Royal Victoria Dock
Encyclopedia
Royal Docks
The Royal Docks comprise three docks in east London - the Royal Albert Dock, the Royal Victoria Dock and the King George V Dock. They are more correctly called the Royal Group of Docks to distinguish them from the Royal Dockyards, Royal being due to their naming after royal personages rather than...
of east London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, now part of the redeveloped Docklands.
History
Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway
The Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway in east London connected the Royal Docks with the Eastern Counties Railway . Authorised in 1844, it opened in 1846, and was absorbed by the ECR in 1847...
section of what is now the North London Line
North London Line
The North London Line is a railway line which passes through the inner suburbs of north London, England. Its route is a rough semicircle from the south west to the north east, avoiding central London. The line is owned and maintained by Network Rail...
. It was initially known as "Victoria Dock"; the prefix "Royal" was granted in 1880.
The dock was connected through a line which ran between Canning Town
Canning Town
Canning Town is an area of east London, England. It is part of the London Borough of Newham and is situated in the area of the former London docks on the north side of the River Thames. It is the location of Rathbone Market...
and North Woolwich
North Woolwich
North Woolwich is a place in the London Borough of Newham. It is located north of Woolwich proper which is on the south bank of the River Thames. The two places are linked by the Woolwich Ferry and the Woolwich foot tunnel.-History:...
. When the Royal Dock was first built the railway cut along the docks; to correct this a swingbridge over the entrance to the dock was built. This however slowed down journey time, and so a new line was built in 1855 to take the route around the north side of the dock to Silvertown, and a station at Custom House opened where it re-connected with the original line. The older southern line was kept to serve local factories, where it was known as the Silvertown Tramway.
The Royal Victoria Dock 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 152 m long by 43 m wide, on which were constructed two-storey warehouses. Other warehouses, granaries, shed and storage buildings surrounded the dock, which had a total of 3.6 km 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
London Docks
The London Docks were one of several sets of docks in the historic Port of London. They were constructed in Wapping downstream from the City of London between 1799 and 1815, at a cost exceeding £5½ million. Traditionally ships had docked at wharves on the River Thames, but by this time, more...
, four times that of St Katharine Docks
St Katharine Docks
St Katharine Docks, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, were one of the commercial docks serving London, on the north side of the river Thames just east of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge...
and 70% more than the West India Dock
West India Docks
The West India Docks are a series of three docks on the Isle of Dogs in London, the first of which opened in 1802. The docks closed to commercial traffic in 1980 and the Canary Wharf development was built on the site.-History:...
and East India Docks
East India Docks
The East India Docks was a group of docks in Blackwall, east London, north-east of the Isle of Dogs. Today only the entrance basin remains.-History:...
combined. It was badly damaged by German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
bombing in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
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
Containerization
Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...
, which effectively moved traffic downstream to Tilbury
Port of Tilbury
The Port of Tilbury is located on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the principal port for London; as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facilities for containers, grain, and other bulk cargoes. There are also...
. It finally closed to commercial traffic along with the other Royal Docks in 1980.
Destination Docklands
Jean Michel Jarre
Jean Michel André Jarre is a French composer, performer and music producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and New Age genres, and known as an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks.Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and...
as the site for one of his signature large-scale concerts, eventually titled Destination Docklands
Destination Docklands
Destination Docklands was an event consisting of two concerts by musician Jean Michel Jarre on the Royal Victoria Docks, Docklands, London on Saturday, October 8 and Sunday, October 9, 1988, to coincide with the release of Jarre's new album Revolutions...
. The area also inspired him to write the album Revolutions specifically for the event.
The show was intended to show a history of the area, with tracks dedicated to the industrial revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, swinging sixties (achieved via a guest appearance by Hank Marvin
Hank Marvin
Hank Brian Marvin is an English guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist for The Shadows. The group, which primarily performed instrumentals, was formed as a backing band for vocalist Cliff Richard...
, and future regeneration of the area. The concert's scale was larger than any seen in the UK before or since, and used vast numbers of fireworks
Fireworks
Fireworks are a class of explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event is a display of the effects produced by firework devices...
, World War II searchlights, and used entire buildings as giant projection screens throughout the show. The majority of the audience watched from disused land on what is now the site of the ExCeL Exhibition Centre
ExCeL Exhibition Centre
ExCeL London is an exhibitions and conference centre in the London Borough of Newham, England. It is located on a site on the northern quay of the Royal Victoria Dock in London Docklands, between Canary Wharf and London City Airport.- History :The centre was built by Sir Robert McAlpine, opened...
.
Originally planned as a one-off event, it was scheduled for 24 September 1988, but Jarre and his crew had to battle constantly with Newham Council and London Fire Brigade
London Fire Brigade
The London Fire Brigade is the statutory fire and rescue service for London.Founded in 1865, it is the largest of the fire services in the United Kingdom and the fourth-largest in the world with nearly 7,000 staff, including 5,800 operational firefighters based in 112 fire...
over logistical and safety concerns. Although the organisers publicly sought other venues in the meantime, a compromise was reached in which the event was split into two concerts in order to spread the crowds over two nights. These concerts went ahead on 8 and 9 October 1988. Weather throughout the build up to the event was extremely rainy, and while the first concert narrowly avoided the downpours, much of the second took place in heavy rain.
The floating stage was specially-built, and made up of several barges shipped in from the north of England and welded together to create what Jarre termed his "battleship". The show attracted an estimated live audience of 200,000, not including those in parks surrounding the venue listening to the concert on a simultaneous broadcast on BBC Radio 1.
The concert programme featured drawings of the redevelopment works due to take place in the years after the concerts, as did some of the projections on the building facades.
A VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
video of the event was released, directed by Mike Mansfield
Mike Mansfield
Michael Joseph Mansfield was an American Democratic politician and the longest-serving Majority Leader of the United States Senate, serving from 1961 to 1977. He also served as United States Ambassador to Japan for over ten years...
. This has yet to be released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.
The Dock today
London Docklands Development Corporation
The London Docklands Development Corporation was a quango agency set up by the UK Government in 1981 to regenerate the depressed Docklands area of east London. During its eighteen-year existence it was responsible for regenerating an area of in the London Boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets and...
. 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
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
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.
The dock is dominated by the ExCeL Exhibition Centre
ExCeL Exhibition Centre
ExCeL London is an exhibitions and conference centre in the London Borough of Newham, England. It is located on a site on the northern quay of the Royal Victoria Dock in London Docklands, between Canary Wharf and London City Airport.- History :The centre was built by Sir Robert McAlpine, opened...
, 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 its advantage when it hosts the annual London Boat Show
London Boat Show
The London Boat Show is held each January at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in London, just opposite the O2 and the centre of London's business and entertainment centre. It is a very large event, now in its 54th year, which uses ExCeL's two 32,500 square metre halls...
, with visiting vessels moored alongside the exhibition centre.
On the south side of the Dock is Britannia Village. The 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 2000. 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 responsibility of the London Development Agency
London Development Agency
The London Development Agency is the Regional Development Agency for Greater London, England. It is a functional body of the Greater London Authority...
, this development is now known as Silvertown Quays and includes proposals to refurbish the remaining Millennium Mills
Millennium Mills
The Millennium Mills is a derelict turn-of-the-century flour mill in West Silvertown on the south side of the Royal Victoria Dock, between the Thames Barrier and the ExCel exhibition centre alongside the newly built Britannia village, in Newham, London, England...
along the waterfront for new uses and an aquarium. Britannia Village has its own Community Foundation.
Events
On 15 August 2009, the dock hosted the inaugural Great London SwimGreat Swim
Billed as "the UK's biggest mass participation open water swimming series", the Great Swim was started in 2008 with a one mile Great North Swim in Windermere...
, a mass participation open water swim over a one mile distance. The event has been held annually since then but on the first weekend in July.