The East India Docks

In their early years the East India Docks were quite profitable. However, the dock’s monopoly on trade with the Far East ended in 1827. To protect the docks from the resulting competition an agreement was reached whereby the East India Company paid the dock company an annual fee for use of the docks.

In the early 1830s the East India Company itself suffered a financial crisis. Their India monopoly had ended in 1813 and their China monopoly in 1833. With the financial crisis at the East India Company the dock company was deprived of its use of the warehouses in the City. With the opening of the St. Katharine Docks and new riverside wharves there was over-capacity for the berthing of ships on the Thames and the business became highly competitive. The East India Docks had been created with minimal warehousing from which to profit in the new, competitive open market in which it then found itself. On the other hand, the West India Docks had too much warehousing. It therefore made sense for the two companies to merge, which they did in 1838. Thereafter the two sets of docks no longer specialised in West India or East India trades but handled general merchandise, whatever its origin.

The wide entrance lock of the East India Docks, which had been enlarged to 65-feet wide in the 1870s, made them accessible to larger ships than at the West India Docks. Wooden jetties were increasingly built out into the import dock to provide additional berths. New warehouses were constructed around the quays for certain types of goods. Jute and seed became specialities and for a period in the mid-century the docks handled the import and storage of guano, which was used as fertilizer. While trade was brisk, a new railway line was constructed through the centre of the docks, as a branch line from Poplar. The East India continued to be popular docks with shipowners during the mid- to latter-19^th century due to its compact size and good management. By the 1880s it was dealing in rice, jute, seed, wheat, wool and tallow, as well as frozen meat from the Falkland Islands. Ships were arriving from Australia and other colonies and from America, with many of them being sailing ships of the Aberdeen line and steamers of both the Union Castle line and Shaw, Saville & Company.

All the London docks were nationalised in 1909 under the Port of London Authority and the East India Docks were grouped together with the nearby West India and Millwall Docks for administrative purposes. The PLA then embarked on an ambitious programme of reorganisation and improvements. Their first priority was the West India Docks but upgrades were first made at the East India Docks so shipping could be diverted there during the disruption at the West India. The passage between the Import Dock and Basin was widened to allow for larger ships to enter and the water depth increased to allow for deeper ships. In the early decades of the 20^th century a variety of goods were arriving at the East India Docks, including bananas and oil.

In 1912-13 the London County Council widened East India Dock Road, which ran across the north of the site and the PLA sold them a strip of land on the north side of the docks. The PLA widened the north quay of the Import Dock and built a new boundary wall. The older warehouses there were replaced by three-storey sheds, which soon after were adapted with cold storage for the meat trade. The main gate was then replaced slightly to the south of the original to allow for the road widening.

In preparation for the D-Day landings in Normandy during the Second World War Mulberry harbours were manufactured. They were concrete chambers that could be floated across the English Channel to act as temporary harbours and the East India Docks were one of the locations where they were built. The Import Dock was drained while they were being made and then refilled to float the caissons.

Over time ships became too large for them to use the older docks such as the East India. The river was too shallow, the docks too shallow, and entrance locks too narrow. The bigger ships berthed further downriver at the Royal Docks and Tilbury. There was a surplus of capacity in the old docks and it made sense for the PLA to close down any under-used docks to save on maintenance and sell off the land. The Export Dock was badly damaged by bombing during the war, with oil storage warehouses hit. It was never reopened and between 1947 and 1956 the Brunswick Power Station was built over it. The Import Dock was partially filled in and the western end used for storage.

During the 1950s the East India Import Dock handled short-sea and coastal traffic, especially ships in the linoleum trade, and was used in the 1960s by the Fred Olsen line for the Canary Islands fruit and vegetable trade.

The main gateway of the East India Docks was demolished in 1958 to make way for the approach road to the Blackwall Tunnel. The Import Dock eventually closed in 1967 and was gradually filled in between the late 1960s and mid-1980s. It became the site of the Financial Times building and later a BT switching centre. Brunswick Power Station was itself eventually replaced by an apartment block.

The only surviving basin of the East India Docks is the Entrance Basin, which eventually became a nature reserve as part of the Lee Valley Park with several Grade II listed features. Various walls and gates also remain around the area, including a gate into the former East India Company pepper warehouse. A large stone plaque from the entrance gate that commemorated the opening of the docks was moved to stand beside northern entrance of the Blackwall Tunnel.

Sources include: Sir Joseph Broodbank ‘The History of the Port of London’ (1921); John Pudney ‘London’s Docks’; Nick Robbins ‘The Corporation That Changed The World’; British History Online; ‘The Diary of Samuel Pepys’.

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