The London Docks

The London Docks were started in 1802 and opened in 1805 to the east of St Katherine's by the Tower, and were bounded by Nightingale Lane in the west, New Gravel Lane in the east, Pennington St which ran parallel with Ratcliffe Highway in the north and Wapping St, next to the river in the south.

Naturally the watermen, lightermen, carmen, porters, warehouse and wharf owners objected to the building of the docks. Their trade was being restricted for the river itself held few quays at which a ship could be unloaded.

Valuations were made of the land to be bought for the dock building and many times, as today, many disputes arose as to the value of the property. For the building of the London Docks Alexander Urquhart of King and Queen Gardens valued his property at £1667.10s but the clerk of valuations, Benjamin Briggs, disagreed and valued it at £710. G & I Oliver valued their property at 80 and 301 Wapping Street at £3170 but once more the clerk disagreed with his valuation of £812.

The soil removed in excavating the docks was taken up river by barge to Millbank and used to fill up the reservoirs of the Chelsea Waterworks Company. William Cubitt and others then built the houses on this area which we now call Pimlico.

Upon completion in 1804 Joseph Boulderson was appointed as superintendent of the dock and Captain Francis Walton, dockmaster.

Along Thomas More Street (which runs between St Katherine's Dock and London Western Dock and was named after Henry VIII's great Lord Chancellor) a 20 foot high wall were built to discourage theft.

The first and largest Dock, was opened January 30 1805 and the London Docks cost £4, 000, 000 and as a whole covered 90 acres of which 341/2 were water and 491/4acres of floor in warehouses and sheds and 20 acres of vault. There were 20 warehouses with 259 floors in them, 18 sheds, 17 vaults and 6 quays with three entrances from the Thames: Hermitage which was 40 foot in width, Wapping, 40 feet in width and Shadwell, 45 feet in width. The engineer was John Rennie (1761-1821) and the architect, Asher Alexander who also designed Dartmoor Gaol.

The Eastern Basin was built a little further to the east. The Western Dock comprised 20 acres and the Eastern 7 acres with the Wapping Basin covering 3 acres.

'The effect upon the expansion of the neighboring districts was, to borrow a phrase, 'electric'. A vast fire, in 1794, had burnt down much of Ratcliffe, Shadwell and Stepney. It was on ground still half covered with the tents supplied by the Government's military stores at the Tower of London that the new slums of Stepney, Shadwell and Ratcliffe started to rise alongside the old.'

'There were charming 'developments' built in Stepney and other riverside areas in the early part of the 19th century. Such examples of miniature town-planning as Albert Gardens and Arbour Square, both lying off Commercial Road, and both regular three and four sided squares of the early 19th century houses show the more gracious side of the expansion of East London which followed the building of the docks. There was no public transport in those days, save on the river, and the management had to live near its work. In the houses of Albert Gardens, Arbour Square and Bow Road, the clerks and managers lived comfortably indeed. (Extracted from London Growing - The development of the Metropolis by Michael Hamson, Hutchindon, page 185.)

In 1858 two new locks were made, 60 feet wide and a new basin, 780 feet by 450 feet. The engineer was Rendall. The wall around the Docks cost £65, 000.

The walled in range of dock possessed water-room for 302 sailing vessels, exclusive of lighters.

The warehouse-room held 220, 000 tons of goods and the vault-room held 60, 000 pipes of wine which belonged to the Wine Merchants of London. (Pipe: cask of wine containing 2 hogsheads or 105 gallons.) Port was usually kept in pipes and sherry in hogsheads. On 30 June 1849 the Dock contained 14783 pipes of port, 13107 hogsheads of sherry, 64 pipes of French wine, 796 pipes of Cape wine, 7607 cases of wine containing 19140 dozen, 10113 hogsheads of brandy and 3642 pipes of rum.

The tobacco warehouse covered 5 acres and were rented by the Government at £14, 000 a year and contained about 24, 000 hogsheads, averaging 1200 lb each, and equal to 30, 000 tons of general merchandise. Passages and alleyways, each several hundred feet long, were bordered on both sides by close and compact ranges of hogsheads, with here and there a small space for the counting- house of the officers of customs under whose inspection all the arrangements were conducted. Near the north-east corner of the warehouses was a door inscribed 'To the Kiln' where damaged tobacco was burnt, the long chimney of which was referred to as 'the Queen's Pipe'.

In 1860 1032 ships (measuring 424, 338 tons) entered the Docks. Six weeks were allowed for unloading and beyond that period the charge was one farthing per ton in the first two weeks and a halfpenny per ton afterwards. In a single day as many as 3000 labourers might be employed.

The Docks were managed by a Court of Directors who sat at the London Dock House in New-Bank buildings.

The bonded warehouses were to contain tobacco and liquor and it became famous for its vaulted and ventilated cellars. High walls again protected it from theft.

London Docks 1831

The monopoly held by the London Docks meant that for twenty one years all vessels laden with tobacco, rice, wine and brandy, except the West and East Indiamen were to use the London Dock. The penalty for infringements was either forfeiting of the ship or a fine.

The rules which existed at the W.I. Docks regarding the control of who could come and go were more relaxed at the London Docks.

By the 1930's the London Docks were being used for dried and fresh fruit, wines, brandy, olive oil, marble. spices, India rubber, ivory, bark, iodine, quicksilver, wool, skins and rattans.