The history of London's docklands

From Roman times to the Middle Ages, London's docks were located in the Thames and the London Pool between the city of London and the other side of Southwark (South Bank). However, due to the lack of facilities to protect the goods carried in the loading and unloading process and the goods in the ship, they are often the targets of thieves. Porters working in the London Pool were granted the privilege of weighing and handling by the City of London, but they charged high fees and corruption was rampant, so ship owners gradually began to look for other berths. In addition, after17th century, with the rapid increase in the number of ships, the port space is getting smaller and smaller. Therefore, shipowners began to load and unload goods at the Thames estuary outside London or other ports.

1696, william russell, the landlord of Losey and Duke of Bedford, built "Dahaolan Wharf" (later expanded to Surrey Wharf) in Losey, the peninsula on the east side (downstream side) of the South Thames. This wharf is a huge rectangular artificial river, which can accommodate 120 large ships. Moreover, there are no roads and warehouses for porters, and there are no walls around the port. Because this port is private land outside London, porters can't exercise their privileges here, and the safety of goods and ships has also been improved, and it will soon become the prototype of the most important harbor and wharf outside London. 1802, starting from the West India Wharf, and entering the19th century, many companies successively built large wharves on the Waping on the east side of the Tower of London and the wharf island in front of it, and London Port became the largest port in the world, distributing goods from Europe and the British Empire.

There are many kinds of docks. The wet dock is equipped with gates at the artificial river population, surrounded by warehouses and protective walls, and ships can dock and load and unload goods after entering. The dry dock is small in scale, and the river channel in Hanoi was artificially evacuated after the ship entered, and was built for ship repair. There are shipyards of the same structure along the Thames. There are also many warehouses and docks along the Thames. Many shipyards have also designed special loading and unloading facilities according to the characteristics of sugar, grain, wood and other goods. Many goods are loaded with sampans at the docks and transported to all parts of Britain by canals or railways.

There are many port workers in the dock area, such as lighters who are responsible for transporting goods back and forth between boats and sampans, and dockers who carry goods from sampans and boats to the ground. Although some skilled workers have set up their own companies or trade unions, most of them are unskilled workers who do short-term work. They gather in bars every morning and wait for the foreman to announce the recruitment. Although you can find a job, sometimes you know how much money you can get even if you go to a bar, which can be said to be a kind of gambling. This form of labor lasted until after the Second World War.

In the past, there was no wetland near the dock area, which was not suitable for agriculture. After the development of the wharf, workers' bars and collective houses began to appear rapidly, but only a few roads led to the city, forming an isolated, poor (but United) community. These areas are hotbeds of underworld and other crimes, and they have also had the experience of uniting to protest against the government.

1909, in order to improve logistics efficiency and labor problems, various private enterprises operating docks were integrated into "London Port Authority". Under the management of the Port Authority of London, the wharf area was expanded to the George V Wharf of the Royal Wharf, and many docks and inland ports were built in the dirty Tilbury site.

In the London air raid in the Battle of Britain in World War II, the dock was intensively attacked and destroyed on a large scale. The revival lasted until 1960s+1950s, and the docklands became a prosperous port again, but its depression also came suddenly. With the logistics revolution of sea-land container transportation, shipping companies have moved their berths from the dock area where containers can't be loaded and unloaded to Tilbury, which has been successfully containerized, and even to Felixstowe, which faces the sea and has deep water. During the period from 1960s to 1980s, all shipyards were closed, and a ruin with an area of 2 1 km2 was born in the center of London. The unemployment problem in East London is serious, which has caused many problems. With the closure of the wharf, its redevelopment has become an urgent problem, but it took ten years to make the plan and another ten years to put it into practice. The development of the wharf began in1970s. However, this problem is related to the landlords in these areas, the Greater London City Council, the Port Authority of London, electricity, natural gas, railways and five district governments, and it is quite complicated.

198 1 year, the British Ministry of Environment established the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC). This company was established by the government, and it has powerful power to acquire and prepare land in the dock area. Another important policy is the enterprise zone, which was decided by 1982. It provides many incentives to simplify land development for commercial activities in the dock area, such as real estate tax. Therefore, the development planning of the dock area has attracted many enterprises to participate and set off an upsurge. LDDC's policy is biased towards large enterprises and their employees, focusing on the development of high-end business centers, which leads people to criticize it for belittling the development of low-cost housing. Although the residents in the dock area think that the development plan ignores their needs and express their dissatisfaction, the development of LDDC (despite many controversies) has brought bold changes to the dock area. 1998, the management right of the dock area returned to the district government, and the LDDC activity ended.

From11980 s to11990 s, LDDC implemented a large-scale development plan to transform most of the dock area into a complex of residence, commerce, commerce and light industry. Its most obvious signs are the largest skyscraper complex in Britain located in the center of Dock Island and the ambitious Canary Wharf project representing the formation of New Financial Street in London. However, the nearby Xilang Wharf is only developed into a low-density business district. Even in Canary Wharf, there are some areas such as Lehmhaus, where development has made progress, but the specific blueprint has not been determined as the Canary Wharf project. Canary Wharf was involved in the real estate depression in the early 1968+0990' s. When it was completed, no one rented it, and there were still many buildings not built in the open space, which was a persistent problem for LDDC and delayed its development for several years. For the real estate industry, many properties can neither be rented nor sold, which has become a burden. The builder of the skyscraper "Canada's First Square", Olympia &; Olympia and York went bankrupt on 1992.

Due to the inconvenient transportation in the dock area for a long time, LDDC has built an automated automated people mover light rail (DLR) in the dock area between the dock area and the city of London. The cost of this railway is low, and it uses the tracks left by waste lines. The first phase of the project only needs 77 million pounds (LDDC requested to build a new subway line at that time, but the government refused to contribute). LDDC has also built a highway connecting Pier Island and A 13 Expressway. Lehmhaus Tunnel was built by open-cut backfill method, but the average cost per kilometer of this road is 65.438+0.5 billion pounds, which is the highest construction cost in history. 1987, LDDC also built London City Airport at Royal Pier, mainly serving minicomputers such as business jets. In the past 20 years, the population of the dock area has more than doubled, and it has become a large commercial area and residential area with convenient transportation. The traffic network has improved significantly. 1999 subway Jubilee Line extends to Pier Island. It takes only 6 stops from Westminster Station to Canary Wharf, and connects with the central line of the eastern suburbs at Stratford Station. In addition, the light rail in the dock area also extends eastward to Becton. In June 5438+February, 2005, a branch line extending to George V Pier via London City Airport was also completed. In addition, it also extends southward across the Thames to Greenwich and Liuyishem on Dock Island. Canary Wharf has become the largest skyscraper group in Europe, which can even threaten London's financial street status. The Royal Pier, which occupies the eastern half of the docklands, has also been transformed into the London Exhibition Center. Four Seasons Hotel, Hilton, Marriott International and other international hotels have also been built.

Most of the old warehouses and docks in the dock area were demolished, and several warehouses were transformed into houses. Almost all the ditches and water surfaces of the wharf have been preserved, mainly used as yachts and water sports centers (except Surrey Wharf, where there are countless docks, most of which are buried). Although big ships sometimes dock at the old docks, the transportation of goods has been transferred to Tilbury and Felix.

The rebirth of the docklands has also had an impact on this once deserted city. For example, Greenwich and Deptford, because of the developed transportation network, have become extremely convenient areas for commuting and have been redeveloped on a large scale.

However, the redevelopment of the dock area has also brought losses. The large-scale real estate boom has brought about the rise of housing prices, which has caused serious friction between the residents who moved into the dock area and the traditional communities who were forced to leave because of the rising housing prices. In addition, the dock area has become a striking contrast scene everywhere in Britain-the most obvious example (the middle class of the city) is that high-end apartments built for the elite are built next to abandoned public houses.

Dock area has the status of "Britain under Thatcher's regime", so it has also become the target of terrorist attacks. The Provisional Irish Peace Corps had planned to launch a terrorist attack at Canary Wharf, which ended in failure. However, in February 1996, it carried out a large-scale bomb terrorist attack at the South Wharf Station, resulting in two deaths, 40 injuries, serious damage to three buildings and losses of 654.38 billion pounds in the nearby area. This incident ended the ceasefire between the British and Irish Interim Peace Forces.

June, 5438+October, 2009/kloc-0, the docklands have their own symphony orchestra.

The headquarters of the independent group also moved to the docklands. In 2008, the independent news media group announced that its headquarters would be moved from Kensington to the docklands. The redevelopment of the dock area is still going on, and there are many development plans.

The quayside light rail system was extended to London City Airport in February 2005. And plans to continue to expand to reach Ghana.

It is planned to extend the main line of the Trans-London Railway from central London to Canary Wharf and northern Kent, and the railway will extend from east to west under London.

Expansion of London City Airport.

Continue to develop the south bank of the Thames, located in the Canadian waters of the Old Surrey Pier.

Develop artificial river, Blackwell wharf and timber wharf in the east of Canary Wharf. Continue to develop the Royal Pier.

New skyscrapers will be built in Canary Wharf, including the South Building of Riverside, the West and North Wharf of Heron Wharf, and three new buildings are planned.

It is estimated that in the early 20th century, the reconstruction will extend to the suburbs outside East London and reach Kent and Essex in the lower reaches of the Thames. Namely the Leah Valley Development Plan and the Thames Estuary Plan.