Security
Perimeter Walls and Boundary Ditch.
The freestanding boundary wall promised in 1799 was abandoned
in 1801 in favour of an inner perimeter wall linking the
outer elevations of the Import Dock warehouses, and an
outer boundary ditch or moat with a low railed wall; a
change in plan for which legislative sanction was necessary. The inner perimeter wall was built in 1802. The
Gwilts prepared plans with an estimate of £39,500,
Holmes and Bough undertook the excavation, and Adam
and the Robertsons built the wall, which was 30ft high,
with 12 million bricks made on site by John Fentiman. (ref. 697)
It enclosed the north, east and west quays of the Import
Dock, with articulation to accommodate warehouses that
were not then built. Parts of the wall survive as the outer
elevations of the Ledger Building (Dock Office) and the
link blocks west of Nos 1 and 2 Warehouses (see page
313) (Plate 53b; fig. III). The wall undulated, with long
curved sections alternating with short straight ones, using
the strengthening principal typical of a crinkle-crankle
wall. The concave outer faces of the curved sections
were slightly battered, and the angles were defined by
projecting piers. On John Rennie's advice, cornice-caps to
the piers were replaced with bevelled caps, to discourage
climbing. At the ends of the wall, north of the Import
Dock locks, there were tall cylindrical piers, probably
used to guide ships into the dock. (ref. 698)
The outer boundary ditch was an idea of Ralph Walker's. It was made in 1802 by Holmes and Bough, to
Walker's designs, around the north, east and west sides
of the Import Dock. It was 60ft outside the inner
perimeter wall, 20ft wide and lined with pine planks,
holding a 6ft depth of water. A dwarf wall surmounted
by 4ft-high iron railings was built just inside the ditch
in 1803–4 by Fentiman, Loat & Company at a cost of
£5,887. The plans were by Robert Mitchell, who was
employed because the Gwilts were too busy. (ref. 699) A length
of the outer wall and railings survives as restored in 1984.
It runs for approximately 200ft, just west of the south
end of West India Dock Road, serving as the boundary
to the garden of Dockmaster's House, the drop to which
reflects the ditch.
The ditch came to be used as an open sewer. In 1862
it was said to be a 'great nuisance' and consideration was
given to covering it. (ref. 700) Much of it was on land compulsorily purchased by the Midland Railway Company
in 1882, with an understanding that it would be culverted. (ref. 701) This was not done until 1896, after representations from the Port Sanitary Authority and the
Poplar Board of Works' Medical Officer of Health. Most
of the railed dwarf wall was raised at the same time. The
work was carried out by John Mowlem & Company. (ref. 702)
In 1928–9 the wall and railings were largely replaced by
Customs fencing. (ref. 703)
The south side of the Import Dock was secured in
1804–5 with a 20ft-high brick wall. This was set out by
the Gwilts, with Thomas Morris designing 36 doorways,
and built by J. & W. Broomfield, using about seven
million bricks, at a cost of £28,679. (ref. 704) The north perimeter
wall had been built to link largely completed warehouses,
but this wall was a free-standing structure running for
about half a mile, undulating through its whole length
(Plate 54d). As in the earlier wall, short straight sections
alternated with long curved ones, with angle piers and
squared projections. The wall was up to 4ft thick, with
a slightly battered outer face. On its south side there was
a railed area. (ref. 705)
Security was increased with the development of the
Rum Quay in 1816–18. A fence was erected on top of
the Rum Quay section of wall, and the pier cornices were
replaced with bevelled caps. Seamen continued to attempt
to scale the wall to get at the rum and so, at the insistence
of Customs, the wall-top fence was replaced with a railing
topped with chevaux de frise. (ref. 706) The east end of the
Import Dock's south perimeter wall was demolished in
1874, for extension of the East Wood Wharf, and another
section to the west was removed in 1878. (ref. 707) Much of the
remainder was destroyed in 1936 and 1940, although
parts stood until 1950. (ref. 708)
A security wall, 12ft high, was built around the south,
east and west quays of the Export Dock in 1807–8 at a
cost of £9,439, using money forwarded to the dock
company through the Consolidated Fund. Thomas
Morris set out the wall, and Stewart, Aslat & Company
built it using 1,800,000 bricks, with Hugh McIntosh
responsible for the foundations. (ref. 709) Its height was increased
by 4ft in 1816. (ref. 710) Most of the wall was demolished in
1869 with the building of the South Dock. It had become
entirely internal to the dock estate and an impediment
to export business. (ref. 711)
The Blackwall Basin was enclosed by brick walls built
by Stewart, Aslat & Company in 1809. (ref. 712) The wall north
of the basin was replaced with fencing in 1853, and with
brick walling in 1873, erected by the North London
Railway Company to enclose Poplar Dock (see page 342).
The wall south of the basin was cleared in the late
nineteenth century.
Brick walls with 'sliding fences' enclosed Limehouse
Basin. They were set out by Thomas Morris and built
in 1810–11. (ref. 713) The public road between the Limehouse
entrance locks was re-routed by the dock company in
1818–19, with a high boundary wall on its east side,
much of which survived until 1988–9. This wall was
built by the Broomfields using stock bricks supplied by
the Trimmers, on foundations by Johnson & Son, with
masonry by John Kitson. (ref. 714) An opening in the wall led
to the bridge over the Export Dock lock (Plate 50a). It
was flanked by stone and brick piers with WIDC cast-iron
obelisk bollards. When the ground within the wall became
the Dye Wood Yard in 1827, the wall was raised to 14ft
and extended at its south end to link with the Export
Dock perimeter wall. (ref. 715) The roadside wall was extended
as far as the South Dock entrance lock in the 1840s,
with a gateway and piers on to the South Dock north
quay.
The West India Dock Company's acquisition of the
City Canal in 1829 gave the dock estate a new southern
boundary. A large open sewer built with the Timber
Pond in 1832 served as a moat between the docks and
the fields of the Isle of Dogs. (ref. 716) The sewer was filled in
when the South Dock was rebuilt and, in 1868–71, a
12ft-tall south boundary timber fence on raised ground
was erected by George Wythes, from Ord Street to what
later became the Glen Field. A brick wall was built east
of the South Dock Basin in 1872. (ref. 717)
Security became a much less important consideration
from the 1830s, as the docks came to be used for bulk as
well as valuable goods. The 'closed system' was abandoned in 1850, and the public was allowed to pass freely
through parts of the dock system on recognized footways.
Visitors were not entirely discouraged, and in 1883 the
first descriptive guide to the docks was published. (ref. 718)
Walls no longer required for Customs purposes were
demolished where they impeded internal traffic. Perimeter security was provided by fences where brick walls
did not already exist, with timber and corrugated iron
giving way to concrete-panel fencing in the twentieth
century.
West India Dock Road Entrance, Hibbert Gate and
Milligan Statue.
The entrance to the West India Docks
from the Commercial (West India Dock) Road was originally by means of a timber drawbridge over the boundary
ditch. This was replaced in 1805–6 with a brick arch
bridge, designed by Thomas Morris to include entrance
gates in line with the boundary ditch wall. These were
erected in 1809 as three rusticated Portland stone piers
with dwarf pediments and acroteria cappings, and rockfaced bases. There were two pairs of wrought-iron gates,
18ft wide, with diamond patterning and chevaux de frise
over spearhead railings (Plate 52e). The piers, two of
which survive, cost £349. (ref. 719)
The west gateway through the inner perimeter wall
was the principal entrance to the secure area of the docks.
It was treated with more architectural pomp than any
other part of the dock system, save perhaps for the
north quay clock-turret. In 1802 it was reported that 'a
magnificent entrance or gateway to the quays is intended,
with allegorical devices'. (ref. 720) This may have been intended
to emulate the East India Company's recent gateways at
Free Trade Wharf and Cutler Street. The entrance was
made in 1803, presumably to designs by the Gwilts. (ref. 721) A
rusticated Portland stone arch was surmounted by a
pediment carrying a masterpiece of Coade stone, a 10ftlong model West Indiaman named The Hibbert (Plate
52c). The pedimental inscription was added in 1806. (ref. 722)
The archway, which had a pair of tall wrought-iron gates,
was large enough to admit carts and wagons on to the
quays. The flanking sections of perimeter wall curved
out to piers, beyond which there were small rusticated
stuccoed arches to gated footway entrances, with a clock
over the south gate. This entrance, which came to be
known variously as Hibbert Gate, Ship Gate, or Clock
Gate, was where visitors to the docks were admitted.
It therefore came to be an emblem of the West India
Docks, and formed part of the arms of the Borough
of Poplar. Hibbert Gate and its flanking walls were
dismantled in 1932, following representations from
PLA tenants that the narrow archway impeded traffic.
The model ship was presented to Poplar Borough
Council and re-erected in Poplar Recreation Ground.
It was damaged by bombing and vandals during the
Second World War, and collapsed during an attempt
to move it to Poplar Library. (ref. 723)
Following the death in 1809 of Robert Milligan, the
prime force behind the establishment of the West India
Docks, the dock company erected a bronze statue to
his memory. It was made by Richard Westmacott in
1810–12 for £1,400, and was placed within the Hibbert
Gate, immediately south of the Dock Office entrance
portico (Plate 52e). (ref. 724) The statue is a frank and
unidealized representation of a merchant, thus anticipating Victorian bourgeois statuary. The caduceus at
Milligan's feet signifies Mercury, patron saint of
commerce, and the relief on the granite pedestal depicts
Britannia receiving commerce. (ref. 725)
Milligan's statue was at the centre of an open area,
referred to as 'The Square', occasionally roofed in with
canvas as a sorting floor. In time the statue became an
obstacle. Traffic arising from the admittance of carmen
to the north quay led in 1875 to its removal to the top
of the central pier at the West India Dock Road
entrance. (ref. 726) The pier was dismantled in 1943 to admit
wider vehicles through a single gate. (ref. 727) The statue survives
as part of the Museum in Docklands Collection. The
original West India Dock Road entrance gates were
reinstated with a rebuilt central pier in 1951, removed
again in 1958–9. (ref. 728) The caps of the outer piers were
replaced in 1984. (ref. 729)
Guard Houses.
The West India Dock fortress required
sentries, and policing was an important consideration
from the outset. In 1798 theft in the river had led the
Committee of West India Merchants, with government
support, to adopt Patrick Colquhoun's scheme for a river
police. This was effective, but needed reinforcement by
land-based forces at the docks. A threat of arson in early
1802 provoked the dock company to apply for a Military
Guard at the warehouses. This was agreed to on the
condition that accommodation was provided. John
Lyney's former ropemaking workshop (see page 398) was
fitted up as a barracks for 30 guardsmen, and sentryboxes were erected along the Import Dock north quay. (ref. 730)
Once the docks opened and Customs officers were in
attendance, the force was reduced to 13 men. (fn. k) It soon
became evident that, whether through insufficient
numbers, corruption, or simply the absence of a south
wall, the Military Guard and Customs were failing to
prevent theft. In late 1802 the dock company appointed
its own 'Peace Officers'. These constables were given
general surveillance duties around the docks and became
a permanent part of the establishment, evolving into the
dock company, and later the PLA, police. (ref. 732) In 1808 fear
of French attack prompted the government to consider
increasing the Military Guard. It was observed that despite
800 yards of dock wall and patrols with bloodhounds a
'serious "desperado" could penetrate the site and start a
conflagration'. (ref. 733) The Military Guard departed in 1822,
when the dock company's monopoly status was under
review. By then there were 20 dock company constables,
and more were enlisted to replace the Guard. (ref. 734)
The Military Guard had moved outside the dock estate
to accommodation in Poplar by 1804. Provision was
made for Guard barracks at the docks through the 1807
Consolidated Fund loan and, by 1808, a Military Guard
House had been built in Harrow Lane (see page 88). In
1813 the company moved the Military Guard to a more
convenient location, just north of the Limehouse Basin.
John Rennie designed a Guard House in 1812 and it was
built by William Moore (brickwork), Charles Norton
(ironwork), Howkins, Barker & Company (carpentry),
and Francis Bernasconi (stucco-work). It was a twostorey stuccoed-brick building, conventional except in its
use of cast iron for the floor joists and the trusses and
covering of its hipped roof, presumably to reduce fire
risk. (ref. 735) It combined a large galleried soldiers' room, a
mess room and officers' bedrooms with dockmaster's,
gatemen's and police constables' offices, together with a
rear shed that housed two fire-engines. (ref. 736) In 1840 a
printing office was established in the shed, the western
half of the building was subsequently made a dwelling,
and in 1871 the large guard room to the east was
converted into an office for the warrant clerks, who
supplied importers with warrants for goods warehoused
at the docks. (ref. 737) The office was let to the Shipping
Federation in 1894. (ref. 738) The building was destroyed by
bombing in 1944. After the Second World War the
PLA built new premises on the site for the Shipping
Federation. (ref. 739)
A one-room Guard House was built at the west end
of the Blackwall Basin in 1821, to provide a secondary
station for the Military Guard away from Limehouse.
The building was designed by John Rennie and erected
by Elizabeth Broomfield. It too had an iron roof, supplied
by the Horseley Company. (ref. 740) When the Guard departed,
Customs officers were accommodated in the building,
which was demolished in 1875. (ref. 741)
Round Houses.
The perimeter walls and armed security
forces failed to eradicate all theft at the docks. In late
1803 it was agreed that a 'Watch House' was needed in
which to detain suspected thieves before handing them
over to the magistrates. (ref. 742) The Gwilts designed two small
circular domed 'lodges', which were built by John Stark
in 1804–5 outside the boundary ditch immediately west
of the Hibbert Gate (Plate 52b). The southern round
house was the lock-up, the other was an armoury or
magazine for 120 muskets for the Military Guard and
the dock company's own regiment, formed to protect the
docks in case of invasion. Both buildings apparently
doubled as guard houses for the dock company constables. (ref. 743) The northern one survives. It has panelled
stock-brick sides, Portland stone dressings, including
some original ventilation slits, and, as originally, copper
on its brick dome.
One of the round houses was converted to use as a
secure store for books in 1815, and the northern building
was made more comfortable in 1818 by the addition of a
fireplace and a panelled stone chimney. (ref. 744) They later
became police stores, occasionally used for the deposit of
stolen goods. The southern round house was demolished
in 1922–3 to make way for a railway siding. (ref. 745) The
survivor was later adapted as a sorting and distributing
centre for the PLA's internal messenger service, and in
1981–3 was refurbished as part of the Cannon Workshops
project and let as a small office (see page 324). Its copper
roof and sash windows were restored by the LDDC in
1986, through Feilden & Mawson, architects. (ref. 746)
Police Offices.
The dock company police forces were
reconstituted as the PLA Police in 1909. This was a force
of more than 500 men, with responsibility for security
over a very wide area, to which the West India Docks
were roughly central. In 1913 E. C. Stuart Baker, the
first Chief of the PLA Police, pointed out the need for
offices at the West India Docks to keep police registers
and other records, suggesting a site near the north-east
corner of the stores quadrangle. The existing police office
was the four-room building attached to the west end of
the Dock Office. The proposal was approved, and C. R. S.
Kirkpatrick designed a two-storey building, erected in
1914 by L. & W. Whitehead at a cost of £3,097. (ref. 747) The
Police Offices are of red engineering brick, with stone
dressings and a steel-trussed and slate-covered hipped
roof. The entrance is in the left side of a quadrastyle
Doric portico, probably conceived as an echo of the
hexastyle porticoes to the early nineteenth-century
Customs and Excise office buildings near by. There is a
date plaque in the parapet of the portico.
From 1954 the building was no longer the Chief Police
Office, but was given over to Divisional Police staff. (ref. 748) In
1981–3 it was converted to offices, with a caretaker's flat,
as part of the Cannon Workshops scheme (see page 324).