City Canal

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An 1802 painting of the completed West India Docks. The City Canal is to the left of the painting, and was later closed to become a third dock. The view is looking west towards the City of London.
An 1802 painting of the completed West India Docks. The City Canal is to the left of the painting, and was later closed to become a third dock. The view is looking west towards the City of London.

The City Canal was a short, and short-lived, canal excavated across the Isle of Dogs in east London, linking two reaches of the River Thames. Today, it has been almost completely reconstructed to form the South Dock of the West India Docks.

[edit] History

The West India Docks Act of 1799 allowed the City of London Corporation to construct a canal from Limehouse Reach to Blackwall Reach, across the Isle of Dogs.[1] It was intended to provide a short cut for sailing ships, to save them travelling around the south of the Isle of Dogs to access the wharves in the upper reaches of the river. If winds were unfavourable, this journey could take some time. The canal was completed in 1805 (officially opened on 9 December that year), having incorporated at its western end the Breach Dockyard, a mast and timber laying dock formed around a large linear pond.[2]. The canal cost £168,813, including the acquisition of land.[3]

However, access to the canal was determined by the state of the tide and the transit slow. These factors meant the canal was not a financial success since the owners did not charge tolls. It soon became a liability and was sold, for £120,000, to the West India Dock Company, owner of the adjacent West India Docks, in 1829.

The company bought it mainly to prevent it from falling into other hands. Proposals for collier docks immediately south of the City Canal, and the opening of the St Katharine Docks in 1828, had heightened the company's awareness of the threat represented by other dock interests.[3] They added a timber dock to the south of the canal in 1832–3, the last major building work at the docks for 20 years.[3]

Some 30 years later (1866-70), in a scheme managed by engineer Sir John Hawkshaw, the canal was enlarged, the entrances widened, and complex was renamed the South West India Dock,[4][5] later known as South Dock.

In 1926 it was decided that the South Dock should be connected to the West India import and export docks and to the Millwall Dock.[5] The developments - a new South Dock east entrance lock and three passages to link the Millwall, South, Export and Import Docks - were divided into four contracts, and were completed in 1931 at a final cost of £1,311,981 for the dock works, considerably improving access to the docks.[3]

[edit] Today

South Dock regularly plays host to medium-sized military vessels visiting London as it is the furthest point upstream that they can be turned around - courtesy of the reconstruction worked carried out in 1926-1931. There is no longer a route for vessels across the Isle of Dogs - only the reconstructed eastern entrance remains.

[edit] References and notes

  1. ^ Canals and distribution [1]
  2. ^ London Thames Gateway Forum - Heritage [2]
  3. ^ a b c d From: 'The West India Docks: Historical development', Survey of London: volumes 43 and 44: Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs (1994), pp. 248-68. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=46494. Date accessed: 20 August 2007.
  4. ^ West India Docks (1803-1980) [3]
  5. ^ a b Building the docks [4]
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