East India Docks
The East India Docks were a small group of docks near Blackwall in London's East End. They were then north to the Isle of Dogs.
History
Following the successful creation of the West India Docks in 1802, the East India Dock Company created by a law of 1803, which was supported by the East India Company.
The waterways were northeast of the West India Docks. They were based on the existing Brunswick Dock, which was used for marine equipment and repairs as part of the Blackwall Yard. The Brunswick Dock, the south end was originally connected directly to the River Thames, was the export dock. North of it built the company a larger, 73,000 -square-foot import dock. Both were connected by a lying east entry pool with the River Thames.
The company came up with the goods, such as tea, spices, indigo, silk and Persian carpets quickly into profit. But the tea trade had a volume of £ 30 million a year. The port facilities attracted other industries to, spice merchants and Pfeffermahlbetriebe settled in the vicinity of the port and processed goods.
1838 merged the East India Company and the West India Company. 1886 they built in a last act of ruinous leapfrog with the London & St. Katherine Dock Company, the Tilbury docks. In 1909, the port facilities were taken over by the Port of London Authority, together with the other docks on the Thames.
Although the East India Docks were much smaller than the West India Docks or later Royal Docks, they could still take East Indiaman with up to 1,000 GRT and 250 ships at a time. But the advent of steamships and the increase in displacement of these ships was the importance of these docks are dwindling and the mid-20th century, the largest part of the trade handled elsewhere.
The port played in the Second World War a key role, since there the floating Mulberry harbors were built, which supported the Allied landing operation on D-Day in France.
After the war, in which all port facilities had been badly damaged, was built by the East India Docks, only the occasional traffic to the Channel Islands and tugs, etc., were maintained and repaired there.
The Brunswick Wharf Power Station (coal power plant) was built on the site of the export dock in sections 1946-1956. It was a monumental brick building with concrete fireplaces in the style of Giles Gilbert Scott's design for the power plants in Battersea and Bankside. The power plant put into operation in 1984 and was discontinued in the late 1980 's.
The East India Docks were among the first port facilities in London that have been closed. That was 1967.
East India Docks today
Today the docks are mostly filled. Only the entry pool is left and serves as a conservation and recreation area. The terrain is predominantly planted with houses; a number of urban development projects were carried out there or are in progress. One on the Leamouth peninsula is as a Western completion of the port used and should be finished in 2012.