With the decline of the docks, however, after the Second World War, and the movement of the import and export trade to the month of the Thames, at Harwich and Lowestoft, near Southend, the importance of the St Catherine’s Docks began to diminish. It was never one of the shipbuilding yards or influential in ships rope making, etc, as some of the docks on the Isle of Dogs were but it suffered from their collapse too. The industry moved out of this, almost central, Thames location and the sites were, more or less, abandoned and left in decay.
It was only in the 1970s that the re-generation of the docks began to take place-the Docklands Regeneration scheme itself, where quays and wharfs and warehouses were taken over and redeveloped into office space and expensive apartments. St Catherine’s Dock was close to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, both important tourist attractions. It is also sited next to a very large, good quality, hotel overlooking the Thames. St Catherine’s Dock was, therefore, taken over and reclassified as an urban marina, taking in the yachts of the very rich from all over the world. The old warehouses and trade buildings were converted into luxury apartments and the site was given over to high quality tourism, with quality restaurants and bars, and cafés and shops, so that now it is a very successful example of the whole riverside Docklands development, which has spread now beyond London to Cardiff and Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, and also Glasgow, cities that suffered, too, from the decline in U.K shipbuilding and the movement of the import and export trade from individual, separate U.K sites to the generally more centralised sites in the South East of the England, as at Harwich, etc. it should be added that St Catherine’s Dock is within walking distance of Aldgate and therefore, the City of London itself with its City Merchant offices and its Central Banks, including The Bank of England itself, and such important establishments such as Lloyds Insurance. It is close to excellent transport links, buses and the Docklands light Railway, with its connections to the London Underground Network, so it is the ideal place to live for very well of people who work in Docklands, Canary Wharf, etc, as in the city itself..
