Royal Victoria Dock
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The Royal Victoria Dock is the largest of three docks in the Royal Docks of east London, now part of the redeveloped Docklands.
[edit] History
Opened in 1855 on a previously uninhabited area of the Plaistow Marshes, it was the first of the Royal Docks and the first London dock to be designed specifically to accommodate large steam ships. It was also the first to use hydraulic power to operate its machinery and the first to be connected to the national railway network via what is now the North London Line. It consisted of a main dock and a basin to the west, providing an entrance to the Thames on the western side of the complex. The dock was deeply indented with four solid piers, each 152m long by 43m wide, on which were constructed two-storey warehouses. Other warehouses, granaries, shed and storage buildings surrounded the dock, which had a total of 3.6km of quays.
The dock was an immediate commercial success, as it could easily accommodate all but the very largest steamships. By 1860, it was already taking over 850,000 tons of shipping a year - double that of the London Docks, four times that of St Katharine Docks and 70% more than the West India Dock and East India Docks combined. It was badly damaged by German bombing in World War II but experienced a resurgence in trade following the war. However, from the 1960s onwards, the Royal Victoria experienced a steady decline - as did all of London's other docks - as the shipping industry adopted containerization, which effectively moved traffic downstream to Tilbury. It finally closed to commercial traffic along with the other Royal Docks in 1980.
[edit] The Dock Today
The Royal Victoria Dock has since experienced major redevelopment under the London Docklands Development Corporation. The dock itself still exists and is accessible to ships, although its western entrance has been filled in and it is now used chiefly for watersports. Its transport links have been greatly improved with new roads and Docklands Light Railway lines running along both its north and south side. Most of the original warehouses have been demolished but the historic 19th century K-S and W Warehouses - both listed buildings - have survived. These buildings along with the Spillers Mill were used as the backdrop for a spectacular show by the acclaimed French Musician, Jean-Michel Jarre on the 8th and 9th October 1988. An estimated one million people braved the elements to watch the fireworks, projections, lasers and lights (including WWII searchlights) and listen to the music of Jarre including Oxygene IV, Magnetic Fields and tracks from the album, Revolutions. The dock is dominated by the ExCeL Exhibition Centre, constructed on the north quayside and opened in November 2000, and by the adjacent high level Royal Victoria Dock Bridge. The waterside location of ExCel is used to advantage when it hosts the annual London Boat Show, with visiting vessels moored alongside the exhibition centre. On the south side of the Dock is Britannia Village. This award winning development, which included the high level footbridge, was commissioned by LDDC and carried out by Wimpey Homes, the Peabody Trust and the East Thames Housing Group between 1994 and the end of the decade. Phase II of the project was left to the LDDC’s successors. This was a development around the Pontoon Dock to include a village centre with mixed development of business, retail and leisure facilities and up to 700 new homes. Now the responsiblity of the London Development Agency, this development is now known as Silvertown Quays and includes proposals to refurbish the remaining mills along the waterfront for new uses and an aquarium. Britannia Village has is own Community Foundation
