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25-586: The Royal Victoria Dock is the largest of three docks in the Royal Docks of east London, now part of the redeveloped Docklands . Although, the structure was in place in the year 1850, it was opened in 1855, on a previously uninhabited area of the Plaistow Marshes. It was the first of the Royal Docks and the first London dock to be designed specifically to accommodate large steam ships. It

50-417: 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

75-514: A large shipyard will contain many specialised cranes , dry docks , slipways , dust-free warehouses, painting facilities and extremely large areas for fabrication of the ships. After a ship's useful life is over, it makes its final voyage to a ship-breaking yard, often on a beach in South Asia . Historically ship-breaking was carried out in drydock in developed countries, but high wages and environmental regulations have resulted in movement of

100-767: A rowing head race hosted by Poplar Blackwall and District Rowing Club . The race starts under the Royal Victoria Dock Bridge and proceeds eastwards underneath Connaught Footbridge and Connaught Road Bridge, finishing at the eastern end of the Royal Albert Dock. Dock "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

125-535: A total of 3.6 km of quays. The dock was an immediate commercial success, as it could easily accommodate all but the very largest steamships. By 1860, it was already taking over 850,000 tons of shipping a year – double that of the London Docks , four times that of St Katharine Docks and 70% more than the West India Docks and East India Docks combined. It was badly damaged by German bombing in

150-467: 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

175-460: 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

200-466: 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

225-515: 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

250-464: 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

275-550: The Second World War , but experienced a resurgence in trade following the war. From the 1960s onwards, the Royal Victoria experienced a steady decline – as did all of London's other docks – as the shipping industry adopted containerisation , which effectively moved traffic downstream to Tilbury . It finally closed to commercial traffic along with the other Royal Docks in 1981. In 1988, the then-dilapidated site

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300-748: The United Arab Emirates , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , the United States and Vietnam . The shipbuilding industry is more fragmented in Europe than in Asia where countries tend to have fewer, larger companies. Many naval vessels are built or maintained in shipyards owned or operated by the national government or navy. Shipyards are constructed near the sea or tidal rivers to allow easy access for their ships. The United Kingdom , for example, has shipyards on many of its rivers. The site of

325-524: The evolution of dockyards and shipyards has often caused them to change or merge roles. Countries with large shipbuilding industries include Australia , Brazil , China , Croatia , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , India , Ireland , Italy , Japan , the Netherlands , Norway , the Philippines , Poland , Romania , Russia , Singapore , South Korea , Sweden , Taiwan , Turkey ,

350-486: The Royal Dock was first built, the railway cut along the docks; to correct this, a swing bridge over the entrance to the dock was built. This however, slowed journey time, and so a new line was built in 1855, to take the route around the north side of the dock to Silvertown, and a station at Custom House opened where it re-connected with the original line. The older southern line was kept to serve local factories, where it

375-508: The ancient Greek city on the Gulf of Corinth, Naupactus , means "shipyard" (combination of the Greek words ναύς naus : "ship, boat"; and πήγνυμι pêgnumi , pegnymi : "builder, fixer"). Naupactus' reputation in this field extended back into legendary times – the site is traditionally identified by Greek authors such as Ephorus and Strabo as the place where a fleet was said to have been built by

400-531: The dock hosted the inaugural Great London Swim , a mass participation open water swim over a one-mile distance. The event has been held annually since then but on the first weekend in July. On 16 to 17 June 2018, the dock hosted the F1H2O Grand Prix of London won by Erik Stark . Britannia Village has its own Community Foundation. Royal Victoria Dock is the starting location for the annual Docklands Head,

425-576: The industry to third-world regions. The oldest structure sometimes identified as a dockyard was built c.  2400 BC by the Indus Valley civilisation in the Harappan port city of Lothal (in present-day Gujarat, India ). Lothal's dockyards connected to an ancient course of the Sabarmati river on the trade route between Harappan cities in Sindh and the peninsula of Saurashtra when

450-628: The legendary Heraclidae to invade the Peloponnesus . In the Spanish city of Barcelona , the Drassanes shipyards were active from at least the mid-13th century until the 18th century, although at times they served as a barracks for troops as well as an arsenal. During their time of operation the Drassanes were continuously changed, rebuilt and modified, but two original towers and part of

475-650: The original eight construction-naves remain today. The site is currently a maritime museum. From the 14th century, several hundred years before the Industrial Revolution , ships were the first items to be manufactured in a factory – in the Venice Arsenal of the Venetian Republic in present-day Italy . The Arsenal apparently mass-produced nearly one ship every day using pre-manufactured parts and assembly lines . At its height in

500-539: The present-day surrounding Kutch desert formed a part of the Arabian Sea . Lothal engineers accorded high priority to the creation of a dockyard and a warehouse to serve the purposes of maritime trade. The dock was built on the eastern flank of the town, and is regarded by archaeologists as an engineering feat of the highest order. It was located away from the main current of the river to avoid silting, but provided access to ships at high tide as well. The name of

525-527: The shore. The platform is used for the boarding and offloading of small boats. Shipyard A shipyard , also called a dockyard or boatyard , is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts , military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involved with original construction, dockyards are sometimes more linked with maintenance and basing activities. The terms are routinely used interchangeably, in part because

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550-566: Was also the first to use hydraulic power to operate its machinery and the first to be connected to the national railway network, via the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway section of what is now the North London line . It was initially known as "Victoria Dock"; the prefix "Royal" was granted in 1880. The dock was connected to the national rail network via a line which ran between Canning Town and North Woolwich . When

575-758: Was carried out by Wimpey Homes , the Peabody Trust and the East Thames Housing Group in the mid-1990s. Most of the original buildings were demolished but a few historic warehouses survived. More recent development has included the Royal Victoria Dock Bridge completed in 1998, and the ExCeL Exhibition Centre , constructed on the north quayside, which opened in November 2000. On 15 August 2009,

600-529: Was chosen by French electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre as the site for one of his signature large-scale concerts, eventually titled Destination Docklands . The area also inspired him to write the album Revolutions specifically for the event. The Royal Victoria Dock experienced major redevelopment initiated by the London Docklands Development Corporation in the 1990s. Developments included Britannia Village, which

625-524: Was known as the Silvertown Tramway. The Royal Victoria Dock consisted of a main dock and a basin to the west, providing an entrance to the Thames on the western side of the complex. The dock was deeply indented with four solid piers, each 152 m long by 43 m wide, on which were constructed two-storey warehouses. Other warehouses, granaries, shed and storage buildings surrounded the dock, which had

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