You cant park that there sir! The Royal Docks 1950.
The Royal Victoria Dock, which was opened in 1855, was the first dock built expressly for steam ships and the first to be planned with direct rail links onto the quay. The Royal Albert Dock was opened in 1880 by the Duke of Connaught after whom the modern swing bridge is named. The Albert was equipped with hydraulic cranes and steam winches to handle vessels up to 12,000 tons and was served by the Great Eastern Railway. The two docks were linked by the Connaught Passage.
By 1886 there were 7 enclosed dock systems within the Port of London, namely the London and St Katherine's Docks, the Surrey Docks, the West India Docks, the Millwall Docks, the East India Docks, the Royal Victoria Dock, the Royal Albert Dock and Tilbury Docks. By this time there was over-provision of dock facilities and this gave rise to financial difficulties for the dock companies, and the East and West India Docks Company went into receivership in 1886. Low financial returns led to a lack of investment in new facilities and, at a time of rapid advances in technology, the ports' facilities became increasingly obsolescent and inefficient.
A Royal Commission was appointed in 1900 to look into these problems and as a result the Port of London Act was passed in 1908. The Port of London Authority (PLA) came into being the following year and took over the powers of all the existing companies. The PLA began an immediate programme of modernisation, including the construction of a new dock able to take ships of up to 30,000 tons. Following a considerable debate on the merits of enclosed docks as opposed to deep water berths the PLA decided to build an enclosed dock south of the Royal Albert Dock. The King George V Dock was opened in 1921, completing the Royal group of docks which, as a whole, formed the largest area of impounded water in the world. Marsh land to the north, which is now Beckton, was earmarked for further expansion of the dock system but this was not to be. Royal Victoria and Royal Albert Docks handled bulk grain. The great mills on the south side of the Royal Victoria Dock - some now demolished – remain as a reminder of this.
The period from 1910-1950 the Royal Docks were relatively prosperous. The docks' layout permitted trans-shipment of break bulk cargos from ship to rail, to road and lighter transport or into warehouses for storage. Most of the cargo passing through the dock group was from deep sea trades, particularly with the British Commonwealth.
As refrigeration methods improved, they started handling frozen meat as well as fruit and vegetables. During the 1926 General Strike, the threat was posed of some 750,000 frozen carcasses in the Royals rotting when electrical power was cut off, but two Royal Navy submarines sailed in to save the Royals' bacon by connecting up their generators to keep the freezers going.
Passenger cargoes also became big business. King George V Dock could berth the biggest liners of the time. Passengers could travel from mainline London stations by rail, some staying overnight in the now Grade II listed Gallions Hotel.
Traffic through the Royal Docks reached its peak in the 1950s and early 1960s. After that containerisation and other technological changes, and a switch in Britain's trade following EEC membership, led to a rapid decline. By 1978 the financial losses incurred by the upper docks, and the Royals in particular, had brought the PLA to the brink of insolvency. On consulting the Government the PLA were told to prepare restructuring proposals with a view to achieving commercial viability. The PLA's initial solution, known as the Radical Approach, was to close the upstream docks which were losing £9m a year without any prospect of paying their way. From then on it was a down hill struggle and with the decline in trade the docks were used for the storage of laid up ships.
But by 1982/83 it was all over.....
