View from south-east

Welcome to our exhibition. Please feel free to look around and click on the links to reveal more information.

Take an aerial tour around the site

View from east

View from south

View from west

Thomas Bata (Senior) 1876-1932 Meet the men and women behind the vision.

At Iceni Projects we believe that everything we do is ultimately about people – and as a consultancy operating within the built environment, for people read place. A place to live, to work, to play. To grow up; to grow old. A sense of place. Everything in its place. A time and a place. We are fortunate at Iceni to be able to call upon colleagues with a myriad of qualifications, specialisms and backgrounds, from archaeology to transport, operating across the country from four world class cities. However, what links us all is the belief that we can create better places by working collectively and collaboratively. So whether you choose to work with one individual or many, a planner or sustainability consultant, we put a commitment to place at the heart of what we do.

Pleased to meet you... Our name is inspired by the ‘hexagons’ of a honeycomb. Reflecting the work of bees, a hard-working community of builders and creators that contribute to the good of the hive and to the wider world, the bee is the perfect symbol to represent what we do. Our vision is to be a considerate and thoughtful developer, delivering homes to our customers which we can be proud of and they are happy to call Home. Our values place people at the forefront. Consideration of their needs for their properties, in their working/social environments and in the areas they live, forming the basis of all that we do. We hope in our work to create places of emotional value to all for today and generations to come.

The history of East Tilbury is intricately woven with the story of the Bata Shoe Company. Founded in 1894 by Czech industrialist Thomas Bata, it adapted American mass-production methods to traditional shoe making and from modest origins in Zlin, grew during the 1930’s to become one of the world’s largest shoe manufacturers and retailers. The opening of a Bata Shoe Factory in the village of East Tilbury in 1933, along with it’s housing and community buildings, sparked the area’s growth from a small rural settlement into a thriving industrial community. Thomas Bata had the vision and social conscience to provide both work and housing in a garden village setting, having already built factories and towns in many countries around the world by 1932. The buildings and layout at East Tilbury were based on the Bata factories in Zlin, now part of the Czech Republic.