A whole people toil at the unloading of the enormous ships, swarming on the barges, dark figures, dimly outlined, loving rhythmically, till in and give life to the picture. In the far distance, behind the interminable lines of sheds and warehouses, masts bound the horizon, masts like a bare forest in winter, finely branches, exaggerated, aerial trees grown in all the climates of the globe.
Gabriel Mourey (1865—1943)
The architectural embodiment of Thatcherism according to its critics or a blueprint for inner—city regeneration to its free market supporters the Docklands development continues to provoke extreme reactions. Despite the catch-all name, however, Docklands is far from homogeneous. Canary Wharf, with its Manhattan-style skyscrapers, is only its most visible landmark, and is by no means typical of the area; warehouse conversions, industrial estate sheds, leftover council housing and Costa del Thames apartments in a whole travesty of styles are more indicative. Wapping, the most easily accessible district, and one that you can happily explore on foot, has retained and restored much of its original Victorian warehouse architecture, as has Bermondsey on the south bank while large areas around the Royal Docks, further east, have yet to be fully redeveloped. Travelling through on the overhead Docklands Light Railway (DLR), the area comes over as a fascinating open air design museum, not a place one would choose to live or work necessarily most people stationed here see it as artificially removed from the rest of London, but a spectacular sight nevertheless.
From the sixteenth century onwards the Port of London was the key to the city’s wealth. The “legal quays” — roughly the area between London Bridge and the Tower, were crowded with as many as 1400 seagoing vessels forced to wait for up to six weeks to be unloaded, with some 3500 cutters, barges and punts jostling between their hulls. It was chiefly to relieve such congestion, which worsened with the increased trade from the Empire, that from 1802 onwards London began to construct the largest enclosed cargo-dock system in the world. Each dock was surrounded by forty-foot-high walls, patrolled by its own police force and geared towards a specific type of cargo. Casual dockers gathered at the dock gates each morning for the “call-on”, a human scrummage to get selected for work. This mayhem was only stopped after World War II, when the Dock Labour Scheme was introduced, and by then it was too late. Since the mid- nineteenth century competition from the railways had been eroding the river
traffic, and with the development of container ships and the movement of the port downriver to Tilbury in the 1960s, the old city docks began to wind down. Over the course of two decades, the quaysides and the surrounding areas were transformed into a wasteland, beset with high unemployment and a dwindling population, until the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was set up in 1981, with its unfortunate slogan of “Looks like Venice, works like New York”. One hundred percent tax relief on capital expenditure, no business rates for ten years and freedom from planning controls were just some of the ploys used to kick-start the project, and were the conditions that allowed Canary Wharf and the Enterprise Zone (EZ) to the south to be built. No one thought the old docks could ever be rejuvenated; the LDDC, on the other hand, predicted a resident population of over 100,000 and a working population twice that, all by the end of the millennium.
In 1998, the LDDC was wound up, having achieved more than many thought possible, but less than it had promised. It’s certainly easy to criticize its approach: ad hoc planning; a lack of basic amenities, of open green spaces, of civic architecture or public buildings, and of consultation with the local community. With the onset of recession in the early 1990s, the original developers went bust, offices and flats lay empty and virtually all construction was halted. The real shot in the foot, though, was the government’s negligence over basic public transport infrastructure, which meant that the new Jubilee line extension to the tube system, linking Canary Wharf with central London, only opened in 1999. The economic situation has since picked up, and construction is once more continuing apace, but the end result is still destined to be, as one critic aptly put it, “a chain of highly polarized ghettos epitomizing the gulf between the rich and poor, home-owner and tenant”. For the local community’s views on the latest Docklands news, visit www.icthewharf.icnetwork.co.uk .
Nothing will convey to the stranger a better idea of the vast activity and Stupendous wealth of London than a visit to these warehouses, filled to overflowing with interminable stores of every kind of foreign and colonial products; to these enormous vaults, with their apparently inexhaustible quantities of wine; and to these extensive quays and landing-stages, cumbered with huge stacks of hides, heaps of bales, and long rows of casks. . . Those who wish to taste the wines must procure a tasting-order from a wine merchant. Ladies are not admitted after 1pm. Visitors should be on their guard against insidious effects of “tasting” in the heavy, vinous atmosphere.
Baedeker (1905)
Sadly, visits to the docks are no longer so intoxicating. You can, however, view Docklands from a distance on one of the boats that course up and down the Thames. For a close-up you should take the driverless, overhead Docklands Light Railway or DLR. If you’re heading for Greenwich, and fancy taking a boat back into town, it might be worth considering a Rail River Rover ticket, which gives you unlimited travel on the DLR and City Cruises services between Greenwich and Westminster. Alternatively, you can now walk the two miles from Wapping to Canary Wharf along, or close to, the river bank, by following the Thames Path; there are also several pedestrian bridges linking the different quays around Canary Wharf. Further south, however, walking is not much fun, and you’re probably best off exploring by bike note: unfortunately bicycles are not allowed on the DLR, though they are allowed to use the Greenwich Foot Tunnel. For hotels in Docklands at fantastic Discounted Rates see this page.
|
