The Royal Docks decline started in the late 1960s / early 1970s with the gradual shift in goods transport to containerisation and much larger ships. The Thames was not deep enough to allow these ships to travel all the way to the London Docks, and the much larger ports specialising in supporting container traffic were being developed in Felixstowe and Southampton.
The last ship to be loaded in the Royal Docks left on the 7th of December 1981, and after that, the docks fell into a state of gradual dereliction.
The Docklands Joint Committee was formed in January 1974, and published the “London Docklands – A 1976 Strategic Plan”, which I have written about in this post. Apart from the development of some local housing, the report did not lead to any significant redevelopment of the London Docks, including the Royal Docks.
This would come in the 1980s, with the founding in 1981 of the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC), an agency set up specifically to drive the redevelopment of the docklands to the east of London, both north and south of the river.
The Royal Docks came within the LDDC’s responsibility, and their many publications provide a record of their intentions for the docks, plans for redevelopment, and how this was being achieved.
One such publication from 1990, as development of the Royal Docks was underway was “London Docklands – Royal Docks”, one of a series of publications covering each of the main dock areas:
The photo on the front shows the renovation of one of the locked channels between the Thames and the docks. I suspect this is the lock between the King George V dock and the river, as it is the only remaining entrance to the docks that remains in place today, much as it did when the docks were fully operational. The photo gives an indication of the sheer scale of the dock entrances.
Unfolding the brochure provides a map of the Royal Docks, with details of:
- Schemes Proposed, Underway or Completed
- Major Development Schemes Being Discussed with Developers
- Sites Expected to Become Available
The map shows the sheer scale of development proposed or planned, and this was just the Royal Docks, although they were by far the largest set of docks in London.
Many development sites were completed as expected, however there were many other sites that took much longer to be developed and ended up with very different use to that planned in 1990. Large areas of the Royal Docks are still be developed, and there are still places of dereliction.
It is a very interesting area to walk. The water area of the docks are slightly smaller than they were when operational, however they are still of a significant scale, and are very impressive as a man made structure.
There are a few buildings and features left from when the docks were operational, and much to see of what the Royal Docks have become.
So starting with today’s post, I am walking the first part of the Royal Victoria Dock. There is so much to see that I have had to split the overall walk into two posts. The map below shows the route covered in today’s post by the red line:
I am starting midway along the southern side of the Royal Victoria Dock, and one of the developments that was not included in the 1990 LDDC brochure is a very impressive pedestrian bridge that crosses the full width of the dock:
The bridge was commissioned by the LDDC and was opened on the 7th of October, 1997 by Glenda Jackson, the actress, who was also an MP and Minister of Transport in London at the time.
There are lifts at each end of the bridge, however these have always been unreliable and were not correctly designed for their exposed location. Challenges with sourcing spares, which often had to be custom made, ever increasing cost and unreliability has resulted in the Royal Docks Management Authority Limited suspending any further maintenance of the lifts, and they did not appear to be working on the day of my visit.
Instead, I took the 80 steps up to the top of the footbridge, and it is well worth the effort for the views.
Although the lifts are not maintained, the rest of the bridge is, and when I walked across there were repairs to the floor of the walkway being undertaken:
A walk across the bridge provides an idea of the sheer scale of these docks. This is a view looking east of just over half of the Royal Victoria Dock, with the old Millennium Mills buildings on the right and the Excel Exhibition Centre on the left:
At the far end of the Royal Victoria Dock are the Royal Albert and King George V docks, and between these is the runway of London City Airport:
On the other side of the bridge, along the south west corner of the dock, there has been considerable residential development with cranes along the edge of the dock providing a reminder of the dock’s heritage (this is area 38 in the LDDC map):
A close up of Millennium Mill – I will be looking at these buildings in detail in part 2 of the walk:
The view looking to the west, the remaining half of the dock from the footbridge:
At the far end of the dock. to the left is the outline of the old entrance between the Royal Victoria Dock and the Thames, just a small part of where the locked entrance reached the main dock area. This was one of the first parts of the old dock infrastructure to be filled in and was not shown in the 1990 LDDC brochure.
To the right is the City Hall building, the latest home of the Mayor of London, London Assembly and the Greater London Authority, after leaving the building on the south of the river by Tower Bridge:
The Excel Exhibition Centre occupies the majority of the north bank of the dock:
Go back to the LDDC brochure, and the map shows that at area 31 there was planned a “Mixed development comprising arena and exhibition centre, housing, business accommodation, leisure, retail and community facilities”.
This mix does generally seem to have been achieved. Using the bridge as a dividing point, to the left of the bridge there is residential, business accommodation, hotels and some retail and leisure, and to the right of the bridge is the Excel arena and exhibition centre.
At the base of the bridge on the north side of the dock is the Sunborn London Yacht Hotel:
When writing this post, I had a quick look at pricing for a room on the yacht, and if you read this on the Sunday of publication, this evening, you could have a room with a dock view for £141 with an additional £35 for breakfast. This goes up to £977 for a suite with the “Ultimate Romantic Getaway” package.
A very different ship, and very different use to when the dock was originally in use.
In front of the main entrance to the exhibition centre is one of my favourite London statues:
The statue shows three dockers. At the rear is a Tally Clerk who is recording in his notebook the goods being moved, on the left is a docker attaching the chains from a crane to the pallet holding the cargo being moved, and on the right is a docker pushing a trolley that was used to move goods between the quayside and transit shed / warehouse.
The figures depicted are based on real dockers, Johnny Ringwood, Patrick Holland, and Mark Tibbs. It was Johnny Ringwood who campaigned for the statue, and the Royal Docks Trust, ExceL Exhibition Centre and a contribution from the Queen Mother raised the £250,000 needed to complete the work by the sculptor Les Johnson.
It was put in place in 2009, and there is a article on the BBC website showing Johnny Ringwood visiting the sculpture earlier this year. The article can be found here.
The importance of the role of the Tally Clerk (the figure in the sculpture with the notebook) can be seen in the following newspaper article from 1951:
“More tally clerks from London docks struck today in sympathy with tally clerks at the Royal group of docks who struck yesterday.
The National Dock Board announced that 913 tally clerks are on strike and 2,770 dockers are unable to work without them.
London’s biggest docks – the Royal group – were almost idle today because the Dock Board engaged a tally clerk who was a member of the union but not of the local branch.
More than 200 tally clerks staged a lightning unofficial strike last night claiming the Dock Board had broken the agreement not to recruit more tally clerks.
More than 30 ships in the docks are held up, including the Eva Peron with the first shipment of Argentine beef since the new agreement was signed.
Warehouses and dock space are choked with export goods waiting to be loaded after food and raw materials are unloaded.”
As well as the figures being of real dockers, the other feature I like requires a close look at the cargo. A bit difficult to see, but the various items on the pallet are marked with the country of origin – Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Australia, and below the name of Hong Kong is Johnny Ringwood’s name:
The main entrance of the Excel Exhibition Centre:
Rather than Excel, I should use the correct name format of ExCeL, which stands for Exhibition Centre London – which does make the use of a second London at the top of the main entrance rather redundant.
The first phase of the building opened in November 2000, with a second phase, which extended the building along the side of the dock, opening in 2010. There is a third phase currently under construction.
In 2008 it was purchased by the Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company, as can be seen on the main entrance.
The centre has hosted numerous large and small events. One that made use of the dock was the London Boat Show where large and small boats and ships were transported to the centre via the river and into the dock. Large ships were often moored alongside the dock when the show was on.
If you have not visited an exhibition or conference at the centre, you are probably aware of it from publicity in 2020 when it was one of the NHS Nightingale Hospitals, set up during the Covid pandemic.
It was equipped with 4,000 temporary beds, however I have seen references that it was only ever used by 54 Covid patients, and after opening in April 2020, it closed in April 2021.
There is an interesting video showing the transformation of Excel into a hospital, supported by the military, here:
There is not that much left from the time when the Royal Docks were operational, apart from the large expanse of water, however, just to the north of the main entrance to Excel, there is Warehouse K:
This impressive run of brick warehouses is Grade II listed and was built between 1850 and 1855, the same time as the Victoria Dock was under construction.
They were original a tobacco warehouse and was the first warehouse in London to be designed specifically for servicing by the railway. in this extract from the 1892 OS map, you can see Warehouse K marked, with the double line of a rail track running in front of the building, with the rail tracks running back to connect to the main lines of the railways supporting the Royal Docks (Map ‘Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland“):
I then headed down to the walkway between exhibition centre and dock, to walk along side the dock to the far end:
There are still plenty of these quayside mooring bollards in place, and they look identical to the bollard in one of my father’s 1953 photos in the last post:
One of the pleasures of writing the blog, is that I learn loads from the comments, and apparently these bollards were also called Dockers’ Mistresses. See this post from Jane’s London for an explanation.
A short distance along, and the pathway was blocked by an event at the Excel, and by construction work on phase 3 towards the far end of the centre. Very frustrating as I could not get to the point where my father had taken a couple of photos looking across the dock to buildings on the far side.
View looking across to the Millennium Mill:
And to the area which appears to have been in the background in my father’s photo of a bollard in the last post:
So the only way to get to the far end was to retreat back to the main entrance of the Excel Centre, and catch the DLR from Custom House to the next stop at Prince Regent.
The bridge at Prince Regent Station provides an interesting view of the network of railway lines that can still be found around the Royal Docks.
In the following photo, the rail track on the right is the DLR leavoing Prince Regent Station and heading to the Royal Albert Station.
The tracks on the left are those of the Elizabeth Line, which are about to enter the Connaught Tunnel, which takes the Elizabeth Line under the docks to Silvertown, where it then enters another tunnel to pass under the Thames. I will cover the Connaught Tunnel later in this post:
Because of construction work for phase 3 of the Excel Centre, there was no direct route from Prince Regent Station to the dockside, so I took a slightly longer route via Royal Albert Way, and then via a footpath towards Connaught Bridge, as I wanted to find the building shown in the following photo:
This is the Fox Connaught which advertises that it is a “traditional pub in London’s Royal Docks” – and there are very few of those left.
The pub was built in the early 1880s, and was called simply the Connaught. The pub’s website claims that “our pub began by serving passengers arriving at the bustling Victoria Docks” however the following is an article from Building News on the 1st of August, 1884 which claims a different first use;
“CONNAUGHT TAVERN, ROYAL ALBERT DOCK – This tavern was the first of a group recently built by the London and St. Katherine’s Dock Company, for the accommodation of workmen employed at the New Royal Albert Dock. On account of the nature of the subsoil – which for about 30 feet under the ground level is composed of peat – a secure foundation was obtained by piling. The walls are faced with red bricks and the roofs covered with tiles. The building was erected by Messrs. Perry and Co., Tredegar Works, Bow. Mr. George Vigers is the architect.”
The above article is interesting on a number of levels. Firstly it describes the nature of the subsoil, with a 30 foot layer of peat below ground level. This was Plaistow Marsh, and it did complicate the construction of the main dock complex.
The article references the Connaught Tavern being built for the accommodation of workmen employed at the new Royal Albert Dock. The number of workmen on the dock would have far exceeded the number that could have been housed in the building, and I would also be surprised if the dock company had built such a quality building for workmen constructing the dock. It may have been built for the more managerial workers, those responsible for the design, engineering and construction of the dock.
When the dock was completed, it probably was used, as the tavern’s website states, for passengers arriving at the docks, as well as a growing local population.
The walls of the pub have some lovely decoration, including this brick relief of a large sailing ship:
Walking from the Connaught Tavern, I am back at the Royal Victoria Dock, looking west along the dock with the exhibition centre on the right:
Looking down the full length of the dock:
It is here, at the eastern end of the Royal Victoria Dock, that I cross the channel between the Victoria and Albert Docks. There are a couple of relics from the old docks to be found:
Including this round brick structure:
The structure is one of two air vents to the Connaught Tunnel, a tunnel that was built to take the railway underneath the docks, at the point where the Victoria and Albert Docks meet.
The Connaught Tunnel is not a bored, deep tunnel, rather a tunnel constructed using the cut and cover technique.
It was built in 1878 to take the Stratford to North Woolwich line under the dock. This railway line was George Parker Bidder’s original railway to North Woolwich, built before the Royal Docks, (see the first post on the Royal Docks), and was running to the eat of the Victoria Dock, and was therefore an obstruction to the construction of the Albert Dock.
The Dock Extension Committee formed to manage the construction of the Albert Dock, looked at a number of options, including rerouting the railway (this was impossible as the combination of the Victoria and Albert Docks formed a continuous run of water between the Thames in the east and in the west), and also a bridge, but the issues with this option were the number of times that the bridge would need to be opened to allow ships to pass, and difficulties getting the railway company to accept this, as well as the compensation they would almost certainly claim.
A tunnel was the only option for rerouting the railway and getting it across the dock complex.
The tunnel consists of a cutting on either end with arched buttresses to provide support for the side walls, then the tunnel which was built using a concrete roof.
The tunnel is not far below the surface as in 1935, the Connaught Passage – the name of the channel of water between Victoria and Albert Docks, was deepened, requiring the central section of the tunnel which passes below the Connaught Passage to be lowered. When this work was carried out, the central brick lined section was replaced with a steel lining.
Air vents were required, as when designed and opened, the railway carried steam trains so a method was needed to vent steam and smoke to the surface.
The railway to North Woolwich closed in 2006, and the tunnel fell into disuse.
The Connaught Tunnel was a perfect route to get beneath the dock and head to a tunnel to cross below the Thames when Crossrail / the Elizabeth Line was planned.
A significant amount of restoration work was required to get the tunnel into a condition that it could be used for the Elizabeth line, but today, if you take the Elizabeth Line to Woolwich, you are travelling along the route of this old tunnel, and crossing underneath the Royal Docks, just below the Connaught Passage.
The following OS map from 1951 shows the Connaught Passage, which is the channel between Victoria Dock on the left and Albert Dock on the right.
The route of the tunnel is highlighted by twin dashed lines and I have highlighted the location of the two brick air vents with red arrows (Map ‘Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland“):
The overall height of the air vent, including the sub-surface structure is 14.69m, from the track bed of the railway to the top of the exterior brickwork of the surface air vent.
There is a good Crossrail video on the Connaught Tunnel, here:
And another Crossrail video showing a journey through the Connaught Tunnel in its new role as a route for the Elizabeth Line, here:
As well as the two vents to the tunnel, there was a brick pump house on the surface, which contained equipment and a shaft down to where a culvert brought in water from the tunnel, where it was then pumped into the Royal Albert Dock.
The pump house has disappeared (this structure, as well as the two air vents are not listed), however there is a new circular structure in (if my memory is right) the same place, so possibly there is still a need to pump water from the tunnel, or possibly Crossrail work waterproofed the tunnel.
I will leave the Elizabeth Line running below the surface, and I will cross over the Connaught Passage, between the Albert and Victoria Docks, via the footbridge, which, as the green light demonstrates, has the capability to open, when a ship needs to pass between the two docks.
Looking under the Connaught Road Bridge to the Royal Albert Dock:
Looking along the full length of the Royal Victoria Dock from the passage into the Royal Albert:
After crossing the Connaught Passage, I find the second air vent, along with these strange metal vents. No idea of their purpose, and whether they are connected to the Elizabeth Line tunnel below:
The Connaught bridge carries the road over the Connaught passage, but I am walking underneath the bridge between the north and south side of the docks:
When looking at the bridge, it is hard to imagine that this large structure is actually a swing bridge, or more accurately, a cable stayed swing bridge.
I found the following rather shaky but remarkable video of the swing bridge in operation:
And by the side of the approach road to the Connaught Bridge, we are also along side London City Airport, and the yellow poles and lighting for the runway approach:
At the southern end of Connaught Road is a roundabout with the statue “Athena”:
Athena was installed in 2012, and at 12 metres high, is the tallest bronze sculpture in the country. It was the work of Nasser Azam, a contemporary artist based in London.
Although there is a road on the roundabout leading into the area to the south of the Royal Victoria Dock, it is fenced off, with no access, as this part of the Royals is still small industrial / derelict land.
It is the areas labeled 40 and 39 in the LDDC map at the top of the post.
My only route to get back to the dock was to walk down to the North Woolwich Road and follow that for a while before returning to the dock.
This is the view to the east whilst walking from the roundabout down to the North Woolwich Road. Part of the Excel exhibition centre can just be seen between the trees on the right, indicating where the dock is located.
How streets end in this area to the south of the Royal Victoria Dock:
A lucky photo – a British Airways flight taking of from London City Airport next to the Royal Albert Dock, with a higher aircraft turning over east London to join the south London approach to Heathrow airport:
Another dead end:
This whole area to the south of the Royal Victoria Dock (39 and 40 in the LDDC map) is scheduled for significant development over the coming years.
The Royal Docks Delivery Plan 2024 – 2029 by the Royal Docks Team, Mayor of London and Newham Council describes this part of the Royal Docks as the 20 hectare site around Pontoon Dock, being developed by the Silvertown Partnership, with a target of over 6,500 new homes.
The plan also includes a new curving bridge across the Royal Victoria Dock. This bridge will be slightly above ground level to provide a much easier pedestrian and cycling route across the dock, if you do not want to take the high level bridge, or the lifts are not working (which appears to be almost all the time). The bridge will connect the new Silvertown development around Pontoon Dock with Custom House DLR station.
The Royal Docks Delivery Plan is a glossy document of almost 90 pages, but what I find rather depressing about the plan is what appears to be an almost complete lack of any inclusion of the industrial heritage of the place – why the docks are here, what they did, why they were important and the people who worked in the docks.
I did a search for the word “heritage” in the document, and there are ten uses of heritage, but they are all rather bland uses such as “We want to unlock the area’s remarkable heritage, landscape, and character to establish a vibrant new waterfront for the city where people can live, work, and thrice for generations to come.”
And in the Mayor of London’s Forward: “With its strong transport links and rich heritage, we’re harnessing the Royal Docks unique landscape and character to create a stunning new waterfront for London – a place where people can live, work and thrive for generations to come.”
But will there be anything to inform all those people living and working in those future generations of the history of the Royal Docks rather than it just being a rather nice waterfront to drink your expensive coffee alongside?
Information panel showing development plans:
Walking along the North Woolwich Road, I came to probably one of the most photographed derelict buildings around the Royal Docks (apart from the Millennium Mill). This is Georges Diner:
Georges Diner has been closed and empty for almost 20 years, the business having left the building in 2005.
The land is owned by the Greater London Authority, and a list of the GLA’s vacant buildings published in 2015 listed the diner with a statement that it “will form part of the Silvertown Quays project”, and ten years later, the building is still waiting.
The diner was well known for serving one of the best fried breakfasts in the area, and was frequented by workers from the surrounding building sites, lorry drivers, utility workers, many attracted not just by the menu on offer, but also by the car / lorry park to the left of the building, which is still there, but fenced off along with the diner.
The diner sits on the land in Silvertown planned for development by 2029 in the Royal Docks Delivery Plan 2024 – 2029, so Georges Diner will probably be another part of the Royal Docks heritage consigned to history within the next few years.
That is the first part of my walk around the Royal Victoria Dock, and I hope it demonstrates that there is so much to explore around this historic dock. The very few buildings that remain from when the dock was operational, the way the dock is being developed, and the potential for future development..
In the second post, I will complete the walk around the Royal Victoria Dock, with a brief diversion to the Thames Barrier, see a unique industrial site, where a new tunnel is being built, and end at the Royal Victoria DLR station.
Great to see your posts on the Victoria and Aibert Dock. For 4 years I lived there and enjoyed many of the sites you have such interesting information about. Thank yoy
It’s been a couple of decades since I last visited, albeit then I was very much ‘into’ the dockland development. But interests and time move. That said, you and others might be interested in my pice on the last dozen years of the docks, during which signifciant effort and a lot of new building tried to stave off decline, including a remarkble brdieg even more daring than yours https://www.chrismrogers.net/copy-of-blank-page
Note, the dockers’ statue, the docker on the right with the sack barrow wears a baling hook on his left shoulder.
The hook was an essential tool for handling cargo.
the Connaught Hotel was thriving with dock workers in the late fifties and early sixties I think that it had licence to open at four in the morning. The dock workers favourite drink at the time was bitter fortified with rum. Opposite the pub was a place where temporary workers were taken on for the day. The traditional dress of the dockers was a big black overcoat and a knotted white silk scarf. (Fading memories of a dock labourer)
There were plans to develop the land around the Millennium Mills into the London Pleasure Gardens, but it fell through. There used to be an entrance gate not far from George’s Diner, but I think that’s long gone.
It’s a fascinating area to walk around, and there always seems to be something new to look at.
Regarding the statement about the Fox Connaught providing accommodation for workmen: rather than its modern meaning of housing, I was wondering if this was just an example of Victorian grandiloquent indirectness, and what it was actually “accommodating” was their simple need of food and drink.
Absolutely fascinating! Thank you!
The first image (cover of the LDDC Royal Docks publication) is indeed the main KGV Lock – the view is looking Westwards but the image has been flipped so that the lefthand side in the image is actually the Northern side (righthand side) in reality.
The image date would be around 1990 as the moveable flood barrier can be seen in the top-left of the photo (white cabin on top of blue metal structure).
Of the 3 Eastern Locks in to the Royal Group of Docks the Northern most does still exist but has been reduced in size to cater for smaller yachts and pleasure boats linked to the (temporarily) closed Marina that occupied part of Albert Basin and uses the Western end of the now mostly infilled central Lock as a boat access ramp in to the water but much of the Lock infrastructure remains visible.
Absolutely fascinating article; thank you for the detailed work you have put into it.
Wonderful article and thank you.
My first full time employment was in the Royal Group of Docks after leaving college in November 1968. I was employed by the Corporation of London, now known as the City of London Corporation as a technical assistant (meat) to walk the docks , visiting ships discharging imported cargoes of meat and meat products for product damage e.g. fridge breakdown or pest damage etc. etc. There was a meat inspection facility at ‘Z’ shed which was at the far western end of the Victoria Dock6 block cold store . I also inspected meat at No. 6 block cold store in the Royal Albert opposite 31/33 berths alongside two meat inspectors. Loved the Job and many memories.