CHAPTER X - The West India Docks
The wet docks that were built along the Thames in
the early nineteenth century for the loading and
unloading of cargo were constructed in response to
growing demands for the modernization of the Port of
London. By the late eighteenth century the increase
in London's trade, both overseas and coastal, was
producing overcrowding in the river and delays in the
discharging of cargoes. Those quays which were licensed
by the Customs for the receipt of dutiable imports —
the 'legal quays' and 'sufferance wharves' — were
increasingly clogged and were unable to deal quickly
and efficiently with the volume of goods being landed.
Congestion was a particularly acute problem for vessels
engaged in the West India trade, which were in the
river for only a few months, from July to October.
The merchant community's exasperation with the
slowness of operations in the Port was exacerbated by
the inadequate security arrangements. The delays in
the bringing of cargoes off the river, the open quays
and the West India merchants' scattered warehousing
made it difficult to secure goods adequately. Losses
from theft, not least to the Exchequer itself, were
running at such a level that they were causing
increasing, indeed almost hysterical, concern by the
end of the eighteenth century. A solution to these
problems was seen to be enclosed wet docks, with
secure boundaries and ample quayside warehousing.
Figure 89:
London's enclosed wet docks in 1838, wiht the dates of opening
The numbers of vessels engaged in overseas trade
that used the port increased from 1,335 in 1705, to
1,682 in 1751, and to 3,663 in 1794, and the cargo
tonnage rose even more sharply, from 234,639 tons in
1751 to 620,845 in 1794. The size of ships also
increased in the eighteenth century: the number of
London-based ships of over 200 tons rose from 205
in 1732 to 751 by 1792. Coastal trade was said to
have almost doubled between 1750 and 1796, and was
growing rapidly in the 1790s, from 9,287 vessels in
1792 to 11,964 in 1795 (ref. 1) . Roughly two-thirds of coastal
vessels were colliers, and the demand for coal rose as
the city's population increased, from 675,000 to 900,000
inhabitants in the second half of the eighteenth century.
The problems in the Pool of London were at their
worst when the ships arrived from the West Indies
Some of the delays and difficulties were inherent in
the system of loading and unloading. The larger ships
discharged their cargoes into lighters that unloaded at
the 'legal quays' and 'sufferance wharves', which had
a very restricted frontage. The problems were increased
by the reduced depth of water at the quays and in
the channel, caused by the silt and sewage flowing out
of the city's sewers and by the deposit of ballast from
ships.
Similar problems had been experienced elsewhere
and had been tackled by the construction, during the
eighteenth century, of commercial wet docks at Bristol,
Hull, and, most notably and extensively, at Liverpool.
Henry Johnson's wet dock at Blackwall, completed in
1661, and converted to be the Brunswick Dock in
1790, and the Howland Dock at Rotherhithe, opened
in 1699, provided precedents for enclosed wet docks
on the Thames, although both were built for the
refitting of ships rather than as cargo docks.
The increasing demand from the merchants for a
system of commercial docks eventually received backing
from the Corporation of London, which had overall
responsibility for the river. It became aware that, unless
improvements were made, London would lose trade to
other British ports. This danger had increased with
the outbreak of the war with France in 1793, for the
vessels trading from the Atlantic ports ran less risk of
capture by privateers than did those using the ports
along the English Channel and North Sea coasts. The
war also increased the congestion in the river, for the
introduction of convoys for merchantmen meant that
vessels arrived in groups, rather than singly. Other
interests that had to be reconciled to a change in the
operation of the Port included Trinity House, which
was responsible for pilotage in the Thames, and the
Customs, wharf owners and operators, warehouse
keepers, watermen and lightermen.
Nevertheless, the obstacles were overcome, and by
the time that the first London dock boom came to an
end in 1815 the West India, East India and London
Docks had been built on the north side of the Thames,
and the Commercial and East Country Docks on the
Surrey side. Such coherent large-scale improvements
to London have seldom been attempted and rarely
achieved. The dock-building of the early nineteenth
century was the first major planned improvement of
London's fabric since the post-Fire rebuilding. The
other large docks built along the Thames during the
nineteenth century were the St Katharine, Poplar,
Royal Victoria, Millwall, Royal Albert and Tilbury
Docks on the north side, with additions to the Surrey
Docks on the south side. The West India, East India,
Millwall and Poplar Docks were within Poplar (fig. 89).