West India Docks

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An 1802 painting showing one proposal for the completed docks. The final layout of the docks was somewhat different, with three broad docks rather than two docks and a canal. The view is looking west towards the City of London.

West India Docks by Augustus Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson (figures) from Rudolph Ackermann's Microcosm of London, or, London in Miniature (1808-11).

The West India Docks are a series of three docks on the Isle of Dogs in London. They were constructed in two phases. The two northern-most docks were constructed between 1800 and 1802 (officially opened on 27 August 1802) for the West India Dock Company to a design by leading civil engineer William Jessop (John Rennie was a consultant), and were the first commercial wet docks in London. The southern-most dock, the Southwest India Dock, was constructed in the 1860s, replacing an unprofitable canal, the City Canal, built in 1805.

Robert Milligan (c. 1746-1809) was largely responsible for the construction of the West India Docks. Milligan was a wealthy West Indies merchant and shipowner, having previously managed his family's Jamaica sugar plantations. Outraged at losses due to theft and delay at London's riverside wharves, Milligan headed a group of powerful businessmen, including chairman of the West India Merchants of London George Hibbert, who planned and built West India Docks. Milligan served as both Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the West India Dock Company.

The Docks were authorised by the West India Dock Act 1799 - the first parliamentary (as opposed to a municipal Act) for dock building. British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger and Lord Chancellor Lord Loughborough attended the foundation stone ceremony on 12 July 1800; Milligan and Hibbert were also commemorated for their part in the ceremony.

The Docks consisted of an Import Dock (30 acres of water) and an Export Dock (24 acres), with a combined capability to berth over 600 vessels. Locks and basins at either end of the Docks connected them to the river Thames. To avoid congestion, ships entered from the (eastern) Blackwall end; lighters entered from the Limehouse end to the west.

Around the Import Dock was constructed a continuous line of five-storey warehouses. The Export Dock needed fewer building as cargo was loaded upon arrival. To protect against theft, the whole complex was surrounded by a brick wall 20 ft high.

The docks made the Isle of Dogs a true island. Part of the original dock buildings is now occupied by the Museum in Docklands.

After the effective closure of the Port of London, the area was regenerated as part of the Docklands scheme, and is now home to the developments of Canary Wharf.

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