“Peter Stone and the publisher are to be congratulated on producing a book, which covers the history of the Port of London from the Romans to the present day, in a great amount of detail and for a very reasonable price… this book can be thoroughly recommended to anyone wanting an up to date history of the Port of London in one very accessible, indexed and readable book.” – Derek Morris, London Topographical Society Newsletter

“The History of the Port of London is an extremely comprehensive volume, complete with maps and black and white photos.” – Towpath Telegraph magazine

The River Thames has been integral to the prosperity of London since Roman times. Explorers sailed away on voyages of discovery to distant lands. Colonies were established and a great empire grew. Funding their ships and cargoes helped make the City of London into the world’s leading financial centre. In the 19^th century a vast network of docks was created for ever-larger ships, behind high, prison-like walls that kept them secret from all those who did not toil within. Sail made way for steam as goods were dispatched to every corner of the world. In the 19^th century London was the world’s greatest port city. In the Second World War the Port of London became Hitler’s prime target. It paid a heavy price but soon recovered. Yet by the end of the 20^th century the docks had been transformed into Docklands, a new financial centre.

THE HISTORY OF THE PORT OF LONDON – A VAST EMPORIUM OF ALL NATIONS is the fascinating story of the rise and fall and revival of the commercial river. The only book to tell the whole story and bring it right up to date, it charts the foundation, growth and evolution of the port and explains why for centuries it has been so important to Britain’s prosperity. This book will appeal to those interested in London’s history, maritime and industrial heritage, the Docklands and East End of London, and the River Thames.

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During the Tudor period the unloading of goods arriving in London was restricted to a few wharves within the City of London on the north bank of the Thames. As trade increased throughout the 18^th century the river increasingly became clogged with ships. Cargoes sat unprotected on quaysides waiting to be processed by Customs and carried to their destination within the City. It was not a satisfactory situation for merchants and ship owners.

The expanding British Empire and improving manufacturing techniques, and an increasing population, created an immense amount of commerce during the 17^th and 18^th centuries compared with previous times. Trade with the colonies and other parts of the world was such that congestion in the Port of London reached a new peak, even at the time that the nation was engaged in the Napoleonic Wars when almost the entire Continent was closed to British shipping. Yet due to ancient regulations, created at the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth in the 16^th century in order to ensure efficient collection of customs duties, all imports landed at London were obliged to pass through a small number of ‘Legal Quays’ between London Bridge and the Tower of London within the City. By the latter part of the 18^th century this had created a troublesome bottleneck. When it was their turn, cargoes were offloaded from the ships onto lighters, to be transported up the river to a wharf where duty could be paid. Wharves on the South Bank and St. Katharine’s, known as ‘Sufferance Wharves’ were additionally licensed for lower-value goods. Yet still, hundreds of ships lined up along the centre of the river at any time waiting to unload at the quays, a process that could take weeks.

As ships waited to unload, a significant proportion of cargo was stolen by gangs that preyed on the unguarded moored vessels. Goods standing on crowded and chaotic quaysides were also at risk from criminals, sometimes in collusion with Customs officers. The magistrate, social reformer and statistician Patrick Colquhoun published his Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis in 1796 in which he proposed the creation of a police force for London. He was introduced to John Harriott who, understanding the scale of criminal activity on the river, proposed a specialist force. That led to the creation of the Marine Police Establishment, based at Wapping, the forerunner of London’s Metropolitan Police.

While the introduction of the Marine Police Establishment went some way to protecting cargoes, it did not solve every problem. In 1793 William Vaughan, a London insurer and heir to West Indian plantations, published his treatise On Wet Docks, Quays and Warehouses for the Port of London, with Hints Respecting Trade. Vaughan’s ideas started a campaign to create a new wet dock off the river. Enclosed docks off the tidal river were not new to London: The Brunswick yard at Blackwall had originally been created by the East India Company in the early 17^th century, followed by the Howland Wet Dock at Rotherhithe, but those were to shelter and repair ships. Vaughan’s idea was for a dock to load and unload cargoes and to protect the goods within their high walls. It was the start of a vast network of docks that would transform the area to the east and turn London into a major trading city.

A subscription was launched in December 1795 that promised £800,000 from 634 subscribers, headed by two City aldermen, George Hibbert and Sir John Eamer, together with Vaughan. The proposal was to create a dock at Wapping. Hibbert was a West India merchant and opponent of the anti-slavery movement. Eamer was an alderman of the City, married to the daughter of a sugar refiner, who would go on to become Lord Mayor in 1801.

The plan to divert trade downriver and away from the Legal Quays was initially opposed by the City of London Corporation. They profited from the wharves along their stretch of the river and represented the interests of all those involved, such as wharf owners, Thames lightermen who ferried cargoes from ship to shore, porters who carried the goods from the quayside into the City, and others who worked at the wharves such as coopers.

In 1796, under increasing pressure, particularly from importers of sugar and rum from the West Indies, Parliament formed the Select Committee for the Improvement of the Port of London, which included Prime Minister William Pitt, to consider the problem. Ideas were invited for reform of the port and eight separate schemes were considered.

A large proportion of the goods arriving in London was sugar and rum produced on the slave-plantations of the British West Indian colonies, particularly Jamaica and Barbados. The merchants involved in the importation, together with absentee plantation owners living in England, were a powerful lobby group known as the West India Planters & Merchants. As a body they ensured their interests were protected and fought against any threat to the slave trade.

The idea of an enclosed dock greatly interested the West India men so in 1797 they formed a committee to consider the matter. They agreed that a wet dock was their preferred solution but across the top of the Isle of Dogs instead of Wapping, in partnership with the City of London, and exclusively for the West India trade. That alienated the merchants and ship owners who were not involved in the West India trade and resulted in a split of the original subscribers into two groups: on one side were most of the West India merchants, in alliance with the City Corporation; and other merchants and ship owners in the other camp who sought docks open for all trade.

Thus, two Bills were presented to Parliament to create new docks on the north side of the Thames to the east of London. The West India Dock Act was passed in July 1799 to create docks at the Isle of Dogs, and the London Dock Act in 1800 for docks at Wapping. Each of the sets of docks was to be created as private enterprises by the West India Dock Company and the London Dock Company. In return for its investment the West India Dock Act stipulated that, for a period of 21 years, all ships bringing goods from the West Indies were obliged to be landed at the West India Docks, with the exception of tobacco. Similarly, the London Dock Act stipulated a monopoly for 21 years on the landing of all tobacco, brandy, wine and rice, except any from the West Indies.

Throughout the Middle Ages London’s import and export trade was with the near Continent. During the Tudor period the transformation began in which the city and its environs were to become the country’s leader in shipbuilding and the world’s premier financial centre. Trade difficulties with Continental neighbours led to voyages of discovery. In the following centuries these beginnings would lead to London becoming the capital of the world’s largest empire.

The riverside of the City of London had for centuries, by the Tudor period, been busy with ships and smaller vessels coming and going. Quays and warehouses lined the north bank of the river from the Tower up to London Bridge and above the bridge as far as Queenhithe. No doubt the sails and masts of vessels on the river could be seen from many points in the town.

The movement of goods up and down the narrow streets that descended to the river was handled by members of fellowships of porters. From the early 14^th century the City had made rules regarding the unloading and measuring of corn at Queenhithe. Salt, coal and other goods such as fruit and shellfish, cloth, skins, and products in barrels were gradually regulated and their handling monopolised by different types of porter, who were freemen of the City.

The main Customs office for the entire port, where the officials based themselves, continued as before at Custom House Quay, upstream of the Tower. Official inspectors from there boarded each ship as it arrived to obtain a certificate of the vessel’s cargo and to calculate the duty.

London’s maritime trade with the Continental countries had risen steadily during the 12th and 13th centuries but had been hard hit during the period of the Hundred Years War that ended in the mid-1400s. From the latter part of that century commerce, such as the importing of French wine and the main exports of wool and cloth, began rapidly to rise again and growth continued during Tudor times. By 1500 about 45 percent of England’s wool and 70 percent of cloth exports were passing through the Port of London, much of it to Antwerp and Calais. There were many cloth-finishing workers around the Antwerp area, with a ready market for un-dyed, unfinished English broadcloths. During the 16^th century exports of cloth became London’s dominant export.

Throughout the medieval period foreign merchants, often with superior ships and monopolies in certain goods and markets, dominated trade in and out of London. One such group was the Hanseatic League, or Hanse. They were a confederation of merchants from towns across northern Europe, from the Low Countries to Russia, and centred on Lübeck, who monopolised trade in the Baltic area. In 1493 Henry VI banned Flemish merchants from trading in London, a move that favoured the Hanse, who obtained the right to import Flemish cloth. This caused a riot by London merchants who had previously traded with the Flemings and the Hanse’s London base at the Steelyard in Upper Thames Street was attacked and temporarily destroyed.

A shipbuilding and repair industry, as well as associated trades such as rope and sail-making, had existed in London since Saxon times. As the city became more congested those enterprises moved further downstream. By the 14^th century they were located in riverside hamlets at Ratcliffe, Shadwell, Limehouse, Poplar, Blackwall and Rotherhithe where ships could be pulled up on mud berths. Work on naval vessels was supervised by the Clerk of the King’s Ships who was based close by at the Tower of London. A Company of Shipwrights trade guild was established by the 15^th century with their own meeting hall at Ratcliffe.

When Henry VIII was at war with France he found it inconvenient that his navy was based at Portsmouth, far from the Royal Armoury at the Tower of London. He decided that the ideal locations were close to his palace at Greenwich, at the Kent fishing villages of Deptford, Woolwich and Erith, which were also easier to defend than Portsmouth. These yards came to employ men with shipbuilding and repairing skills and there was a need for local suppliers and administrators with suitable knowledge. Initially the facilities on the Thames were rather small but Henry invested heavily in the navy and they grew ever larger and better-organised. During his reign the King’s Yard at Deptford expanded to 30 acres, including two wet-docks, three slips large enough for warships, forges, rope-making and other facilities. All these factors created an enlarged industry that was not only useful for naval shipping but for the wider Port of London. The area to the east of London therefore grew to become the ship-building capital of England at the end of the 16^th century.

New methods of ship construction had been introduced at the end of the previous century, changing from the old ‘clinker’ to the newer ‘carvel’ type. Larger ships required additional sails, with more than one mast to support them. These new ships were more robust, with greater manoeuvrability, of larger capacity, faster, and cheaper to build. By 1545 all ships built on the Thames were in the new style.

Increased shipping on the Thames, and accusations that some dishonest pilots were being paid by rival merchants to run ships aground, created a need for new rules and standards to prevent accidents. A group of masters and mariners petitioned Henry VIII that regulation of pilots was required. From its foundation by royal charter in March 1514 responsibility for safety on the river was given to ‘The Master, Wardens and Assistants of the Guild or Fraternitie of the most glorious and blessed Trinitie and Saint Clement in the parish Church of Deptford Stronde in the County of Kent’. Trinity House, as they became known, were given the responsibility to provide pilotage – the safe guiding of ships by experienced pilots – along the Thames, particularly through its shifting sandbanks in the Estuary. Their work was funded by a levy on vessels entering the port, collected by Customs House in London. The only ship-owners not obliged to use their services were the Hanseatic League.

Queen Elizabeth extended the responsibilities of Trinity House. By the middle of the century they were involved in a number of river-related activities such as the provision of buoys and beacons to mark safe channels, the supply of ballast, and (from 1566) the authorisation of Thames watermen. Trinity House continues to be responsible for lighthouses, buoys and navigation around the coast in modern times.

The interregnum period, when the country was governed by Parliamentarians, ended when in 1660 Charles II was invited back to England from exile in the Netherlands. He took a great interest in science and during his reign the Royal Society was established to advance scientific experimentation and debate. An observatory was created at Greenwich to map the stars in order to aid navigation at sea.

Following his return from exile after the Civil War and Commonwealth period Charles II went back to his boyhood home of Whitehall Palace, which remained his main residence throughout his reign. Immediately to the west across St. James’s Park stood St. James’s Palace, home of his brother the Duke of York.

The Earl of Clarendon was generously rewarded for his help in restoring Charles to the throne, the benefits including his appointment as the King’s chief minister, the Lord Chancellor. He was given a grant of thirty acres of land to the north of Portugal Street – the modern-day Piccadilly – where he had a magnificent palace built, completed in 1666. Yet he soon took the blame for naval defeat against the Dutch. Impeached for high treason, he escaped to France and his grand house was demolished.

Charles was a womaniser in the extreme, with a string of mistresses. The one best remembered is Eleanor ‘Nell’ Gwyn. A common actress from Covent Garden, she won the hearts of ordinary people due to her earthy character. When mistaken by a crowd for a Catholic lover of Charles she exclaimed: “Good people, I am the Protestant whore.”

The main religious divide in the country during the 17^th century was within Protestantism, with Dissenters on one side and Anglicans on the other. Yet the issue they all agreed on was their distrust of Catholics. As it gradually became apparent that Charles II would not have a legitimate heir and the throne would therefore pass to his openly Catholic brother, James, Duke of York, a political debate began in the late 1670s about whether to exclude him from the line of succession. Those in favour of the exclusion became known as ‘Whigs’ and those who backed James as the future monarch as ‘Tories’, the origin of party-politics that continues today.

Despite the Great Plague and Great Fire, the population of London and its suburbs rose rapidly in the latter part of the 1600s, from around 350,000 in 1666 to about 600,000 at the end of the century, swollen by thousands of migrants arriving every year. The City remained as crowded and noisy as it had ever been. Buildings were heated by burning coal and London was a polluted, foggy place.

In addition to London’s main shopping street at Cheapside there were shops at Westminster Hall, the Royal Exchange at Cornhill, the New Exchange in the Strand and Leadenhall at Gracechurch Street. The Great Fire offered the opportunity to re-site some of the street markets that had previously caused congestion. A new market grew at Covent Garden for local residents. Clare Market began near Fleet Street on land owned by the Earl of Clare in the mid-century, and Hungerford Market on the site of Sir Edward Hungerford’s former house (now Charing Cross station) from the 1670s. Spitalfields Market opened in the 1680s.

London was abandoned after England was separated from the Roman Empire in the 5^th century and left as a ruin for 400 years. Control of the area then alternated between Saxons and Vikings. London was occupied once again during the reign of King Alfred of Wessex and by the time of the Norman conquest was a flourishing town.

London went into a long, slow decline during the period when the Roman empire was disintegrating in the late 4th century. After England separated from the empire in the 5th century the town came under attack and tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes from the Continent were invited to aid the country’s defence. The British fought among themselves, however, and the Germanic mercenaries took advantage, creating a network of kingdoms of their own.

London was gradually abandoned and most likely left as a ruin throughout the second half of the 5th and 6th centuries. The Saxons who inhabited the south-east of England during that time were farmers and fishermen. They had no use for the old town and instead created farming communities outside the walls.

Traders began to berth their boats on the sloping foreshore of the Thames to the west of London at what is now Charing Cross. A market and sizable community grew there, known as Lundenwic (London market). However, Viking invaders arrived during the second half of the 9th century and the undefended Lundenwic was abandoned. For some decades control of London and the surrounding areas alternated between the Vikings and the Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex.

Christianity was re-established in England in the 590s, with the arrival of the missionaries Augustine and Mellitus. In 675 Erkenwald was appointed as a bishop and he founded abbeys at Barking and Chertsey. When he died in 693 he was buried at St. Paul’s in London, thus indicating that a church had been established by that time. He was later canonised and became an early patron saint of London. Land was granted at Fulham to the Bishops of Essex in 704 and has remained the London home of subsequent Bishops of London into modern times.

Having fought the Vikings for many years, King Alfred of Wessex began to gain the upper hand. Following the death of the King of Mercia in 879 Alfred and his Viking counterpart divided Mercia between them. Thereafter the border between the two enlarged kingdoms ran along the River Lea. To its east the Vikings occupied Essex, and the territory to its west (including London) was under Alfred’s control. Yet the Vikings continued to pose a threat and Alfred set about creating ‘burghs’ – fortified communities – throughout his kingdom of the Anglo Saxons. London was re-established as a burgh within the old Roman walls.

In the following years Alfred granted areas of land within London to his trusted followers. Known as ‘sokes’, which grew into individual communities and were the origin of what is today the wards of the City of London. A royal palace was built. New streets were laid out, some of which remain today, and embankments were created along the river allowing ships to berth. Small wooden houses with thatched roofs were erected. Parishes were formed with churches that were probably initially built of wood but later of stone. Open-air public meetings called ‘folkmoots’ were held to make announcements and discuss matters of public interest. During that period only around a quarter of the space within the Roman wall was built over, with the remaining area probably used to graze animals and grow crops.

In 1714 Britain entered the Georgian period. London had grown into the largest city and most prominent manufacturing centre in Europe. It was the capital of a growing empire.

Queen Anne had given birth to seventeen children even before she had come to the throne, none of whom survived beyond childhood. It was clear that Anne would inherit the throne but without a successor to follow her. Therefore in 1701, during the reign of her predecessor William III, Parliament had passed the Act of Settlement, which determined that the British Crown would pass to distant Germanic Protestant relatives after Anne’s death. This was to prevent a Catholic monarch. Thus in 1714 the Elector of Hanover became George I of Great Britain, the first of a new dynasty. Father and son George I and II, were first and foremost Hanoverians, both brought up in their Germanic Electorate state and with German as their first language. In their early lives they had been military leaders involved in European conflicts but by the time of their succession to the throne they were relatively elderly and both somewhat distant to their British subjects.

European conflict led to international imperial wars, fought on a number of continents around the globe. Due to its historically strong navy Britain, more than any other nation, eventually benefitted, and by the time of the death of George II had become the world’s greatest international power.

During the Glorious Revolution of 1688 James II had fled to France and continued to live there in exile. Some of his closest supporters followed him, while large numbers of people in Britain – particularly amongst Tories and Catholics – continued in secret to support his return. The supporters of the Stuarts were known as Jacobites and several attempts were made by James and his descendants to win back the throne. The most serious of these came in 1745 when James’s grandson, ‘Bonnie Prince’ Charles, landed in Scotland with a small group of men. From there he marched on London, gaining followers as he went. Having reached Derby he lost his nerve and turned back and, defeated in battle, fled back into exile.

George II had a greater interest in public building than his father and Horse Guards Parade, new Treasury buildings, the Royal Mews at Charing Cross, a new library at St. James’s Palace for Queen Caroline, a house at Kew for their son Frederick, and Westminster Bridge were all created during his reign.

By the early 18th century London had grown to become the largest city in Europe, with a population that passed half a million in the 1740s, amounting to around ten percent of the whole of Great Britain. It was also the largest industrial centre in Europe, particularly for the manufacturing of textiles following the arrival of large numbers of Huguenot silk-weavers in the latter 17th century. London was the capital not just of Great Britain and Ireland but of a growing empire around the world, from the East Indies to the West Indies and North America. It was a trading capital, with by far the country’s largest port. The Thames appeared to be a forest of ship’s masts. Yet London still covered only 10,000 acres, small enough to walk from end to end in an hour or two.