Once the longest brick building in the world
Museum in Docklands
The warehouse that houses the museum opened for trade in 1803. Its purpose was to store an enormous range of goods imported from all over the world. At the time it stretched for half a mile along the waterfront.
Technology has played its part not only in creating and developing the docklands but also in destroying them in war time.
The origins of the dock basin
As trade along the Thames expanded, congestion on the river called for bold solutions. Engineers transformed the situation in the early nineteenth century by creating vast dock basins on the Isle of Dogs (1802), Wapping (1805), Blackwall (1806) and Rotherhithe (1806/12).
Docklands at war
The Blitz during the second World War cause immense damage to docklands. Even so the people of the docks contributed to the war effort in many ways. The Port had an important role in the Dunkirk rescue as well as taking part in secret projects such as the construction of the Maunsell Forts; the Pipe Line Under The Ocean (PLUTO) and the huge breakwaters for the Mulberry Harbours.
From port to new city
From the 1980s the docks went through another transformation after the new containerised dock trade had moved away from the Thames. What had become a wasteland grew into a new city with new forms of transport, many new homes and an outstanding financial district around Canary Wharf.
Submitted by: Andrew Hunt, 21 January 2007
