Lea Bridge was for more than a millennium the marshy boundary area  between London and Essex. Surviving heritage assets are not, though, always obvious. Traces of its ancient morphology drew out of elements of the past to inform Haworth Tompkins’ strategy for transforming today’s fragmentary industrial zone. Other elements include interesting interwar industrial architecture (previously unidentified assets). Authentic Futures teased out the subtle elements that have been deployed to ensure that a radical redevelopment or repurposing maintains a continuity with the past, enriching the future in the process.