Karolis Ramanauskas
Regeneration of London Docklands
London docks used to be one of the biggest and the busiest docks in the world, but then because of economic and physical conditions of the River Thames it started to decline. The consequences of the decline were devastating. 30,000 people lost their jobs, 50% of the London docks were left derelict and one third of housing was unsatisfactory for human habitation. Inadequate infrastructure of roads, rail, telephone and cable lines had made the situation even worse. The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) then took over and started to regenerate London Docklands.
London Docklands declined for a number of reasons. One of them was containerization, which meant that fewer dockers were needed. Another big reason why London Docklands declined was a general decline in primary and secondary industries, which meant that industries, such as food refining, were forced to close down. The third reason why the docks declined was because the boats became progressively larger and as the River Thames became increasingly silted they found it difficult to come so far upstream. Therefore the docks were moved downstream to places such as Tilbury.
