PORT OF LONDON

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 242, 10 September 1940, Page 6

PORT OF LONDON

HISTORIC TRADING CENTRE lIOW IT DEVELOPED. . In thrusting at the heart of the Empire, tile Nazi airmen apparently hope to deal a devastating blow at the very centre of its life, for they have, under Goering’s direction, aimed their bJows at Dondon’s Dockland. Their' strategy is easily understood. Nothing, perhaps, annoys the enemy more than the skilful manner m which British ships and seamen, defying the ravages of the ocean raider —surface and undersea continue to bring to London the stores and riches of the vast Empire. A blow at the, historic spot would be, in the eyes o the Germans, a blow at that which is essentially British. 'Hie Port of London is closely allied to the markets, though less closely than in earlier days—for enormous quantities of goods are dealt in on the London markets that never reach the quays. The early silting up of the Walbrook meant that Dowgate was the first Of the small London lathes (smallports) to become obsolete; the Fleet was used at least till 1502, when we find that boats carrying fish and fuel could be rowed as far as Holborn bridge. Apart from these two stream estuaries the port consisted, from very early Saxon times, of the two hithes, Queenhitlie and Billingsgate. Owing to the increased tonnage of the vessels, and to the serious impediment caused by the old London Bridge, in spite of the drawbridge allowing ships to pass through it to Queenhitlie, Billingsgate, below the bridge, gradually overhauled and superseded its rival. Originally a general port, Billingsgate in 1699 became a free port for fish. 7 By the middle of the Sixteenth Century London had drawn to herself the hulk of -the trade of South-East England. In the reign of Charles I. the legal quays had to he supplemented by “suffrance wharves,” whose numbers were gradually increased until by 1896 there were 113. Many of the old legal wharves and quays retain then names to this day : Galley Quay, Botolph’s Wharf, Three Cranes, in the Vintry, for instance. The or coal, which dates hack to the 1‘ ourteentli Century, employed an increasing number of craft on the Thames. Sea coal, so called to distinguish it from charcoal, gave its name to Sea Coal Lane, which leads east from l‘arriiigdon Street at a point just north of the old Fleet Bridge (now Ludgate Circus) where the colliers, before returning to the Tyne laden with ballast, discharge their coal; and to-day coal is one of the main items of traffic above the bridge. GROWING PROSPERITY. The prosperity of the port as well as the growing tonnage of the ships necessitated constantly increasing accommodation. In 1661 the first of London’s docks was built at Blackwall. This was a private undertaking and was not a dock in the modern sense, for it had no gates and could not retain the water at the ebb. In 1700 the Howland Great Wet Dock at Rotherliithe was made, hut it was not till a century later that, with the construction of the West India Dock, the development of the modern port began. At the beginning of the nineteenth century it took month or six weeks to discharge an East Indiaman; the construction of the St. Katharine Dock in 1828 made it possible to accomplish this work in a week or less. The tonnage of a large ship at that time would he about 500; to-day a ship of 18,000 or 20,000 tons can he discharged in a couple of days, thanks to the amazing machinery and ample j accommodation in the Tilbury, King | George Y, Millwall, AVest India, and | Victoria and Albert, and miles of other j fine docks. The Port of London is one j of the marvels of the modern world.