Tag Archives: Royal Docks

Royal Victoria Dock in 2024 – Part 2

One ticket has just become available for my walk this Saturday, the 2nd of November, exploring the Lost Street of the Barbican. Click here for details and booking.

In today’s post, I am continuing my walk around the Royal Victoria Dock, completing the second half of the walk, along with a couple of short diversions to look at how the area around the dock along with Silvertown has, and continues to be, redeveloped.

The following map shows the route of today’s post, starting at the circle at lower right, which was where I ended the walk in the previous post, and ending at Royal Victoria DLR station at upper left  (© OpenStreetMap contributors):

And this was my first diversion away from the dock, with a walk down to see the Thames Barrier Park:

Thames Barrier Park was completed, and opened in November 2000. Whilst it is a “normal” park, consisting of open green space, trees etc. there is one really unique feature in the park, which can be seen in the map on the poster.

This is a slightly angled, 130 foot long sunken garden, which has parallel lines of planting and hedges, which have been trimmed to give the impression of a series of waves running along the length of the garden.

The following view is looking along the sunken garden from the north, down to the Thames Barrier, which can just be seen in the distance:

I did wonder if the sunken garden occupied the space of a dock, however after checking OS maps of the area, there was no dock covering the length of the garden, although there was a small dock that covered part of the lower section of the sunken garden, towards the river, so whilst this may have been the inspiration for the sunken garden, the large area we see today was down to the construction of the park.

The site was occupied by chemical works (as was so much of the Silvertown riverside), with petrochemical and acid products being processed and manufactured. So great was the contamination of the soil, that a six foot layer of crushed concrete was placed on top of the original ground level to protect the new topsoil.

Whilst I can see that this applied to the area of the park surrounding the sunken garden, as this part of the park is slightly raised, the land of the sunken garden must have been specially treated.

Looking north along the sunken garden, where a DLR train can be seen entering the Pontoon Dock station:

The park is named after the Thames Barrier, and there is a good view of the barrier from the southern end of the park:

The following photo is looking to the east along the river, showing the gently sloping foreshore along this part of the river, along with new apartment buildings and industrial sites on the far side of the river:

Walking back up to North Woolwich Road, and we can see one of the defining industrial features of the area, the Grade II listed Grain Silo D:

Grain Silo D was built in the early 1920s alongside one of the finger channels in Pontoon Dock, off the south side of the Royal Victoria Dock.

The silo was used to extract and store grain from ships moored in the channel alongside, using either a bucket conveyor or by a suction elevator. Grain in the silo would be transported onwards, either by barge, or by the rail network that crossed the area between the mills to the south of the Royal Victoria Dock, and the wider rail network.

Silo D was built on the site of an original silo which was damaged in the Silvertown explosion of January 1917 (the subject of a future post). The following 1921 photo from Britain from Above shows Silo D under final construction to lower left, with the original silos A, B, and C surrounding the new silo (Image Source: EPW006144 ENGLAND (1921). Industrial buildings and wharfage, Silvertown, 1921):

In the above photo, you can see the rail tracks to the left of the silos, with a shed covering part of the track next to each silo. Grain would have been transported by conveyor belt from the silos to the sheds, where is was loaded onto the goods wagons on the rail network, for processing in the nearby Millennium Mills.

Silo D is Grade II listed, and will be retained within the extensive redevelopment which is taking place around Pontoon Dock. It will have its own “Quarter” – the Silo D Quarter, where the building will sit alongside the retained dock water, but surrounded by new developments.

You can see an image of the future location of Silo D by scrolling down a short distance on the Lendlease Silvertown website, by clicking here.

.Another “Quarter” in the redevelopment of the area around Pontoon Dock is the Mills Quarter, which will be based around the old Millennium Mills. At the top of the Lendlease Silvertown website page accessed via the above link, is an image of the rear of the Millennium Mills buildings, once development of the area is complete.

The rear of the building as seen in 2024:

The map at the top of the page on the Lendlease Silvertown website shows just how large the redevelopment is, along the south east section of the Royal Victoria Dock.

Whilst redevelopment of the area that has been derelict for so long is much needed, as are the homes that will be built, the issue I have is the identikit design of the buildings, very similar to almost all other areas of London also undergoing development.

Also, the way (particularly with Silo D), new buildings appear to crowd around those that remain from the working docks.

Having said that, this type of identical housing blocks is a similar approach to the streets of terrace housing that covered so much of the land over which London expanded during the 19th and early decades of the 20th centuries.

There is very little left of pre-war housing around Silvertown. One stretch is along Mill Road just to the west of Silo D, where there is a row of houses on the eastern side of the street, although only the first ten are pre-war, the rest of the street (from just past the lamp post along the street) dates from the late 1950s / early 1960:

In the above photo, a chimney can be seen at the end of Mill Road, and walking to the northern end of the street, close to the Royal Victoria Dock, we can see the chimney in the centre of a roundabout:

I will show the original surroundings of the chimney later in the post as it is a remarkable survivor, however at the end of Mill Road, we can see the western side of the Millennium Mills complex:

Along with the rear of Silo D:

And by the roundabout with the chimney at the centre, if we look at one of the turn offs from the roundabout, which ends abruptly at a gate, we can see the Millennium Mills buildings:

The Millennium Mills we see today are not the original buildings bearing the name.

The Royal Victoria Dock was long a centre for grain storage and flour milling, and the company William Vernon & Sons built the first Millennium Mills in 1905 to mill flour.

Vernon’s produced flour using the brand name “Millennium Flour”, and they won awards and gained a considerable market, based on advertising which featured the quality of their flour, and the expertise that went into their milling process, for example, from the Evening News on Saturday the 13th of February 1909:

“Science controls the ‘Millennium’ Mills. It dictates the operations resulting in ‘Millennium’ Flour, which the good housewife knows makes the best-flavoured and most nutritious bread on the market. Say ‘MILLENNIUM’ to Baker – always.”

And from the Evening News on Friday the 23rd of April 1909:

“Millennium Flour cannot be surpassed. All that science can do has been done at ‘Millennium’ Mills to ensure the production of perfect flour. only the highest grade wheat is used, and absolute cleanliness in every process is insisted upon. Say ‘Millennium’ to Baker – always.”

Vernon’s milling and cleanliness was such that they also advertised that their flour was the purest white on the market.

As well as alongside the Royal Victoria Dock in London, Vernon’s also had a similar mill in Liverpool, another port where imported grain was received. In 1910 they were advertising “Remarkable Facts” about the capacity of their two mills, with:

“The daily capacity of the Millennium Mills is equal to an output of 9,600 bags of 140 lbs. each; i.e. about 3,000,000 per annum – sufficient to supply the seven million people of London with bread for two months and a half.

The loading out capacity into barges or lighters at each mill is 3,000 bags per hour. the Granary departments have a storage capacity of 250,000 sacks of wheat.”

The original Millennium Mills buildings were damaged in the Silvertown explosion, with the mill back in full operation in 1920 as William Vernon & Sons were advertising an auction of all the surplus material left over from the rebuilding process, which included 30,000 stock bricks, 3 Tons of bolts, ladders, barrows, tools etc.

In the same year, William Vernon & Sons amalgamated with Spillers Ltd, another business who started as flour millers in Bridgewater, Somerset in 1829, (although it looks more like a take over by Spillers).

Throughout the 1920s, the business was expanding rapidly, and in the following decades, the buildings alongside the Royal Victoria Dock were rebuilt. Luckily, the buildings have their year of construction at the very top, so going back to the photo above, the smaller building on the right dates from 1933:

And the larger building on the left dates from 1954, which was part of the post war rebuild of the site following bomb damage during the Second World War:

Whilst the name of William Vernon, the company that originally started milling at the Royal Victoria Dock has disappeared, the brand name of their flour “Millennium” can still be seen on the mill building today, alongside the name of the company that took them over – “Spillers”:

The end came n 1981 with the closure of the Royal Docks, although the mill had been in decline for some years before.

And since closure it has remained empty and derelict, but has been been used in numerous films, TV programmes, music videos and, in the case of Jean-Michel Jarre’s Destination Docklands, the building was painted white and used as a backdrop for the concert.

Music videos that have included the mill, along with other views of the docks include Ask by the Smiths:

And Take Back the City by Snow Patrol:

Along with Fluorescent Adolescent by the Artic Monkeys:

There are many others.

From the roundabout, there is a view of the chimney and the Millennium Mills:

And using one of the photos from Britain from Above, it is possible to locate where the chimney was, in relation to the rest of the buildings that were on the site, both remaining and demolished (Image source: https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/EAW035762)

The arrows point to the following:

  • The red arrow is pointing to the chimney that now stands alone at the centre of a small roundabout
  • The oranage arrow is pointing to the 1933 building that can be seen today
  • The yellow arrow points to the 1954 building, which can also be seen today
  • The green arrow is pointing to the infrastructure that was used to extract grain from ships and move to the mill buildings. i have included my father’s photo of these structures from his 1953 visit, below:

I have now reached the edge of the dock, and one of the first areas that was redeveloped around the Royal Victoria Dock – Britannia Village:

Britannia Village occupies the south west corner of the Royal Victoria Dock and was built during the 1990s and consists of, by today’s standards, relatively low rise housing, typically up to four or five floors.

Between the houses that face onto the dock, and the dock, there is a walkway along the old quay, where a number of original cranes have been retained:

The cranes are all Grade II listed, and were made by Stothert and Pitt Cranes of Bath. The majority date from 1962, however there are two 1920 cranes included in those still standing around the dock.

All the industry that once surround the Royal Docks has long gone, as has the majority of industry along the river, however there were two places that I wanted to find that have survived, because they are dependent on the river rather than the docks.

I will cover the main site when I walk around the Royal Albert and King George V docks, but for today, it was a short walk south from the south west corner of the Royal Victoria Dock to find the factory that makes Lyle’s Golden Syrup:

Abram Lyle was born in Greenock, Scotland in 1820 and operated a cooperage and shipping business, with many of his ships transporting sugar cane.

In 1881, he expanded on this involvement in the sugar trade, by building a sugar refinery along the Thames.

Part of the process to refine sugar produces a thick treacle like substance, and Lyle used this byproduct to produce a syrup which could be used in cooking and as a sweetener. This was originally called “Goldie”.

The name soon changed to Lyle’s Golden Syrup, and in 1885, the syrup was sold for the first time in tins, with the same branding that has survived to this day (the company holds a Guinness World Record for the longest running brand), and the company today has one of the tins on the corner of their building:

The trademark on the tin names Abram Lyle & Sons, Sugar Refiners, with an image of a lion in the centre surrounded by bees. This image is a result of Abram Lyle’s religious convictions as the image is based on a story in the Old Testament of the Bible of Samson’s lion and bees, which results in the slogan “Out of the strong came forth sweetness”, which can be seen just below the lion.

Abram Lyle’s company merged with the sugar refining company of Henry Tate, who also had a nearby sugar refinery (in a later post), to form Tate & Lyle.

Tate & Lyle sold their sugar refining business, which included Lyle’s Golden Syrup in 2010 to American Sugar Refining, Inc. (part of their ASR name can just be seen in the above photo), with Tate & Lyle focusing on specialty ingredients. Part of the sale included American Sugar Refining continuing to use the Tate & Lyle and Lyle’s Golden Syrup branding.

The factory on the banks of the Thames today produces over one million tins of Lyle’s Golden Syrup, which is also sold in different formats such as plastic bottles, and is exported across the world.

A wonderful survivor from when this part of the river was end to end industry.

To the east of the Lyle’s factory is a large open space, which is not included in the main Silvertown development to the south of the Royal Victoria Dock, and around Pontoon Dock, however its location next to the river makes it a prime future redevelopment site:

After this brief diversion, I have returned to the Royal Victoria Dock, and am now at the south west corner, looking east along the dock:

To the left, I can see the western end of the Royal Victoria Dock, indeed of the whole Royal Docks complex. Where the white floats in the water are located was the locked entrance between the River Thames and the Royal Victoria Dock, the original and only entrance when the Victoria Dock was first built:

This locked entrance was completely filled in after the closure of the docks, but the outline of the entrance can still be seen at this corner of the dock. To the right is the latest site of City Hall – the location of the Mayor of London and London Authority.

And from the end of the dock, I can look east along the full length of the Royal Victoria Dock, a view which shows the sheer scale of this dock, just one of three that eventually made up the Royal Docks complex:

In the above photo, the thin line of the walkway bridge that spans the dock roughly half way along can be seen in the distance.

Zooming in, we can see the bridge, and behind that the Connaught Bridge where the Royal Victoria meet the Royal Albert Dock, and this later dock is much longer than the Victoria:

There is very little that has survived from the time when the docks were operational. The cranes are the most obvious features, and at this western end of the dock there is an old capstan:

Which was also made by Stothert and Pitt of Bath, the same company that made the cranes that remain around the dock:

Looking across the western end of the dock, and we can see the start (or end) of the cable car that runs over the river to the Greenwich Peninsula:

Before continuing round the western end of the docks, I took another quick diversion down towards the river, to see a construction site for a new route across the river that will soon be operational:

This is a large area between the west end of the Royal Victoria Dock, and the river, all to the west of the Lyle Golden Syrup factory. Boarded off so it is not yet possible to walk down to the river, and with part of the Docklands Light Railway running across, which provides a good view of the site:

This is the site on the north of the river where the Silvertown Tunnel is being constructed.

The Silvertown Tunnel is expected to open in 2025 and and as well as lanes for traffic, it will also include a dedicated bus lane. First proposed in 2012, the tunnel is intended to address congestion issues at the Blackwall Tunnel by providing additional capacity across the river.

Construction of the Silvertown Tunnel along with ongoing operation and maintenance has all been privately financed, and when the tunnel opens there will be a charge applied to vehicles using the tunnel, and to stop people continuing to use the Blackwall Tunnel as a free alternative, a charge will also be introduced to use the Blackwall Tunnel.

Looking through one of the access gates to the construction site, we can see the distinctive building that is on top of the northern access portal to the tunnel, where traffic running to and from Silvertown Way and Lower Lea Crossing, will be able to access the tunnel to and from the Greenwich Peninsula:

When complete, the area around the tunnel portal will be landscaped, and completion of construction work will free up a considerable area of land around the portal, and down to the Thames for further development.

It will be interesting to return towards the end of next year when the tunnel should be in operation. It will continue to be a construction site, but then probably lots of apartment blocks.

Returning to the western end of the Royal Victoria Dock and this is the new City Hall building, home of the Mayor of London and the London Authority:

The building was originally called the Crystal and was built by the engineering company Siemens and opened in 2012 as an exhibition centre, learning and global knowledge hub focusing on the future of the city and on sustainability.

When it opened, Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London said that “It is a clear sign of the confidence in London’s ability to nurture and support eco-enterprises that Siemens has chosen to locate its flagship centre of sustainability here in the UK capital. The Crystal is set to sit at the heart of a brand new Green Enterprise District, which will sweep across east of the city. We envisage that the district will be a vibrant, international hub incubating dozens of low carbon businesses.”

Four years later, Siemens sold the building back to the Greater London Authority and left the building a few years later after an early surrender of their 7 year lease on the building.

In 2021, the London Authority used a break clause in their lease of the City Hall building on the south of the Thames, next to Tower Bridge. The London Authority did not own the original City Hall, it was leased from the the Kuwaiti owned St Martin’s Property Group, who also own the surrounding land and buildings between Hay’s Wharf and Tower Bridge.

The move to a building the London Authority already owned was planned to saved a large amount of money over the following years, along with being part of the regeneration of the Royal Docks complex, by moving a significant London institution, along with a large number of staff, to the docks.

It is interesting that the London Authority and Mayor of London are now based in a building that was until 1965, part of Essex, when the implementation of the London Government Act 1963 transferred the area to the east of the River Lea from Essex to Greater London.

The same comment applies to the Royal Docks, as for most of their operational life, they were in Essex, rather than London.

in the same year as the Crystal building opened (2012), the cable car also opened, taking passengers across the river to the Greenwich Peninsula, and opposite the new City Hall building is the Royal Victoria Dock entrance to the cable car, where gondolas start their journey across the river:

The Cable Car has never been the success expected during planning, and after an initial peak of users after opening in 2012, the annual number of travelers on the cable car has dropped considerably, with summer peaks showing that the cable car is mainly used by visitors to the Royal Docks and Greenwich Peninsula, rather than commuters or workers.

The following graph shows the number of travelers in millions from 2012 on the left to April 2024. For the reporting period of 2023 / 2024, the maximum usage was 180,000 a month, with the minimum usage being 70,000 a month.

Gondolas leave and arrive over the Royal Victoria Dock:

I am now on my final part of the walk around the Royal Victoria Dock, and leaving the dock at the north west corner, I cross the Western Gateway, which is the main approach road to the Excel exhibition centre. Fully redeveloped with a bit of retail, hotels, restaurants and residential:

On the opposite side of the Western Gateway, where Seagull Lane heads to the DLR station, is this strange structure:

This was built between 1987 and 1988 as one of the early projects in the regeneration of the Royal Docks.

The building is one of the storm-water pumping stations around the docks, and the surface structure conceals the majority of the infrastructure which extends 25 metres below ground level. There are some interesting diagrams and photos of the pumping station here.

The blue painting of the circular structures is now rather faded. When completed, this was a deep blue, with red and yellow for additional features of the station.

These colours were chosen as “from the outset the building was meant to be a visual delight, an oasis in the drab industrial environment of Silvertown”.

Much of the area around the Royal Victoria Dock has changed considerably in the years since the pumping station was completed, and there is not that much of the “drab industrial environment” left.

And a short distance further, I reached the Royal Victoria DLR station, a fitting end to a walk around the whole of the Royal Victoria Dock:

I hope the last three posts on the Royal Docks and a walk around the Royal Victoria Dock has shown just how interesting the area is, from the vast area of the water that made up the original dock, to the way that the dock evolved and developed, the industries that surrounded the dock, and the potential future of the dock.

The development around Pontoon Dock, the old Millennium Mill and Silo D will be transformative in one way or another.

I just hope that some reference to the history of the docks survives and the story of those who built and worked at the docks is embedded into the new developments, and that the area does not become another densely packed area of identikit towers.

And to finish, if you would like to relive the Jean Michel Jarre, Destination Docklands concert back in 1988, held in the Royal Victoria Dock, with the mill buildings in the background, including the building that was in one of my father’s photos in last week’s post, before it was demolished a few years later, the film is here:

If I remember correctly, the concert was on a barge on the dock (which was probably why children in the choir were wearing lifejackets). I have no idea how the electrical equipment they were using continued to work given the very wet weather on the day.

I still have to cover the Royal Albert and King George VI Docks, however rather than a continuous run of posts on the Royal Docks, for next week’s post I will be visiting a very different place.

alondoninheritance.com

Royal Victoria Dock in 2024 – Part 1

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.

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The Royal Docks – Victoria, Albert and George V

For this week’s post, and for the next couple of weeks, I am visiting an area of London that I have not touched before in the blog. This is the area covered by Silvertown and North Woolwich, along with the Royal Docks – the Royal Victoria, Royal Albert and King George V Docks, the largest and last docks built in London (although at the time in the County of Essex), that covered a considerable amount of what had been Plaistow Marshes.

I am here because it is an interesting area, lots of history, has changed, and is changing after the closure of the docks, and because my father took a number of photos of the Royal Victoria Dock on a visit on Saturday the 11th of July, 1953, and the first photo is looking along the length of the Royal Victoria Dock, showing a large number of ships moored alongside the dock:

The rest of my father’s photos are later in the post, but first, a look at the history of the Royal Docks.

They can be found on a bend in the river, to the east of the Isle of Dogs, between Bugby’s Reach and Galleons Reach. The dock complex is seven miles from London Bridge.

The following map shows the area today (within the red oval), with the majority of the water surface area of the docks still to be found, although there has been some small loses to this space. I have marked the locations of the three component docks that make up the Royal Docks:

The Victoria, Albert and George V are all connected, so they can be considered as one single dock complex, and when the final dock, the King George V was completed, they were the largest sheet of open dock water in the world.

Between the westerly entrance to the Victoria Dock and the east entrance to the Albert Dock, is a length of three miles.

The three docks were constructed in stages:

  • The Victoria Dock was first, and opened in 1855:
  • Then came the Albert Dock in 1880, and;
  • The King George V Dock was the final dock, opened in 1921.

As with all the London Docks, from opening to final closure, they were continually modified and upgraded to take account of changing trade flows, cargos, ship sizes and methods of cargo handling.

When the Victoria Dock was opened, it was simply known as the Victoria Dock, the Royal was added when the Albert Dock opened, as the company building the dock applied to Queen Victoria for approval to use both the name Albert and add the word Royal to the two docks.

The following map shows the Royal Dock complex in the late 1920s:

Why were these new, large docks needed?

In the mid 19th century, ships were increasing in size, and the first steamers were starting to be used for the transport of goods across the oceans. The volume of trade across the London docks was also expanding rapidly.

The existing docks of St. Katherine Docks, London Docks, West India, South and Millwall Docks and the Commercial Docks in Rotherhithe, were all too small to handle the new ships that London would be expected to support to maintain its position as one of the major ports of the world.

The first of the Royal Docks, the Victoria Dock opened in 1855, and the following report from the same years provides some background:

“NEW VICTORIA DOCKS – To those acquainted with the statistics of the trade of the Port of London, it is notorious that the existing dock accommodation is becoming, year by year, more inadequate to meets its increasing requirements. to supply this want, the Victoria Dock Company purchased a large tract of land in Plaistow Marshes. on the Essex shore of the Thames, below Blackwall.

These magnificent docks were commenced in June 1853, and the works have been unceasingly persevered in. A truly English spirit of ‘business’ appears to have directed the operations of all concerned. It was at one time proposed to open the docks sooner; but on a careful review of all contingencies this plan was not adopted. the spacious basins in connection with their quays and warehouses occupy no less than ninety acres of ground, a space far exceeding that of our East India Docks.

We may remark here, that the marsh, as far as Gallows Reach, was also purchased by the Company, and will be used as occasion requires. The advantage of situation possessed by these docks is sufficiently obvious, and the immediate neighbourhood of several lines of rail, present unusual facilities for communication with town. The Victoria Docks are announced to be opened on Monday next.”

Note that at the time, this whole area was within the County of Essex, and that although it was marsh, the benefit was that there was a very large area of undeveloped land, close to the Thames, and reasonably close to central London.

Around 1930, the Port of London Authority published a wonderful little booklet on the Port of London, covering a “brief survey of its history, with an outline of its present facilities and trade”:

The booklet included the following overview of the combined Royal Docks, and demonstrates the sheer size of the Victoria, Albert and George V docks:

  • Total area (including land for extension): 1,102.5 acres
  • Water area: 246 acres
  • Length of principal entrance: 800 feet
  • Width of principal entrance: 100 feet
  • Depth of principal entrance below T.H.W. at centre of cill: 45 feet
  • Quayage: 12.75 miles

These docks are in reality one huge dock divided into three sections and form the largest sheet of enclosed dock water in the world. They are 40 miles from the sea and only 5 miles by road from the heart of London.

Many vessels belonging to some of the best known Shipping Companies regularly use the Royal Victoria & Albert & King George V. Docks. Frequent cargo and passenger services to all parts of the world are based on these docks and as many as 50 to 60 vessels with a total displacement of about 500,000 tons are sometimes discharging or loading simultaneously in these docks. Vessels bring:-

  • from AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND – enormous quantities of frozen meat, wool , butter, cheese, fruit, wine and grain;
  • from SOUTH AMERICA – chilled beef and frozen meats, dairy produce, grain, wool and coffee;
  • from AFRICA – grain, wool, skins, tobacco, etc.;
  • from NORTH ATLANTIC PORTS – grain, flour, tobacco, and manufactured articles;
  • from BERMUDA – rum, sugar and fruit;
  • from VANCOUVER AND NORTH AMERICA (PACIFIC COASTS) PORTS – grain, timber, fresh fruit and canned fruit and fish;
  • from CHINA AND JAPAN – silk and cotton goods, soya beans, bamboos, canned salmon, hardwoods, hemp seed, cotton seed, vegetable wax, rapeseed oil, peppermint oil, lacquer-ware, porcelain and glassware, tea, rice, carpets, etc.;
  • from INDIA AND THE STRIATS SETTLEMENTS – tea, rubber, spices, canes, rattans, pineapples, mother-of-pearl shells, gums, carpets, cocoa, desiccated coconuts, shellac, tobacco, hemp, jute, gunnies, yarn and hessian cloth.

A couple of things to notice about all the above imports. With a couple of exceptions, they are all either raw materials or food stuffs. There are very few manufactured goods being imported. At the time, Great Britain was still a major manufacturing centre, one of the largest in the world, and was an exporter of manufactured goods to the world, so whilst the country need to import food and raw materials, exports would have been of manufactured goods.

The list also shows how patterns of trade have changed over the last 90 years, as we now import a vast amount of manufactured goods from China and other low cost manufacturing countries in the Far East.

The Port of London Authority booklet included the following image, showing why the Port of London was considered such an important centre of trade, just under 100 years ago:

The drive to develop the Victoria Dock came from a number of those engaged on the development of the railways around London.

George Parker Bidder was an experienced mid 19th century railway engineer who was working on the Eastern Counties Railway running from London to Southend. He had heard of the idea for building a dock on the Plaistow Marshes from a Mr. Blyth who was the manager of the West India Dock Company, who, perhaps surprisingly, took no action on expanding the West India Dock Company to include new docks to the east.

George Bidder joined with Thomas Brassey who was the contractor for the London to Southend railway, and they added another contractor, Samuel Peto, along with Edward Betts, his brother-in-law, and they privately financed a new railway line to run from Stratford to end in a field at North Woolwich.

This railway line was known as “Bidders Folly” after George Parker Bidder, as it seemed to serve no purpose.

As well as the railway, they started buying up land. Much for as little as £7 per acre, however the Dean and Chapter of Westminster owned some 647 acres, and they held out for £250 per acre, having heard that there was the possibility of a new dock being built.

Although the Victoria Dock opened in 1855, it was not until 1858 that it reached it fullest, original extent, and was;

  • 4050 feet in length and included four jetties, 581 feet long and 140 feet wide;
  • There were almost 3 miles of quays;
  • The entrance lock from the Thames was 80 feet wide, 326 feet in length and 28 feet deep.

Building a railway that ended in a field became a major benefit for the new dock, as it provided good transport links with London, and via the Great Northern Railway, gave access to the industrial Midlands towns.

The following extract from the 1927 edition of the Railway Clearing House Official Railway Map of London and its Environs shows the railways around the full Royal Docks complex:

When the docks closed, the railways around the docks became the ready made routes for the Docklands Light Railway, so the “Bidders Folly”, the route of the railway that ended in a field, has continued to serve this part of London to this day.

As well as the railway, the Victoria Dock benefited from the latest hydraulic machinery which operated equipment around the dock, such as cranes, capstans, lifts etc. as well as the lock gates at the entrance to the dock. to give an indication of the savings this type of machinery could provide, the large lock gates could be opened in 1.5 minutes, compared to between 10 and 20 minutes at the other London docks, and with the hydraulically powered capstans, a single man could do the work of up to 40 men, when hauling in a rope from a ship.

All these capabilities put the new Victoria Dock at a considerable advantage to the other London Docks, and as an indication of their immediate success, in April 1858, when the dock was fully operational, 2,500 barges and 508 ships entered the Victoria Dock in a single month.

The following photo from Britain from Above shows the Royal Victoria Dock in 1930. The photo is looking to the west, and we can see the western entrance to the Royal Dock complex to and from the Thames. on the right of the dock are the jetties that extended from the dock edge (source: EPW032928 ENGLAND (1930):

The Victoria Dock had been built using a large amount of debt, and as is so often the case, there was a financial crash which led to further consolidation of the London docks.

A total of £1,076,664 had been borrowed to build the dock, and by 1866 there was still almost £800,000 outstanding on the loan.

The financial houses of London had lent considerable sums to fund the railway building boom from the 1840s, and in 1865 the collapse in the Indian cotton market resulted in many of these financial institutions running short of liquidity.

The bank lending rate was raised to 10%, and a wave of bankruptcies followed, with Samuel Peto, one of the original contractors involved at the start of the Victoria Dock, being one of the first.

Thomas Brassey was left with the liability for the whole of the loan, and being unable to finance the loan, he had to sell the Victoria Dock to the London and St. Katherine Dock Company.

This left all the main docks to the north of the river in the hands of just two companies – the London and St. Katherine Dock Company, and the West India Dock Company, and challenges for the West India Dock Company were about to get worse.

The following photo shows the full Royal Dock complex in 1946, from the east, looking west. In the distance is the Royal Victoria Dock. To the right is the Royal Albert Dock and on the left is the King George V Dock (source: EAW000057 ENGLAND (1946):

By the 1870s, the volume of trade handled by the Victoria Dock had increased considerably, and the size of ship using the London Docks was continuing to increase.

The London and St Katherine Dock Company therefore decided to make use of the land to the east of the Victoria Dock to build a new, large dock complex.

This was the Royal Albert Dock and was opened on the 24th of June, 1880 by the Duke of Connaught.

The lock providing the entrance to a dock was often the limiting factor in the size of ship that could be accommodated. To allow larger ships to use the Royal Albert, the entrance for the new dock was 27 feet deep, compared to 25.5 for the Victoria Dock. The entrance was 550 feet in length and 80 feet wide compared to the Victoria Docks entrance length of 325 feet.

In future expansions of the Royal Albert Dock, a second entrance would be added with a greater depth than the original entrance.

As well as now being the largest of all docks in London, the Royal Albert Dock was also the first dock to use electricity for lighting, and it was planned that work at the dock would be able to continue by night as well as by day.

Another difference with the Royal Albert Dock was in the buildings alongside the dock edge. Rather than storing goods alongside the dock, it was planned that goods would be quickly moved between ship and land, so single storey transit sheds were built to provide a temporary home for goods before they quickly moved on.

Queen Victoria gave permission for the use of the name Albert and for adding “Royal” to both the Victoria and Albert Docks, and whilst the opening of the Victoria Dock seems to have been a quiet affair, the opening of the Royal Albert Dock was a very different matter, as described in the following newspaper report from the time:

“THE ROYAL ALBERT DOCK – The Duke and Duchess of Connaught, as representing the Queen, was to publicly open to-day the Royal Albert Dock, an extension of the London and Victoria Dock Companies’ works at North Woolwich. For the purpose the Royal party will leave the Speaker’s Stairs at half-past eleven in the steamer Victoria, and Mr. George H. Chambers (Chairman of the Company) and other officials will be in attendance. The visitors will be conveyed down the river in fourteen steamers, and upwards of 8,000 persons will be admitted by ticket to witness the ceremony.

At Woolwich the Duke and Duchess and suite will be transferred to the Vestal, which will pass the entrance jetties and enter the lock under a royal salute fired by the 3rd Essex Artillery Volunteers, pass through the basin between the lines of steamers, and the dock under a second royal salute – the bands playing the National Anthem. An address will be presented to the Duke and Duchess of Connaught by the Chairman of the Company, to which the Duke will reply; and he will afterwards name the Victoria Dock, the Royal Victoria Dock, the Victoria Dock extension, the Royal Albert Dock, and the docks as a whole, the Royal Victoria and Albert Docks. A luncheon will follow, and the Royal party will return to and arrive at the Speaker’s Stairs about half-past four.”

And since that opening ceremony, the docks have jointly been know as the Royals.

It must have been quite a sight seeing 14 steamers coming down the river carrying those attending the ceremony. The Duke of Connaught was Arthur, the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The Duchess of Connaught was Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia.

The name Connaught can still be found at the Royal Docks as the road bridge that crosses the docks, between the Victoria and the Albert docks is called Connaught Bridge.

As with the other London Docks, the Royal Docks were continually evolving to support different trade routes, different types of cargo, improved machinery and transport systems, ways of moving cargo between ship and shore, changes in ship design and size etc.

Even during the First World War, upgrades were being made to the docks. New 3 ton electric cranes were installed along with track on the north side of the Albert Dock. An additional 6,000 yards of railway sidings were installed at Victoria Dock.

After the First World War, the importation of large quantities of meat from Australia, New Zealand and South America became a new challenge requiring new buildings at the docks.

A new cold store was built in 1920, which had two, 3 inch layers o cork to keep the interior refrigerated space cold. A second cold store quickly followed at the west end of Albert Dock. This cold store was of two storeys, 1,100 feet long and 123 feet wide. This addition provided four million cubic feet of capacity, and allowed almost a million carcasses of mutton to be stored.

Meat handling facilities were also added to the Royal Victoria Dock. Rather than a cold store, a method of rapidly moving meat from ship to road and rail.

This comprised a dedicated berth for the Royal Mail Line who operated a route between London and South America and imported beef into London. 6,000 feet of mechanical runways were installed, along with automated weighing machines, with the runways transporting beef from ship to insulated rail and road transport, ready for delivery across the country.

Other additions included two large, modern flour mills built on the south side of the Royal Victoria Dock. One for Joseph Rank Ltd. and the other for William Vernon and Sons Ltd. Both mills had warehouses and silos for storing grain.

The flour mills and grain stores can be seen in the upper left cornet of the following photo of the Royal Victoria Dock dated 1937 (source: EPW055308 ENGLAND (1937):

Back to the photos taken by my father on Saturday the 11th of July, 1953, and this was the view along one of the Royal Victoria Dock quaysides. Cranes on rails on the left and transit buildings on the right:

Strangely, there does not seem to be anyone at work in the docks in these photos. It was a Saturday, although I assumed that the docks were 7 days a week operations. It may also be that given the docks were so large, he was in areas where there was no active loading or unloading.

Another view along the quayside:

Lighters are moored in the dock to the left, there is a mechanical grab in the foreground which would have been used to unload raw materials from the hold of a ship. A numbers of barrels, presumably waiting for transport, and note the rail on the right which allowed goods wagons to move along the quayside for movement of goods directly between wagon and ship.

I believe my father was at the dock as part of a visit organised by the St. Bride Photographic Society, then part of the St. Bride Institute next to the church off Fleet Street, as many of the photos are carefully composed for their artistic quality, rather than just documenting the docks. The following is an example, showing the mooring ropes leading up to the bow of a ship:

The following photo is very similar, as it focuses on one of the quayside mooring bollards:

However, the above photo does allow the location to be identified. In the background of the photo there are a number of buildings, and the building on the left has a much taller, small extension projecting above the rest of the building. There is also a ship going in, between the two buildings.

In the following extract from one of the Britain from Above photos, we can see these buildings, with the building with the taller extension standing out (on the left of the oval). The ship that can just be seen in the above photo was in the channel that leads from the main Royal Victoria Dock to the much smaller pontoon dock that can also be seen in the following photo:

So my father’s photo of the mooring bollard was taken from the opposite side of the dock, looking across to the buildings on the other side, next to the entrance to the pontoon dock.

The above image is dated 1946, and you can see that all the jetties that were part of the Royal Victoria Dock (and seen in the earlier 1937 photo), have now ben removed.

These jetties were fairly weak structures, and became difficult to use as ship sizes increased. Goods also needed to be moved along the jetty, between quayside sheds and ship – an inefficient way of operating, so the jetties were removed, and post-war, all ships simply moored alongside the quay.

Cranes – photo 1:

And crane – photo 2:

I do not know if the cranes in the following photo were being built or demolished. I suspect they were being built:

In the earlier photo with the mooring bollard, there was a building in the background with a taller extension to a small part of the roof. In the following photo, my father had walked slightly to the east along the northern side of the Royal Victoria Dock, and in the background we can see the eastern end of this building, between two moored ships:

Bow of a moored ship, with another in the background:

In the following photo, my father had walked to the southern side of the Royal Victoria Dock, and photographed the area in front of the flour mills and grain stores, with the specialised equipment that unloaded grain from moored ships and transferred to the grain stores:

I have highlighted the location of these structures in the following extract from one of the Britain from Above photos, and you can clearly see the two tall structures in front of the grain stores and next to a moored ship:

I assume that these structures used suction to take off the grain from the ship and move to the grain store. Another photo showing more detail:

Not my father’s photos, but a couple of photos that show how goods were handled at the Royal Docks.

The first photo is the interior of a transit shed alongside the Royal Albert Dock:

Whilst the Royal Victoria Dock developed specialised buildings and transport methods for grain, floor and meat, the Royal Albert Dock was a more general dock, handling almost any cargo that needed to be transported to or from a ship.

These cargos were not meant to be stored for long at the dock, rather they were quickly sorted and held in a transit shed, then moved to either road or rail transport for onward delivery across the country.

The above photo shows the transit shed holding a vast quantity of cargo of different types, in boxes, sacks and rolls.

The following photo shows meat being unloaded from a ship to the quayside, where it looks as if it is being put on large trolleys for transfer:

That is a quick look at the Royal Docks, and a slightly more detailed look at the Royal Victoria Dock.

I have not covered the King George V dock yet, and will cover this in a future post, as well as posts covering a walk around the entire perimeter of the Royal Docks today, and through part of Silvertown to explore more history of this very large dock complex, what is left from when the docks were operational, and how the docks have, and continue to change and develop, for example with the London City Airport.

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