The Docks
Inner Dock and Outer Dock
The reversed-L plan of the Millwall Docks is a truncated
version of the inverted-T plan projected in 1863 as a
350ft-wide 'canal'. The dimensions and particulars of the
built section of docks had been settled by (Sir) John
Fowler and William Wilson by July 1865 when (Sir) John
Kelk and John Aird & Son began the excavation work
(fig. 126b). There were extensive tramways and two
pumping steam engines on the south side of the estate
to drain the works. Excavation was relatively easy because
the land was low, generally about 10ft below high water,
and the spoil could be used on site to raise the level of
the quays. (ref. 80) There were 2,000 to 3,000 labourers at work,
reportedly well organized, and progress was rapid. (ref. 81) Work
on the concrete-and-brick dock walls had started by the
beginning of 1866. In January 1867 the walls of the Outer
Dock were coped, and the Inner Dock was well advanced.
The docks were completed, with the quays of the Outer
Dock levelled, in July 1867. The eastern end of the Outer
Dock near East Ferry Road was an unwalled bank, as an
extension eastwards remained a possibility. (ref. 82)
More than 8,000ft of dock wall, between 28ft and 30ft
high, was built to enclose 35½ acres of water, 24ft deep
(fig. 129a). This walling survives, but it is behind later
quays except at the north end of the Inner Dock and
along the south quay of the Outer Dock. It has straight
sides with a slight batter, and a brick skin about 2ft thick
backed by mass concrete up to 11ft 6in. thick. Horizontal
bands of brickwork tie the facing into the backing. The
walls originally had Bramley Fall stone copings with
continuous mooring rails. (ref. 83)
The east extension was deferred, and so the bank at
the eastern end of the Outer Dock was wharfed with
timber in 1870–1, by John Langham Reed to plans by
Wilson. This frontage and the land behind up to the
Millwall Extension Railway was a barge-railway wharf
for the Great Eastern Railway Company from 1872 to
1926 (fig. 128). (ref. 84) The wharf was used thereafter as a
rubbish depot by Hudsons Limited who, in 1932–3,
raised the quay in concrete. (ref. 85) The quay was rebuilt in
the late 1980s.
The Millwall Passage gave ships access to the Millwall
Docks via the West India Docks from 1928 (see page
281), and a common impounding system came into
operation in 1930, increasing water depths. Because the
batter of the 1860s walling prevented large ships of deep
draught mooring alongside, sections of the dock walls
were altered. In 1926–7 John Mowlem & Company put
up timber wharfing along the south end of the west quay
of the Inner Dock as a 'false' quay. It was straight-sided
and allowed dredging to a depth below the original
footings (Plate 58a). (ref. 86) The north and west quays of the
Outer Dock were altered with brick and concrete in 1926–
9, by Walker-Weston & Company and L. J. Speight. (ref. 87) The
east wall of the Inner Dock was given a 'false' quay in
1937–8, designed by Asa Binns and built by John
Mowlem & Company to allow 29ft of water alongside.
This comprised steel sheet-piling and a concrete deck,
7ft 9in. wide, over concrete fill. (ref. 88)
Repairs to the south quay of the Outer Dock carried
out in 1943, following bomb damage, involved some
rebuilding in brick and much recoping in concrete. (ref. 89) The
'false' quay on the west side of the Inner Dock was
replaced by C. J. Sims Limited in 1953 with another
similar to that of 1937–8 at the opposite quay. (ref. 90) The
north quay of the Outer Dock was 'rebuilt' again in 1959,
although the brick facing was retained. In 1962–3 the
west quay of the Outer Dock was given a 'false' quay on
concrete beams cantilevered 10ft over the water. (ref. 91) Another
variant was used on the opposite quay in 1966, John
Mowlem & Company forming a 'false' quay of precast
concrete sheet-piling and coping, slab decks and concrete
fill. (ref. 92) In the 1980s the quays were largely paved with
bricks and recoped in concrete.
Figure 129:
Millwall Docks, dock- and lock-wall sections, 1865–7a Inner Dock and Outer Dock: b Entrance Lock: c Millwall Dock Graving Dock
The 'horn' or Y-shaped cast-iron quay bollards that
survive around the India and Millwall Docks are of a
patent type designed in the 1920s by Edward Joseph
Bean and John Crighton. Bean was a PLA Dockmaster
at the West India Docks, and resident of Bridge House
from 1925 to 1928, and Crighton was the Managing
Director of the London Graving Dock Company (see
page 275). These bollards allow variable and secure
mooring with fewer turns of rope than on a plain bollard.
Some of the earlier, and more bulbous, 'Bean' bollards
were cast by T. R. Creighton Limited. (ref. 93) The more angular
bollards are probably 1940s replacements. The 'Bean'
bollards on the west and north quays of the Millwall
Docks were made in 1926–9 and reset when the quays
were rebuilt. (ref. 94) Those along the west end of the south
quay and at the dry dock were put up in 1930. (ref. 95) The
east-quay 'Bean' bollards probably date from 1937–8.
There are earlier crosshead, or T-shaped, quay bollards
at the north end of the Inner Dock and around the Outer
Dock.
Entrance Lock
Early plans for a tidal basin and timber-gated passages
at the west entrance to the Millwall Docks were abandoned in late 1864 in favour of a large double lock (figs
125, 126a). The two locks of unequal length allow the
economical locking of vessels of varying sizes. The plans
were amended in 1865 to make the outer lock the larger
one. (ref. 96) Excavation began in the summer of 1865 and work
on the coffer-dam outside the entrance in early 1866.
The lock was the 'most difficult part' of the works and
progress was slow. A contract for iron lock gates, sluices,
capstans and related hydraulic machinery went to W. G.
Armstrong & Company in April 1867. The gates were
erected, and photographed, under the supervision of
James Hendry of Armstrong & Company, and the lock
was completed by August (Plate 57a). (ref. 97)
When it opened the Millwall Dock entrance lock was
the largest lock in London, being 80ft wide with chambers
247ft and 198ft long. It was 28ft deep at high water at
the centre of the sill and 23ft deep at the sides (fig.
129b). The brick inverts are 3ft 9in. thick on a bed of
concrete, and the side walls, which are between 6ft and
13ft thick, are straight-sided, with facings of Staffordshire
blue brick. Horizontal brick bands bind into the concrete
backing, as in the main dock walls. There were Bramley
Fall stone copings, and granite was used at the gate-sills
and heel-posts. Sluices and culverts allowed water to pass
between the lock and the dock or the river, or directly
from the dock to the river with a discharge to scour the
gate platforms. The massive wrought-iron gate leafs
were each 42ft 3in. wide by 34ft high and weighed
approximately 60 tons (Plate 57a). The outer gates were
perforated on the river side to allow water to flow through
compartments, thereby reducing the effect of impact
damage. (ref. 98)
The gates were originally operated by hydraulically
powered windlasses, replaced by hydraulic jiggers c1875. (ref. 99)
In 1906 two 3-ton capstans on the inner side of the lock
were replaced with direct-acting, double-headed capstans
from C. & A. Musker Limited, of Liverpool. In 1910
that firm supplied three more hydraulic capstans, with
capacities of between three and ten tons, one of which
survives on the south pierhead. (ref. 100)
The entrance lock was set to be substantially repaired
and altered in 1939, but the outbreak of war caused the
work to be deferred. (ref. 101) The lock was badly damaged in
September 1940, when bombing destroyed the middle
gates, hydraulic machinery, sluices, culverts and part of
the south wing wall. Reconstruction to a revised version
of the pre-war plans was proposed for 1949, but the work
was postponed because of government restrictions on
capital expenditure. (ref. 102) By 1955 the cost of reconstruction
could no longer be justified, and concern regarding the
strength of the inner gates, and the effect of the unused
lock on impounding and dredging costs, led to damming
of the lock inside the Outer Dock. The dam was built in
1956 by John Mowlem & Company using precast-concrete blocks and timber taken from a temporary dam at
the Royal Albert Dock. (ref. 103) Redevelopment around the
quays brought increasing traffic to the Millwall Docks in
the 1960s, and a rebuilding of the lock was again considered before it was permanently closed in 1967, its east
end filled so that the road bridge would not have to be
replaced. (ref. 104)
The lock was left to silt up until 1988–90 when the
London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC),
with Robert West Partners and M. J. Cagney as engineers,
filled it as far as the outer gate recesses, leaving a slipway.
The south pierhead was landscaped and a hydraulic jigger
from the middle-gate machinery was mounted on display.
Millwall Dock Graving Dock
Dry docks for ship-repair were central to early plans for
the Millwall Docks. Up to six were to have been built
off the quays of the wet docks, but by 1865 these had
withered to one. It was sited west of the medieval Chapel
of St Mary (see page 375), until, late in 1865, William
Wilson moved it on to the chapel site (fig. 126). Excavation for the graving dock was well advanced in January
1866, when Wilson submitted plans finally settling its
dimensions. (ref. 105) The dock was completed by July 1867 and
its caisson, supplied by W. G. Armstrong & Company,
was in position by the end of August. (ref. 106)
Opened in 1868, the dry dock was said to be the best
on the Thames (fig. 129c). It was certainly one of the
largest, at 413ft long by 65ft wide at the entrance (90ft
inner width at ground level), with a depth of 25ft. It is
founded on a series of inverted brick arches on concrete,
with a walling system comparable to that of the wet
docks. Originally there were nine altars with York-stone
treads and brick risers. Under the altars were recesses or
movable 'bilge-block carriages', to assist in propping up
the ships. The keel blocks were of Bramley Fall stone.
The dock was emptied by means of two culverts at its
head. Most of the water was discharged at low tide
through the upper culvert, which ran to the river just
outside the entrance lock. The residual water was pumped
out through the lower culvert. (ref. 107)
Despite the promise made to Parliament, the graving
dock was not 'public'. From the outset it was let to
shipbuilders and repairers, not to shipowners. C. J. Mare,
of the Millwall Iron Works, was given a six-month lease
of the dock and surrounding land in September 1868,
but came to be seen as 'undesirable' and was refused a
renewal (see page 473). (ref. 108) After another short letting,
J. Langham Reed & Company took a seven-year lease.
In 1870 this firm replaced the pumping machinery with
three Gwynne & Company engines and four boilers in a
building with an 85ft-tall chimney at the south-west
corner of the dry-dock site. Office and store buildings
were put up near the pumping station. The lease was
transferred to Smith, Pender & Company, of Nelson
Wharf, Millwall, in 1871 and a new seven-year lease
went to Donald Johnson & Company, of Regent Dock,
Millwall, in 1876. (ref. 109)
The shipping trade was depressed in 1883 and so the
dock company briefly worked the graving dock as a
'public' facility, rebuilding and refitting the boiler house
in 1884–5, when the adjacent hydraulic pumping station
was improved (see page 369). The Dry Docks Corporation
of London had the dock in 1886, then it was again
'public' until in 1889 it was taken by Rait & Gardiner,
who occupied ship-repair workshops west of the dry dock
from 1878. (ref. 110) In 1896 this firm proposed lengthening the
dock, because larger ships had made it less useful.
However, the dock company did not agree to the
project. (ref. 111)
Within months of its formation in 1909, the PLA
resolved to stop letting the dry dock and to lengthen it to
accommodate the largest ships admissible to the Millwall
Docks. Frederick Palmer prepared plans in 1910 and
Gwynne's Limited supplied electrically driven de-watering pumps, placed below ground level near the east
side of the entrance. The lengthening to 555ft was done
in 1911–13 at a cost of £13,619, the whole project costing
£23,468. (ref. 112) In 1919, 2-ton capstans at the entrance of the
dry dock were replaced with 5-ton capstans; one of the
old capstans being moved to the head of the dock. A 25ton electric crane was erected on the west side of the
dock and the engine house of 1870 was converted to be
an air compressor house. The caisson was replaced in
1922 with one built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham, Richardson, of Wallsend-on-Tyne. (ref. 113) To cope with larger
vessels coming to the dock through the Millwall Passage,
a 10-ton hydraulic capstan from Carrick & Wardale was
fitted in 1930. (ref. 114)
Closure of the dry dock was proposed in 1966, as it
was losing money. Ship-repairers failed to persuade the
PLA to lease it, and it was closed and flooded on
30 October 1968. The site and the 25-ton crane were
subsequently used for a barge berth. (ref. 115) The dry dock area
was redeveloped as the Clippers Quay housing estate in
1984–8 (see page 698). The altars were covered by
walkways and a laminated timber bridge, made by Laminated Wood Limited of Bideford, was erected over the
dock entrance.
Surviving Structures
In 1994, the dock walls of 1866–7 are basically intact,
though much rebuilt and repaired, with a variety of
twentieth-century false quays. The entrance lock remains,
though largely filled and landscaped. The graving dock
also survives, water-filled and part-covered.