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26-695: The West India Docks are a series of three docks , quaysides, and warehouses built to import goods from, and export goods and occasionally passengers to, the British West Indies . Located on the Isle of Dogs in London , the first dock opened in 1802. Following their commercial closure in 1980, the Canary Wharf development was built around the wet docks by narrowing some of their broadest tracts. Robert Milligan ( c.  1746 –1809) of

52-594: A Scottish family, was largely responsible for the construction of the West India Docks. He was a wealthy West Indies merchant, slave trader and ship owner, who returned to London having managed his family's Jamaica sugar plantations. Outraged at losses due to theft and delay at the extensive (continuously along the Thames for 11 miles (18 km)) riverside wharves comprising the Port of London , Milligan headed

78-417: A dock may be created by building enclosing harbour walls into an existing natural water space, or by excavation within what would otherwise be dry land. There are specific types of dock structures where the water level is controlled: Where the water level is not controlled berths may be: A dockyard (or shipyard) consists of one or more docks, usually with other structures. In American English , dock

104-515: A group of powerful businessmen – including George Hibbert , the chairman of the London Society of West India Planters and Merchants who was a merchant, politician, and ship-owner – who promoted the creation of a wet dock circled by a high wall. The group planned and built West India Docks, lobbying Parliament to allow the creation of a West India Dock Company. Milligan served as both deputy chairman and chairman of

130-467: Is also commonly used to refer to wooden or metal structures that extend into the ocean from beaches and are used, for the most part, to accommodate fishing in the ocean without using a boat. In American English , the term for the water area between piers is slip . In the cottage country of Canada and the United States , a dock is a wooden platform built over water, with one end secured to

156-460: Is technically synonymous with pier or wharf —any human-made structure in the water intended for people to be on. However, in modern use, pier is generally used to refer to structures originally intended for industrial use, such as seafood processing or shipping , and more recently for cruise ships , and dock is used for almost everything else, often with a qualifier, such as ferry dock , swimming dock, ore dock and others. However, pier

182-466: The Gulf of Khambhat has the highest tidal amplitude and ships can be sluiced through flow tides in the river estuary . The engineers built a trapezoidal structure, with north–south arms of average 21.8 metres (71.5 ft), and east–west arms of 37 metres (121 ft). In British English , a dock is an enclosed area of water used for loading, unloading, building or repairing ships . Such

208-608: The Museum of London and is jointly funded by the City of London Corporation and the Greater London Authority . The museum opened in 2003 in grade I listed early-19th century Georgian "low" sugar warehouses built in 1802 on the north side of West India Docks , a short walk from Canary Wharf . Much of the museum's collection is from the museum and archives of the Port of London Authority , which became part of

234-602: The National Trust . The last two vessels, Knocker White and Varlet , were transferred to Trinity Buoy Wharf in November 2016. In 2007, the museum celebrated the bicentenary of the British abolition of slavery by opening a £14 million Heritage Lottery Funded exhibition entitled London, Sugar, Slavery about the practice. In March 2016, the museum opened an exhibit relating to the building itself. The building

260-548: The Pentonville Five . The reading room and Sainsbury's Study Centre house the archives. The museum acquired several historic vessels for preservation over its existence. Among these were the tugboats Knocker White and Varlet , both acquired in 1986. By the 2010s the museum had decided to rationalise its collection of vessels, one was transferred to a local group, and another, the Wey barge Perseverance IV , to

286-515: The Red Sea coast. Archaeologists also discovered anchors and storage jars near the site. A dock from Lothal in India dates from 2400 BC and was located away from the main current to avoid deposition of silt . Modern oceanographers have observed that the ancient Harappans must have possessed great knowledge relating to tides in order to build such a dock on the ever-shifting course of

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312-464: The Sabarmati , as well as exemplary hydrography and maritime engineering . This is the earliest known dock found in the world equipped to berth and service ships. It is speculated that Lothal engineers studied tidal movements and their effects on brick-built structures, since the walls are of kiln -burnt bricks. This knowledge also enabled them to select Lothal's location in the first place, as

338-499: The Thames. Around the Import Dock a continuous line of five-storey warehouses was constructed, designed by architect George Gwilt and his son, also named George. The Export Dock needed fewer buildings as cargo was loaded upon arrival. To protect against theft, the whole complex was surrounded by a brick wall 20 ft (6.1 m) high. The three docks were initially separate, with the two northern docks interconnected only via

364-567: The West India Dock Company. The docks were authorised by the Port of London Improvement and City Canal Act 1799 ( 39 Geo. 3 . c. lxix). The docks were constructed in two phases. The two northern docks were constructed between 1800 and 1802 for the West India Dock Company to a design by leading civil engineer William Jessop (with consultant John Rennie , appointed resident engineer Ralph Walker , and with input from Thomas Morris , Liverpool 's third dock engineer), and were

390-415: The West India Docks, along with the other enclosed docks from St Katharines to Tilbury . From 1960 to 1980, trade in the docks declined to almost nothing. There were two main reasons. First, the development of the shipping container made this type of relatively small dock inefficient, and the dock-owners were slow to embrace change. Second, the manufacturing exports which had maintained the trade through

416-483: The basin at each end, and South Dock connected via a series of three basins at the eastern end. Railway access was very difficult. Under PLA control, cuts were made to connect the three docks into a single system, and the connections to the Thames at the western end were filled, along with the Limehouse basin and with it the western connection between the two northern docks. This allowed improved road and rail access from

442-466: The docks dwindled and moved away from the local area. The docks were closed in 1981. After the closure of the upstream enclosed docks, the area was regenerated as part of the Docklands scheme, and is now home to the developments of Canary Wharf . The early phase one buildings of Canary Wharf were built out over the water, reducing the width of the north dock and middle dock. Canary Wharf tube station

468-597: The docks had a combined capability to berth over 600 vessels. Locks and basins at either end of the Docks connected them to the river Thames. These were known as Blackwall Basin and Limehouse Basin, not to be confused with the Regent's Canal Dock also known as Limehouse Basin . To avoid congestion, ships entered from the (eastern) Blackwall end; lighters entered from the Limehouse end to the west. A dry dock for ship repairs

494-569: The first commercial wet docks in London. British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger and Lord Chancellor Lord Loughborough were assisted in the foundation stone ceremony on 12 July 1800 by Milligan and Hibbert. The docks were formally opened on 27 August 1802 when the unladen Henry Addington was hauled in by ropes. Echo , a ship laden with cargo from the West Indies, followed. For

520-460: The first port on the Thames in Roman times to the closure of the central London docks in the 1970s and subsequent transformation of the area with commercial and residential developments. London Museum Docklands has a lecture theatre and meeting rooms and hosts talks and events connected with the docks. Several workers who worked on the docks in the 1960s take part in these events, including one from

546-599: The following 21 years all vessels in the West India trade using the Port of London were compelled to use the West India docks by a clause in the Act of Parliament that had enabled their construction. The southern dock, the South West India Dock, later known as South Dock, was constructed in the 1860s, replacing the unprofitable City Canal , built in 1805. In 1909 the Port of London Authority (PLA) took over

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572-567: The north and west. South Dock was also connected to the north end of Millwall Dock , its enlarged eastern lock becoming the only entrance from the Thames to the whole West India and Millwall system. Dock (maritime) "Dock" may also refer to a dockyard (also known as a shipyard ) where the loading, unloading, building, or repairing of ships occurs. The earliest known docks were those discovered in Wadi al-Jarf , an ancient Egyptian harbor , of Pharaoh Khufu , dating from c.2500 BC located on

598-499: The port and river collections of the Museum of London in the 1970s. These were put into storage by the Museum of London in 1985. The museum includes videos presented by Tony Robinson , and it houses a large collection of historical artifacts, models, and pictures in 12 galleries and a children's gallery (Mudlarks), arranged over two floors. Visitors are directed through the displays in chronological order. The periods covered range from

624-580: The shore. The platform is used for the boarding and offloading of small boats. Museum of London Docklands The London Museum Docklands (known from 2003 to 2024 as Museum of London Docklands ), based in West India Quay , explains the history of the River Thames , the growth of Port of London and the docks' historical link to the Atlantic slave trade . The museum is part of

650-478: Was constructed connecting to Blackwall Basin. Subsequently, the North London Railway 's Poplar Dock was also connected to Blackwall Basin. The Docks' design allowed a ship arriving from the West Indies to unload in the northern dock, sail round to the southern dock and load up with export cargo in a fraction of the time it had previously taken in the heavily congested and dangerous upper reaches of

676-678: Was constructed within the middle dock in the 1990s. Part of the original dock building was converted for use as the Museum of London Docklands in 2003. The Crossrail Place development was completed in May 2015 and the Canary Wharf Crossrail station below it was completed in September 2015. The original docks consisted of an Import Dock of 30 acres (120,000 m) of water, later named North Dock, and an Export Dock of 24 acres (97,000 m), later named Middle Dock. Between them,

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