Early history liners in East India Docks in 1902 Following the successful creation of the
West India Docks which opened in 1802, an act of Parliament, the '''''' (
43 Geo. 3. c. cxxvi) set up the East India Dock Company, promoted by the Honourable
East India Company.
Joseph Cotton was chairman of the dock company from 1803. The foundation stone was laid on 11 March 1805 and the sluices of its floating gate opened on 26 July 1806, being ready to receive ships five days later. The docks, designed by engineer
Ralph Walker, were located to the north-east of the West India Docks. They were based on the existing Brunswick Dock, which had been used for fitting out and repairing ships as part of
Blackwall Yard. The Brunswick Dock, which had originally been connected directly to the Thames to the south, became the Export Dock. To the north the company built a larger Import Dock. Both were connected to the Thames via an eastern entrance basin. The company rapidly became profitable through its trade in commodities such as tea, spices, indigo, silk and Persian carpets. The tea trade alone was worth £30 million a year. The docks spawned further local industry, with spice merchants and pepper grinders setting up around the dock to process goods. The '''''' (
9 Geo. 4. c. xcv) consolidated acts relating the docks. In 1838, the two companies merged to form the East and West India Docks Company. In 1886, in the last act of a ruinous game of leapfrog with the London & St Katharine Dock Company, they built the
Tilbury Docks. The East and West India Docks Company operated in cooperation with the London & St Katharine Dock Company from 1888, and the two companies merged as the London and India Docks Company on 1 January 1901. On 31 March 1909, the docks were taken over by the
Port of London Authority, along with the other enclosed docks. While much smaller than the West India Docks or the later
Royal Docks, the East India Docks could still handle
East Indiamen of 1,000 tons and up to 250 ships at one time. However the advent of steam power and larger ships reduced the importance of this dock. After the war, during which all the docks were badly damaged, the East India Docks were confined to occasional
Channel Islands traffic and to the maintenance of equipment including
dredgers. From the 1960s onwards, the East India Docks experienced a steady decline – as did all of London's other docks – as the shipping industry adopted
containerisation, which effectively moved traffic downstream to
Tilbury. In 1967 the East India Docks were the first of the London docks to close. Developments on the site of the Import Dock include the
Mulberry Place in 1992 and the
Republic campus with offices, retail and public space which was largely completed in 2019. Two buildings on the campus have been renamed as Import and Export to provide a nod to the site's past. The names of the streets on the site of the Import Dock reflect the names of some of the goods traded here:
Clove Crescent,
Nutmeg Lane,
Coriander Avenue,
Oregano Drive,
Rosemary Drive and
Saffron Avenue. The site of the Export Dock was converted into a residential development named Virginia Quay, with an amenity with mature trees known as Virginia Quay Park. In 1999, the
Virginia Quay Settlers Monument was unveiled, replacing a 1928 plaque on the site. East India Dock Basin exists now as a nature reserve, providing a tidal mudflat habitat for birds such as
Kingfishers and
Terns. == Notes ==