London Docklands

LONDON DOCKLANDS COURSEWORK

London Docklands

In this investigation I will be investigating if the hypothesis is True or False and justify why.

Hypothesis: “All members of the community benefited ‘equally’ from the redevelopment of London’s docklands”

Introduction: My investigation is to investigate and justified whether or not the ‘hypothesis’ is true or false backing this up with results. In this investigation I will be doing the following to decide whether or not the hypothesis: “All members if the community benefited ‘equally’ from the redevelopment of London’s docklands”

Location: London Docklands is in the East end of London-England, UK (Most Economic Developed Country). London Docklands is an area of eight-and-a-half square miles stretching across parts of the East End Boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Newham, stretching from the north of the river Thames,-Tower Bridge to Beckton, ending in the South of the River- from London Bridge to Surrey.

Why did London grow as a trading centre?

London grew as a trading centre because of the First World War. During the First World War, the British Empire were conquering and expanding the Empire. As the Empire grew, the trading market grew; this was because Britain was expanding their trade with the rest of the Empire, importing and exporting goods such as; gold, slaves, coal, food stuff.

Therefore Britain became the main trader in all the trade taking place; and as London had the ideal location for trading (near the River Thames) it not only allowed simple access for the traders, it became the Capital and the “trading centre” for all trading taking place.

With the trade market growing many Docks was built for the ships to dock as a place for the trade their goods, look at the map below to see the Docks.

What was it like to work in Dockland at those times?

Majority of dockworkers were employed on a temporary basis; all day, half day, even an hour. Although some Dock workers were permanent and worked full-time for dock companies. Dock labours were hired to do “call-on’s” which happened several times a day.

Dock workers were mainly men who lived in the near-by houses near the ...

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With the trade market growing many Docks was built for the ships to dock as a place for the trade their goods, look at the map below to see the Docks.

What was it like to work in Dockland at those times?

Dock workers were mainly men who lived in the near-by houses near the Docks; if they did not get the dock work and were unemployed, they did not received enough income to avoid poverty. Also, the pay for a dock worker wasn’t that great and they would of receive anything from around 20s [£1] to 30s [£1.50].

The Dock workers work involved lifting, carrying, pushing. Therefore, the work was physically demanding and dangerous. All this was done by hand, so this was not easy for them. Dock workers mainly did loading and unloading work. Although there were other jobs such as port worker, bedder, and box knocked.

Working conditions were poor. When the weather was bad, dock workers had to work in wet and cold conditions, this contributed to the high accident rate in the docks.

Why did the Docks Close?

The docks closed because of several reason, below is a list of reasons that led to the conclusion of the closure of the Docks:

Countries developed their own manufacturing industries and were looking elsewhere to trade their goods.

New mechanised dock technology was being used in Europe.

London was a long journey away and was difficult to access.

Cargo-handling techniques used were used a century earlier and were inefficient and expensive.

New methods of cargo-handling were introduced and so forced docks to change. E.g. ---The goods were packed in cargos and carried by cranes and railway more efficient and cheaper then hand labour.

It became expensive to trade in London they found another locations to trade their goods besides London

The docks developed problems with the demand of the increasing of trade in the docks; here is the list of the problems:

Docks wasn’t large enough to accommodate large Ships docking in the docks as well as the amount of ships, the docks became over congested.

There was a lack of safe storage for the goods.

Some of the docks were bombed in World War 2 and destroyed.

Over-charging taxes of the ships docking in Docklands.

What happened after the Docks closed?

When the docks closed it caused a ‘negative multiplier affect’, this affected not only the dock workers but the whole community and businesses. Many of the people living in Docklands were dock workers, and with the Docks closed, the dock workers had no jobs and were unemployed receiving no efficient income to support their family, resulting to poverty. The closure of the docks made the whole Docklands community poor because they had no money. No money meant that they could not purchase goods such as food and clothes. Then because people were too poor to afford anything, businesses were losing customers and their income and so had to close. With the businesses closed, the suppliers to these businesses lost money. People moved out of the area, although many remained. Overall, many people were affected by the closure of Docks, not only the London Docklands community. The area suffered from the economic, physical and social damages, in other words the ‘negative multiplier affect’

What plans were put forward to regenerate the area once the docks had closed?

A committee headed by Viscount Rochdale led an inquiry in September 1962 into the efficiency of the major ports of Greater Britain, amongst the port of London, St Katherine Docks was the one most concerned. The Rochdale report was a report discussing about the plans that could be done in the Docklands area.

* Here I include a piece of the Rochdale Report:

THE ROCHDALE REPORT

"As a general proposition we think that port activity should be moved away from the centre of London and there is, on the face of things, land at these docks which could be valuable for redevelopment. We are aware that at present the docks perform a useful and to some extent specialised function, but we think it at least possible that the traffic could be catered for elsewhere in the port, especially if pressure can be eased by development at Tilbury.

As for the potential use of the land, it may be doubted whether it is suitable for development for industry or housing, but the docks themselves might be filled in and at least or otherwise developed for storage purposes and the warehouses might be sold or let to private enterprise; it could be that capital derived from such arrangements could be put to very good use by the authorities elsewhere, for example at Tilbury. Much detailed study of the possibilities of such a project is required and we urge that the port authority should give it very careful consideration and it should take outside advice on development potential of the area."

Rochdale Report was a start in the reviews and of processes leading towards to the decline of the dock operation and with the collapse of traditional activities associated with the area since the turn of the previous century. This report raised awareness of the need to take affective action into the decline of employment, investment, population.

Redevelopment of docklands:

When the docks closed it had became clear that Docklands needed to regenerate. The government came into action and set-up an organisation called the ‘LDDC’ (London Docklands Development Corporation), established on 2 July 1981, under provision of the Local Government and the Planning and Land Act 1980 due to the response to the severe decline in the physical, economic and social damage caused to Docklands by the closure of London docks.

Statistics:

The wrecked economy by the closure of the docks: