Millwall Dock is a

dock The word dock () in American English refers to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore). In British English, the term is not used the same way as in American Engl ...

at Millwall,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, located south of

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is a financial area of London, England, located in the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The Greater London Authority defines it as part of London's central business district, alongside Central London. Alongside ...

on the Isle of Dogs.

History

The scheme was developed speculatively by a partnership of John Kelk and John Aird & Co.'The Millwall Docks: The docks', in Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs, ed. Hermione Hobhouse (London, 1994), pp. 353-356. British History Online URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp353-356 accessed 30 November 2019. The engineer responsible for designing the scheme was Sir John Fowler. The construction was undertaken by Kelk and Aird and the dock was officially opened in March 1868. After a slow start to the business and financial difficulties, Kelk and Aird surrendered control of the company to lawyers acting for the investors in December 1868. In recognition of its settled status the business was renamed the Millwall Dock Company in 1870. From 1897 to 1921, it was served by the Millwall Docks railway station on the Millwall Extension Railway, with goods services continuing to the 1970s. In 1909 the

Port of London Authority The Port of London Authority (PLA) is a self-funding public trust established on 31 March 1909 in accordance with the Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its ...

(PLA) took over the Millwall Dock, along with the other enclosed docks from St Katharines to

Tilbury Tilbury is a port town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. The present town was established as separate settlement in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a Tilbury Fort, 16th century fort ...

. From 1905 Magnus Mowat worked as Engineer to the docks, being promoted to Director around 1912. With reorganisation by the

in the 1920s, the northern end of the Inner Dock was connected to the

West India Docks The West India Docks are a series of three docks, quaysides, and warehouses built to import goods from, and export goods and occasionally passengers to, the British West Indies. Located on the Isle of Dogs in London, the first dock opened in 18 ...

by the Millwall Passage. The dock was used mainly for timber and grain, a trade which eventually moved down river to the

Port of Tilbury The Port of Tilbury is a port located on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It serves as the principal port for London, as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facili ...

with the construction of a major grain terminal in the 1960s. A McDougall's flour mill, the Wheatsheaf Mill (constructed in 1869), stood on the south side of the Outer Dock, but was demolished in about 1980. Nearby Sir John McDougall Gardens is named after one of the McDougall brothers, John McDougall, who was also a prominent local politician in Poplar. From the 1960s onwards, the Millwall Dock experienced a steady decline – as did all of London's other docks – as the shipping industry adopted containerisation, which effectively moved traffic downstream to

. It finally closed to commercial traffic along with the other Royal Docks in 1981. The West Ferry Printing Works, the largest newspaper print works in Western Europe, was built on the north side of Outer Dock between 1984 and 1986. The Docklands Sailing and Watersports Centre, located at the far West end of the dock where the dock previously connected to the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

, was established by the London Docklands Development Corporation and the Sports Council at a cost of £1.2 million in 1989. While much of the area has been occupied by commercial office towers, Millwall Dock is also an area where several housing developments and apartment towers have been developed. During the 1980s the Clippers Quay housing estate was built around the old dry dock while the Mill Quay housing development was built on the site of the old Wheatsheaf Mill. The dock was a location for boat stunts in the 1999

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

film ''

The World Is Not Enough ''The World Is Not Enough'' is a 1999 spy film, the nineteenth in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 agent Jam ...

''.

Layout

The

is L-shaped, with an 'Outer Dock' running east–west, and an 'Inner Dock' running north from the eastern end. It originally contained around 36 acres (14 hectares) of water and had a 200-acre (81 hectare) estate. The western end of the Outer Dock was originally connected to the Thames at Millwall by an wide channel. The spoil from the docks formed the area of wasteland known as the Mudchute. A graving dock for ship repairs was constructed at the south-east corner of the Outer Dock (one of 6 originally planned), and later lengthened to .

Gallery

File:Millwall Dock and Glengall Bridge - geograph.org.uk - 2448754.jpg, Millwall Dock and Glengall Bridge, June 2011 File:Millwall Outer Dock - geograph.org.uk - 3886387.jpg, Millwall Outer Dock, September 2013 File:Millwall Inner Dock - geograph.org.uk - 3891164.jpg, Millwall Inner Dock, September 2013 File:Floating restaurant, Millwall Dock - geograph.org.uk - 3765948.jpg, Floating restaurant, Millwall Dock, August 2013 File:Side dock, Millwall Docks - geograph.org.uk - 3760113.jpg, Side dock, Millwall Docks, August 2013 File:Looking south along Millwall Inner Dock - geograph.org.uk - 3855135.jpg, Looking south along Millwall Inner Dock, February 2014

References

Other sources

* * 'Dockland: An illustrated historical survey of life and work in east London', NELP/GLC, 1983, {{ISBN, 0-7168-1611-3

External links

Docklands Light Railway

Mill Quay Residents Association
Geography of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets History of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets London docks Port of London Millwall