood strategy. The council's flood risk management pages still carry its 2017 local flood risk management strategy. A report to scrutiny in October 2025 described a new draft as complete, with publication expected in December 2025 after consultation.
• London-wide rules. The London Plan 2021 applies policies SI 12 on flood risk and SI 13 on sustainable drainage, with its six-step drainage hierarchy. Major schemes also send the London Sustainable Drainage Proforma, explained in our note on the SuDS proforma.

Which schemes need a flood risk assessment in Wapping, on either side of Pennington Street?

For almost any planning application south of Pennington Street, yes, because that land is in Flood Zone 2 or 3. On the London Dock land the trigger is the size of the site or a risk from another source. The common Wapping cases fall like this.

Housing in Flood Zone 3 also brings in the sequential test, which asks whether a lower-risk site could take the scheme. The London Dock profile shows the borough applying it inside a single site as well, by placing homes on the Flood Zone 1 part first.

Reports we write for Wapping's wharves, basins and the London Dock land

The right report depends on which side of Pennington Street a site sits and who needs it. Our consultants are chartered, Unda is a CIWEM Business Partner, and a senior consultant checks and signs each report before it goes to the council or the client.

• Planning applications on the defended riverside. New homes and conversions south of Pennington Street need a flood risk assessment for planning that deals with the 2100 breach level, the 16 m setback and safe access.
• Tide, rain and the water table together. A flood risk assessment for a Wapping plot weighs the breach evidence against surface water, the combined sewer and tidal groundwater.
• Before exchange on a riverside flat. Warehouse flats on Wapping High Street and Wapping Wall draw questions from lenders that a flood risk survey for property purchase settles.
• Housing in Flood Zone 3. New homes on the riverside and around the basins face the sequential and exception test, and the council looks for both on residential schemes there.
• Runoff from new building. Major schemes in Wapping submit a drainage strategy to Tower Hamlets, and outside a critical drainage area policy D.ES5 sets a 50% cut in peak runoff as the minimum.
• Little room to soak water away. With the water table close to the surface near the river, a surface water drainage strategy here usually relies on blue or green roofs, storage and a controlled outfall.
• After permission is granted. Where Tower Hamlets attaches a drainage condition, we prepare the evidence for the discharge of drainage conditions.
• Between the modelled breaches. A plot that none of the five Wapping breach points represents may need flood modelling to set its own 2100 breach depth.
• Getting people out, or up. The SFRA asks for escape routes and an emergency response for a breach, which a flood warning and evacuation plan sets out against the Limehouse Basin to Blackfriars Bridge warning area.
• Basements on the floodplain. Where groundwater moves with the Thames 1 to 3 m below ground, deep foundations and basements in Wapping justify a groundwater flood risk assessment.
• Cover for riverside homes. Flats in Flood Zone 3 between St Katharine Docks and Shadwell Basin can face insurance questions, and a flood risk assessment for insurance describes the building itself.
• Buying wharf buildings or development land. Commercial buyers of Wapping wharves and dockside units use flood risk due diligence to price the breach and setback constraints before a deal.
• Businesses around the docks. Offices, restaurants and the marina at St Katharine Docks sit in Flood Zone 3, where a business continuity flood assessment helps an occupier plan for a breach or a surcharged sewer.
• New commercial space. London Dock was approved with more than 20,000 m² of commercial space, and a BREEAM flood risk assessment supports the Pol 03 credits on schemes like it.

Warnings, reporting lines and the bodies behind the Wapping river wall

Ring 999 at once if water threatens anyone's safety, and 105 if a flood takes out the power. The Environment Agency's flood warning area Tidal Thames from the Limehouse Basin to Blackfriars Bridge names Shadwell, Wapping and St Katharine's Dock, and the wider Tower Hamlets and City alert area covers the same riverside.

Across the river, Bermondsey faces Wapping, and the Thames Tunnel links Wapping to Rotherhithe. Downstream, the Isle of Dogs takes the next bend in the same borough. The river has its own River Thames page, and every place we cover is on our areas page.

Wapping flooding: what buyers, leaseholders and developers ask

Unda Consulting Limited writes flood risk assessments, sequential and exception tests and drainage strategies for flats, warehouses, dockside businesses and development land between St Katharine Docks and Shadwell Basin. Call 01293 214444 or email enquiries@unda.co.uk about a Wapping, Hermitage or London Dock site.