The Thames and its docks

by Alexander Forrow

This is a view of that part of the London Dock known as the Crescent. This is an exceedingly interesting dock. The Wine Vaults alone may be described almost as one of the wonders of the modern world. One of them is nearly twelve acres in extent, and if you wish to fancy yourself in the Catacombs, without the trouble of a visit to Rome, you cannot do better than see the Wine Vaults at this or the St. Katharine’s Dock. Altogether there is storage accommodation for 80,000 pipes of wine and brandy. In fact as the West India Dock is the great depôt for rum and sugar, so this dock is the great depôt for wine and brandy. The Queen’s Pipe is also a most interesting feature of this establishment. Here all condemned goods are destroyed by fire, which at times receives some odd contributions. On one occasion 45,000 pairs of gloves were consigned to the flames, and on another, 900 Austrian mutton hams. Indeed comparatively few people who cursorily scan the frowning walls of the great dock establishments are aware of the varied information and instruction to be gathered within them.

I have thus finished my notice of the entire dock system of the Port of London, for a complete view of which see Appendix [L]: and a glance at this plan, which has been specially drawn in connection with this lecture, will convey some impression of its magnitude. It will be found very interesting to compare London as it is with what it might have been had some of the schemes to which I have called your attention, been carried out. The aggregate water-space of the docks of London, when the extensions in progress shall have been completed, will not be less than 560 acres. It should be borne in mind that the whole of these costly undertakings are the birth of the present century. Within the like period we have seen the commerce of the port multiplied nearly seven-fold; and it is no exaggeration to say, that to this marvellous result, the docks, in conjunction with the development of the warehousing system, which they have so much assisted, and to which I should like to have referred, have contributed more than any other agency. I fear that the public generally are rather inclined to lose sight of this fact, which becomes obvious enough after a few moments’ consideration. If the tremendous evils to which I have called attention as existing less than a hundred years ago, when the business of the port was not one-seventh of its present magnitude, were the result of overcrowding, it stands to reason that, in the absence of dock accommodation, the increased business must have gone to the out-ports, and, failing the necessary accommodation there, have located itself on the Continent. This, it is unnecessary to say, would have been nothing short of a national calamity. Look at Liverpool, a little fishing village at a time when London absorbed four-fifths of the business of England and Wales. But the dangers incident to the navigation of the Mersey early called attention to the necessity of artificial water accommodation for its shipping. This the people of Liverpool were wise enough to recognise; and who can doubt that Liverpool, which, considering its importance three hundred years ago, has grown even more rapidly than London, owes its marvellous prosperity to its magnificent dock system. Look, again, at Bristol. Time was when Bristol, as a port, ranked next to London; and why? Simply because of her unrivalled geographical situation and the early establishment of the dock system. Why does Bristol no longer occupy that prominent position? Because, as is generally the case where Nature has done so much, Art, her handmaid, has been less assiduous in her attentions than at London, Liverpool, Hull, and other places; and so, in the race for commercial prosperity, Bristol has been left behind by her younger, and more enterprising, sisters. Clearly Nature intended Bristol to be, what she once was, the most flourishing port on the west coast of England, and no mean rival of London. But the Bristolians appear to have forgotten that large ships need plenty of water, and that the Avon, like some people of unsettled habits, has a strange fancy at times for leaving its bed unoccupied. Could the good people of Bristol be induced to dockise that very erratic stream within a respectable distance of its mouth, I am inclined to believe that many a shipowner who now sends his vessels to London would think it worth his while to escape the dangerous Channel passage by ordering them into Bristol, more especially with an equalization of railway rates. I never visit this grand old city, so rich in historic memories of maritime enterprise, the birthplace of Sebastian Cabot, the real founder of the great Russia Company, the moving spirit amongst the ‘Merchant Adventurers,’ and ‘Grand Pilot of England,’ without feeling that, sooner or later, she will again assert that supremacy in the West which is her natural heritage. The new docks at Avonmouth and Portishead are a step in this direction, and cannot fail, if well worked, to command a large share of the business of the Western world. If I am right, then for peaceful, prosperous, contented Bristol there are even greater things in store than she has ever yet dreamed of in her commercial philosophy.

Of course, a sketch of the Thames and its docks would be incomplete without a statement of the Legal Quays, Sufferance Wharves, and Private Warehouses now in existence. Few people are aware of their enormous extent, and it would be difficult to exaggerate the important part which they have played in the history of the port. There cannot be a doubt that the proprietors of these places have availed themselves to the fullest extent of the advantage which they enjoy, under the present state of the law, of being allowed free use of the dock-waters. Undermentioned is a list of them, and I may add that, with very few exceptions, all restrictions as to the goods which may be landed at some of these places have now been removed.

Legal Quays.
Fresh Wharf.	Custom House Quay.
Hammond’s.	Brewer’s Quay.
Cox’s Quay.	Chester’s Quay.
Botolph Wharf.	Galley Quay.
Nicholson’s Wharf.

Uptown Warehouses and Vaults.
Aire & Calder.	Metropolitan Warehouse and Vaults.
Beer Lane Vaults.	Mint Street Warehouse.
Bell’s Warehouse.	Monastery Warehouse.
Billiter Street Warehouse.	Monument Warehouse and Vaults.
Cooper’s Row Warehouse.	Priory Warehouse.
Crown Diamond Warehouse and Vaults.	Red Mead Lane Warehouse and Vaults.
Crutched Friars Warehouse.	St. Dunstan’s Warehouse.
Cutler Street and New Street Warehouse.	St. Andrew’s Vaults.
Dowgate Hill Vaults.	St. Olave’s.
East India Avenue Vaults.	Savage Garden Vaults.
Fenchurch Street Warehouse.	Smith’s Warehouse.
George Street Vaults.	Thames Street Vaults.
Globe Yard Warehouse.	Tower Hill Vaults and Warehouse.
Gracechurch Street Vaults.	Trinity Warehouse and Vaults.
Lingham’s Warehouse and Vaults.	Water Lane.

Sufferance Wharves, at which certain goods may be landed and warehoused.
Allhallows.	Mark Brown’s.
British and Foreign.	Metropolitan.
Brooks’.	New Crane.
Bull.	New Dundee.
Butler’s.	Old Swan.
Chamberlain’s.	Oliver’s.
Commercial.	Paul’s Wharf.
Commercial Dock.	Pickle Herring, Lower.
Cotton’s and Depôt.	Platform.
Davis’s.	Red Lion and Three Cranes.
Dowgate Dock and Warehouse.	St. Bride’s Upper.
Dyers Hall, and Monument Warehouses.	St. Bride’s.
Fenning’s.	St. John’s.
Fishmonger’s Hall.	St. Katharine’s.
Gun.	St. Olave’s.
Gun and Shot and Griffin’s.	St. Saviour’s.
Hartley’s.	Smith’s.
Hambro’.	South Eastern.
Hay’s.	South Devon.
Hermitage.	Springall’s.
Hibernia, New.	Symon’s.
Irongate.	Topping’s.
London and Continental.	Willson’s.
Lucas and Spencer’s.

Sufferance Wharves at which certain goods may be landed.
Aberdeen.	Kitchen’s, Lower.
Atkin’s.	Landell’s.
Barnard’s.	Mellish’s.
Barry & Co.	Metropolitan, New.
Bethell’s.	” Upper.
Brandram’s, New.	Mill.
Brandram’s, Lower.	Miller’s.
Broken.	Morton’s.
Brook’s, Upper.	Newell’s.
Brown’s.	Noehmer’s.
Brunswick.	Orchard.
Burt’s.	Ordnance.
Canada.	Patent Fuel.
Carron.	Pearson’s.
Chapman’s.	Peruvian Guano Works.
Clyde.	Phillip’s.
Cole’s, Upper.	Plaistow.
” Lower.	Pontifex and Wood.
Coventry.	Pooley’s.
Dock Wharf (Regent’s Canal Dock).	Powell’s.
Dudin’s.	Prince Regent’s.
Durrand’s.	Reed’s, Upper.
Eagle.	” Lower.
Fisher’s.	Scott’s.
Fogg’s.	Sharp’s.
Foreign Cattle Market.	Stanton’s.
Freeman’s.	St. George’s.
Free Trade, Lower.	Sun.
Garford’s.	Sunderland.
Gibb’s, Upper.	Surrey Canal Docks.
” Lower.	Tubb’s.
Granite.	Union.
Guernsey Granite.	Victoria.
Hall’s.	Victoria Wharf.
Harrison’s.	Watson’s.
Hibernia.	West Kent.
Hudson’s.	Whiting’s.
King and Queen.	Worcester.

This is a view (see [Frontispiece]) of the South-West India Dock seen from the western end. I have had this view taken especially to illustrate the few remarks with which I shall close my lecture. You will observe the accumulation of barges just inside the dock waiting to go out, and you will be able to form some idea of the terrible inconvenience which the presence of these craft must cause in the dock, crowded as it constantly is with shipping; and it so happens that the accumulation of these barges is greatest when there is the least room for them. I must ask you to imagine that behind these barges there are several ships waiting to leave the dock, and that outside the dock there is a similar accumulation of lighters and large vessels waiting to come in. The presence of these barges, as shown in this view (which it must be remembered was photographed on the spot, and with no thought of using it in this connection), will help to convey some idea of the delays and risk which they cause in the docking and undocking of vessels—a delay and risk which, as I shall presently explain, the Dock Companies are compelled to incur altogether free of charge.

Now you will have observed that all the earlier Dock Companies started with a monopoly for twenty-one years of the shipping from certain parts of the world. You will also have noticed that the object of the Government in granting these monopolies was twofold; first, by compulsorily clearing the river of a large proportion of the shipping to remove the facilities for plunder afforded by the lighterage and unprotected condition of goods; and, secondly, to secure for the docks some equivalent for the money invested in them. Now what do these facts indicate? Clearly that the Government saw the necessity of legislative interference in the interest of the port, and that, to render that interference operative, they must offer an inducement to the public to invest their money. Thus, you will observe that the Dock Companies sprang into existence, not so much independent speculations, as a response to an appeal from the Government of the day on behalf of the port.

But this compulsory alienation of certain shipping to certain docks, of course involved the withdrawal from the Legal Quays of the profits on the warehousing of goods left in the docks, and from the lightermen much of the valuable carrying trade represented by the shipping covered by the monopolies. It also affected a number of minor collateral interests. These were, of course, entitled to compensation, and they obtained it. The total amount of the claims received was little short of £4,000,000. As is generally the case under the circumstances, many of these claims were grossly exorbitant, and others had no foundation at all. The Government were, however, disposed to take a liberal view of the situation, and, as I have already told you, actually awarded out of the Consolidated Fund not less than £1,681,000, which, of course, included the sums paid for the purchase of the Legal Quays.