Museum of London Docklands-October 2019

Grumpy Old Men’s Club update The October outing for the Grumpies on Wednesday 30th was an interesting visit to the Museum of London Docklands. The museum, which is situated in Limehouse and is close to Canary Wharf, tells the history of London's River Thames and the growth of Docklands. From Roman settlement to Docklands’ regeneration, the museum unlocks the history of London’s river, port and people in this historic warehouse. It displays a wealth of objects from whale bones to WWII gas masks in state-of-the-art galleries, including Sailortown, an atmospheric re-creation of 19th century riverside Wapping; and London, Sugar & Slavery, which reveals the city’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. Trade expansion from 1600 to 1800 tells the story of how ships sailed from London to India and China and brought back cargoes of spices, tea and silk. The museum’s building is central to this story. It was built at the time of the transatlantic slave trade, to store the sugar from the West Indian plantations where enslaved men, women and children worked. The trade in enslaved Africans and sugar was nicknamed the Triangular Trade. Slave ships travelled across the Atlantic in a triangle between Britain, west Africa, and sugar plantations in the Americas. Vast fortunes were made from this triangle. By the mid-18th century there were so many ships in the port of London that their cargoes often rotted before they could be unloaded. The West India Docks were built to prevent this long wait for space at the quayside. The museum building was originally No. 1 Warehouse of the West India Docks. Opened in 1802, the West India Docks were London’s first enclosed dock system, built away from the open river on the Isle of Dogs. Sailortown was a ramshackle London district, close to the docks, centred around Wapping, Shadwell and Ratcliffe. Contemporary writers described Sailortown as 'both foul and picturesque'. In 1852, the reverend Thomas Beames wrote that Sailortown was filled with professional thieves who preyed on drunken sailors. The museum is careful in its description of the pleasures available in Sailortown but the old adage ‘wine, women and song’ probably sums it up very well! Sailors brought exotic birds from Africa and South America to London. They mostly sold these animals to shops, rather than keeping them as pets. As British power and trade spread across the globe, so the port of London grew and prospered. Wooden sailing ships gave way to iron steamers, and by 1880, London docks were a hub for world trade. Until the outbreak of the Second World War, the sheds and warehouses that lined the river Thames housed every conceivable commodity. Attacks from the air during World War II had a devastating effect on the docks and the people who lived and worked in the area, all of which were the first target in the London Blitz. The bombings began in July 1940, but the start of what is known as The Blitz was marked later that year by Black Saturday. It was reported that 348 German bombers, accompanied by 617 fighter planes attacked London on 7th September 1940. Around 1,000 bombs and other incendiary devices were dropped on strategically important areas, like The Royal Docks. One hundred and forty-six people were killed in East and West Ham alone, with the death toll across London reaching close to 500. The Museum recounts the ups and downs of London’s upriver docks, culminating in their closure from the 1960s through to the early 1980s. Docklands then became the site of Europe’s largest regeneration project. When it was built in 1990, One Canada Square was the tallest building in Britain, at 800 feet tall, the skyscraper became a symbol of the transformation of Docklands. Nowadays ‘Docklands’ has become synonymous with London’s financial services industry and is a far cry in appearance from the heady days of the Docks! .

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