Martha Grekos was interviewed by Estates Gazette on her two new roles: as Chair of the Royal Docks Management Authority and Commissioner for the Mayor of London for the London Climate and Sustainability Commission.

‘Easy doesn’t change cities’

Barrister Martha Grekos discusses the drive to bring about positive change in her new roles overseeing London’s “blue and green”

Many overstate their passion for a profession when vying for their first jobs, perhaps waxing lyrical about having always dreamed of scrubbing dishes in pub kitchens. But when Martha Grekos says, “I certainly knew at the age of 11 – sad but true – I wanted to be a barrister”, you can tell she means it.

Clutching a cup of coffee in City Hall’s cafe overlooking the Royal Docks, Grekos said it all started with a cuppa - albeit an empty one. “I thought I wanted to be a criminal barrister when I was watching documentaries on TV, but then I realised that was not for me,” she said. “I still wanted to be a barrister and study law, because I have a deep belief in fairness and justice, but back then there wasn’t an area of law that grabbed me.

“And then it all started to change when I began to be exposed to environmental issues. I remember that when I was in Athens for the Olympics in 2004, I bought this mug and it says, in Greek, ‘the environment is me’. I still have that mug because that’s what I was really passionate about. The environment, the blue and the green you see around us."

Those twin passions of law and the environment can be traced through Grekos’ career – right up to her most recent appointments. She has been named as the new chair of the Royal Docks Management Authority, the organisation responsible for London’s 250 acres of dock water and its emerging future as an economic and cultural centre.

Alongside it, she has been appointed by the mayor of London as commissioner on the London Climate and Sustainability Commission, advising on the capital’s climate resilience and chairing the working group on housing and planning, which will be inputting into the draft London Plan.

Despite a 25-year career as a planning and environmental lawyer navigating the mechanics of development, regeneration and the public realm, Grekos said these are the roles, together with chairing the public realm transformation project on Fleet Street in the Square Mile, which her unnervingly prescient 11-year old self would be proudest of. “I feel I’m finally doing that role the 11-year-old had in her heart and in her mind... that love for the environment, the green and the blue,” she said.

Making of a placemaker

Grekos’ work in practice spanned some of London’s most recognisable projects.

“I’ve worked on some of the biggest regeneration projects in London and the country. The Walkie- Talkie is one of mine, as is Centre Point and the regeneration of Elephant & Castle, as well as the masterplan at Barking Riverside. My favourite one in the Square Mile is London Wall Place. I have worked on HS2 for the government, the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant for EdF Energy, and the Bank Station redevelopment for TfL.”

But, she said, it was never about prestige. “I always volunteer, I wasn’t really into law for the money, it was more about the passion for my work... Money’s never been of interest to me. I always strive to do what is best for my client or my local community.”

That instinct would eventually propel her out of the private sector and into civic life – most notably during the pandemic. Grekos was elected as a City of London councillor for the Castle Baynard ward in 2022, and then as alderwoman in 2023.

During the Covid pandemic, Grekos watched Fleet Street, an area she had worked in for most of her professional life, fall silent.  “It felt like tumbleweed rolling down Fleet Street,” she said. “I’m the sort of person that needs to be doing something to make a change. I cannot sit back and wait for change to happen.”

She volunteered with the Fleet Street Quarter Business Improvement District, eventually chairing its planning and environmental group, and leading months of on-the-ground engagement on the public realm vision.

Her manifesto was built on what she called “good green growth”. It has since evolved into the Transforming Fleet Street initiative: a major public realm programme, now fully funded with £9m from the Community Infrastructure Levy Neighbourhood Fund and moving into the delivery phase.

Within the City of London Corporation she has become known for ruffling feathers and challenging convention. “I’ve got an informal title as being the leader of the modernists, the ones that want to reform the Corporation,” she said. “When you decide not to conform... you are, in effect, swimming the other way to most of the fish.”

Is it lonely? She shakes her head. “I don’t see it as lonely, I see it as brave. It’s just that someone has to step forward and take the lead to bring about change. Especially if they truly love their city.”

East London’s water frontier

Grekos’ new role at the Royal Docks is, in many ways, a homecoming. Grekos lives across the water and has long been woven into the Docklands community. 

“I’ve been involved in different guises around here,” she said. “I’ve rowed on the Royal Albert Dock, I’ve volunteered in the Good Hotel for Crisis At Christmas, I was a St John’s Ambulance Covid vaccination programme volunteer at the Excel Centre when it was turned into the NHS Nightingale Hospital, and I’ve worked on some of the regeneration schemes there as a planning lawyer. So when this role came up... I thought, there could be nothing better on this planet.”

RoDMA is preparing for a fundamental shift in its identity as it moves from maintenance authority to “developer on water”, with a new name, website and public-facing strategy in the works. Grekos’ early task is to articulate what that future looks like. “Nothing like this has happened before in England,” she said. “People think about water as something you walk around, not something you get in or on when it comes to boosting the sense of a place.”

RoDMA’s ambitions would reshape the Royal Docks area, which covers the Royal Victoria, Royal Albert and King George V docks. It could initially expand open-water swimming and watersports facilities, while also adding new cultural and flora and fauna installations.

Eventually, she said, they could even look at floating homes and renewable energy projects further east.

“We want to create pockets, little hotspots of interesting things, that activate and connect a place,” she said. “At the moment, people come across the cable car, take a photo and leave. I don’t want them to do that. I want them to come back again, and bring their friends and family. To dwell and explore, boosting the area economically and socially. I want to create a community; an area that appeals to business workers, residents and visitors alike.”

Balancing these ambitions with operational realities, such as the Excel Centre’s events, City Airport’s safeguarding zones, City Hall’s security demands and the docks’ working functions, is where Grekos’ legal and planning background becomes essential.

“You have to stand back and be independent as a chair,” she said. “Ask: what is good for the organisation as a whole, for the benefit of the community now and the future one?”

She intends to emphasise that from the get-go. “Most importantly, it’s about building the relationship with stakeholders,” she said. That has meant coffees with board members, touring the docks at 4.30am with the RoDMA engineers, cycling and walking their edges, meeting city leaders and local residents. “You get a better understanding of this area – its constraints, its opportunities – when you talk to people and you are on the ground.”

Politics of climate and community

Grekos’ parallel appointment to the London Climate and Sustainability Commission amplifies her influence across the capital’s planning agenda. She will lead the group advising on housing and planning for the new London Plan, with a particular focus on nature-based solutions.

“The green and the economic agenda can be taken forward together,” she said. “They’re not incompatible.”

She is realistic, too, about the political backdrop, which shows that convictions can become clouded amid climate denialism and shifting electoral winds. She said the Commission is already exploring how to better communicate across that divide.

“Nature touches on everything,” she said. “So our language needs to change. We need to talk about the economic, social and environmental benefits of nature rather than about climate change or climate reasons.”

If people are able to spend time in a place and connect with nature through it, whether that is while walking, swimming or even just sitting on the grass and having a picnic, they are more attracted to it, according to Grekos.

“The more people are attracted to it, the value of it goes up, better quality shops come into the area, public realm improves, flowering, pollination – all of that builds into the biodiversity and coexistence of the ecosystem... people come in to spend time and money in the area... Placemaking happens,” she added. “Nature adds value – social, environmental, economic – and, of course, contributes to climate resilience overall.”

As a result, she said, “nature seems to be a way you can align a lot of people regardless of their political view... whether you’re left- or right-leaning, nature’s great. It’s very important for our mental health, social [wellbeing] and our economy”.

Her philosophy remains consistent: listen, facilitate, stand independent of vested interests and focus on what’s good for London. “I always think about that rather than me, the self,” she said. “The 'Martha bit’ only comes afterwards.

“I don’t aspire to be a sheriff or lord mayor in the City of London Corporation... I don’t want a damehood. I just want to see that what I do now hands-on is the legacy I leave behind that’s good for London.”

The work ahead – across the city, the Royal Docks and the climate agenda – is enormous. But she has learned to trust the instinct that has guided her from 11-year-old geography student to one of London’s most consequential placemakers.

“I like things that are challenging,” Grekos said. “Easy doesn’t change cities.”

Original interview by Estates Gazette