Reason For Creation
London's Docklands were at one time the largest and most successful in the world. Starting with West India Docks in 1802, East India Docks, Millwall Dock, Surrey Docks and then the Royal Docks, thousands of people were employed in international trade, warehousing and related trades. Over time, manufacturing industry also moved into the Docklands, including large coal and gas plants and storage, the Pura Lard factory, flour mills, and many other businesses.
During World War II, the docks area was heavily bombed during the Blitz, in an attempt to destroy the British economy. This crippled or damaged much of the infrastructure and many older buildings were lost.
There was a brief resurgence during the 1950s but the docks were empty by 1980. The main reason was containerisation: goods used to be brought into the UK by relatively small ships, unloaded by hand, from the 1970s onwards most trade was carried within intermodal containers (shipping containers) or by truck on roll-on/roll-off ferries.This was also the time when air cargo was becoming the dominant mode of transport in the UK with Heathrow being the most important port by value. Manufacturing industry no longer had to be close to the river as raw materials were being moved by road to cheaper locations within the UK, leaving the docks with less trade.This was particularly evident with processed foods.
Between 1961 and 1971, almost 83,000 jobs were lost in the five boroughs in the Docklands area (Greenwich, Lewisham, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Southwark). A large percentage of these jobs were from large transnational corporations. The decline was heightened by government policies which favoured the growth of industry outside London. High unemployment was accompanied by population decline. Whilst inner London lost 10% of its population between 1961 and 1971, the figures for Tower Hamlets and Southwark were 18% and 16% respectively.
The housing in the Docklands area was nearly all council-owned terraced housing and flats. There was no commercial infrastructure such as banks or building societies or any new office accommodation. This presented a unique challenge for Government - how to completely replace an industry on a vast scale and make the contaminated, depressed docklands an attractive place to live and work.
Read more about this topic: London Docklands Development Corporation
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