Port of Tilbury

The port of Tilbury is located on the River Thames at Tilbury ( Essex ). It is the main port for London and the most important paper port of the United Kingdom. There is extensive facilities for loading and unloading containers, grain and other bulk materials. Also for the import of automobiles, the port is set up. He belongs to the now enlarged the port of London.

Location

The port of Tilbury is located on the north bank of the Thames, 40 km below London Bridge, at a point where the river makes a turn to the south and is already 730 m wide. The flow loop is one of the lower sections of the river Thames and its interior consisted of marshland that was fixed since Roman times. Gravesend (Kent), across the river has long been a landing point for incoming ships arriving along the river even to passengers and goods from and to invite. There was also a yard of the British Navy in Northfleet. The new deep-water harbor can be seen as extension of all these port facilities.

Construction

The first harbor of London were close to the town center and opened gradually in the beginning of the 19th century by the later East and West India Docks Company ( E & WIDC ). With the advent of the railroad and the increase in ship size, the proximity to central London was less important than access to deep water and the time saved up by avoiding the long trip up the winding River Thames. The E & WIDC was already long in competition with the neighboring London and St Catharine Dock Company (L & StCDC ) and did everything to outperform their competitors. The opening of the Royal Albert Docks with its deep-water berths in 1880 by the L & StCDC granted access to the River Thames at Gallion 's Reach 17.6 km below London Bridge, and thus also further downstream than the then important port facilities in London. The E & WIDC had to follow his example.

An Act of Parliament enabled the E & WIDC the construction of the docks at Tilbury; work began only two weeks later and the first ship sailed into the harbor on April 17, 1886. The port was opened at the beginning of Dampfschiffära and its location soon proved to be advantageous.

The new harbor basin

The original docks consisted of a Tidal Basin at Gravesend Reach opposite Northfleet, which was connected through a lock with the main pool with three side arms ( eastern, central and western arm ). Between the Tidal Basin and the main pool were two dry docks.

Extension

1909 Tilbury port as the port facilities under the administration of the new Port of London Authority (PLA ) further up the river was made.

1921 and again in 1929 led by the PLA crucial conversions. They consisted of a new lock installation (305 m long, 33.5 m wide), the west of the Northfleet Hope joined the dock directly to the Thames, and a third dry dock, 229 m long and 33.5 m wide.

In the 1960s, when the docks were closed upstream, the PLA built the port of Tilbury further. 1963-1966 was a huge fourth dock that from the main basin of nearly one mile ( 1.609 km ) covered. The tidal pool was closed and filled in later. 1969, a £ 6 million expensive grain terminal on Northfleet Hope was put into operation ( then the largest in Europe). Beginning of the 1980s were the docks at Tilbury, the only, the PLA still operational.

Container ships

The first container ships were dispatched and Tilbury in 1970 soon became the largest container port in the United Kingdom; 1978, a pier along the river for large container ships at Northfleet Hope was created in a reserved area.

The port today

In 1992, the port was privatized and now owned by Forth Ports - group; the PLA was given the role of monitoring the tidal River Thames.

Today in port are a number of general cargo handled ( timber, cars and container), and he remains, along with the ports of Felixstowe and Southampton one of the three most important container ports in the United Kingdom. He is the main port of the United Kingdom for the import of paper and print products.

The Port of Tilbury Police, one of the oldest police forces of this kind in the UK, is responsible for port security.

London pier for cruise ships

One of the ship lines that used the port was the P & O. Tilbury was the only port in the PLA to handle cruise ships than 1916 berths were reserved specifically for P & O. As an extension of the facilities became necessary, the PLA and the London Midland and Scotish Railway built along a new pier with rail connection. It was opened in May 1930 by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.

Tilbury London was as a wharf for ocean liners until the 1960s in operation. Many people emigrated from Tilbury to Australia, the Australian government largely paid the ship's passage. The " Ten Pound Poms " went on board ships like the Mooltan and made ​​their way into a new life. Tilbury was also immigration port for members of many nations, among others, for a large group of the British West Indies on the Empire Windrush in 1948. Landing bridge was reopened by the Port Tilbury as a wharf for cruise ships, albeit without railway connection.

People

Near the harbor masters office at the new lock is a monument to Peter de Neumann, a British war hero and later harbor master, who died on September 16, 1972 due to an accident. Rolf Harris visited the port in an episode of the television series Rolf on Art, he re- created or restored William Turner's famous painting The Fighting Temeraire.

The Tilbury Docks in the film

The harbor was also location of different films:

• The harbor basin represented the Venetian channels in the boat hunting scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; and
• Scenes from Batman Begins were filmed there,
• As well as a scene from the Jew -Law film Alfie in 2004.
• The docks were also in 1975 as a set for John Wayne in Brannigan Smuggler - used A man of steel.