West Waterloo Dock is a dock on the River Mersey, England and part of the Port of Liverpool. It is situated in the northern dock system in Vauxhall and connected to Princes Half Tide Dock to the south. The site of Victoria Dock is located to the north.
The dock was designed by Jesse Hartley and opened in 1834 as Waterloo Dock and named after the Battle of Waterloo.
An observatory was built here for astronomical and meteorological observations and to provide accurate time for ships' chronometers in 1843. From 1866, the observatory was relocated to Bidston Hill on the Wirral Peninsula when the dock was redeveloped.[1]
In 1868, Waterloo Dock was split in two separate basins; East Waterloo Dock and West Waterloo Dock.[2] Initially planned eleven years earlier, the lock entrance from the Mersey was finally opened in 1949. Construction was delayed due to the Second World War.[2]
The dock closed to shipping in 1988. The entrance channel from the river and part of the dock has since been filled.
In 2007, work began on a £20 million extension of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, providing a further 1.4 miles of navigable waterway and encompassing Princes Half Tide Dock.[3] A new 6.5 metre wide channel from Trafalgar Dock to the northern end of West Waterloo Dock will be excavated as part of the canal route.[4]
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