The land of the former island of Grasbrook, upon which the HafenCity is built, lay until the beginning of the 19th century outside of the city gates. The city fortifications used to run along what is now the street of
Am Sandtorkai. The residential areas of Kehrwieder and Wandrahm were inside the walls, in the area of the current HafenCity. Outside the city walls, the boggy areas were used as meadows, and the western end of Große Grasbrook was used a place for
executions, including those of pirates
Klaus Störtebeker and the
Victual Brothers. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, shipyards and port businesses operated here. In 1844, the first
gasworks in Hamburg were built on the northern part of the island. When the capacity of the
Binnenhafen (
de) and
Niederhafen (
de) ports became full at the end of the 19th century, the city walls were demolished and the area of Grasbrook was used to extend the harbor area. In 1868, the first artificial dock was constructed at
Sandtorhafen, and in 1881, the
Grasbrookhafen was added. The
Strandhafen was built directly on the Norderelbe, the
Magdeburger Hafen,
Brooktorhafen, and
Ericusgraben were made to connect to the
Oberhafen, and, finally, the
Baakenhafen was built with a rail connection to the
Hamburger Elbbrücken (
de) bridges and the
Kirchenpauerhafen with anchorage on the Elbe. Until 1886, the entire island was built up with docks and port installations. In 1872, the Hamburg Hanover railway station (
de) was constructed on
Lohseplatz east of the
Magdeburger Hafen. The Kehrwieder and Wandrahm residential quarters were demolished in 1883 to allow construction of the customs and duty-free zone of the Port of Hamburg, displacing around 20,000 residents. In 1888, the Warehouse District
(Speicherstadt) could then be built in this area.
Kaispeicher B was built in 1878 and the administration building of the old port authority
(Altes Hafenamt) was built in 1885 at the
Magdeburger Hafen. Around the start of the 20th century, the first heated fruit storehouses were constructed, and in 1928, a
refrigerated herring warehouse designed by
Fritz Schumacher was built. ==Culture and education==