|
| Incorporated
in 1864 as the Millwall Canal Company, it acquired 200 acres of the Isle of Dogs to build
docks and basins. Work began in June 1865 and the dock was open in 1868. The Dock enclosed
36 acres of water, forming a reversed letter "L", with on the western side an
entrance 450 feet in length, 80 feet in width and 28 feet in depth. The spoil from the
construction of the Dock went to create the area known as the "Mudchute". The
Company’s aim was to provide facilities for the handling of bulk commodities,
especially grain and timber. On the south side of the Dock, a graving dock was also built
and the directors hoped to build an industrial estate.
A new branch line of the Blackwall Railway was established, opened in 1872, linking Fenchurch Street with North Greenwich Station. This enabled passengers to connect with the ferry to Greenwich, while a spur connected it to the Millwall Dock. In 1899, the Millwall Dock Company built the Central Granary, a massive brick structure, thirteen storeys high with pneumatic elevators, to capture the bulk grain market from the Baltic, America and Canada. The Dockers who worked in the Granary were regular men employed by the Company. They were called cornporters and, also, nick-named, humorously, "toe-rags". The name came from their habit of binding their feet with sacking to protect them from grain getting into their boots and the heated grain burning their feet. Many of them died before reaching the age of fifty, their lungs destroyed by breathing in the clouds of dust made when discharging bulk grain. With the privatisation of all the London Docks in 1908, the Port of London Authority owned Millwall Dock. In 1926, the PLA decided to build a new entrance to the West India Docks and at the same time construct a link between South Dock and Millwall Dock: thereby allowing shipping to enter the Millwall Dock from the West India Dock. The Millwall Dock was used by the Swedish Lloyd Line, which ran a twice-weekly service for passengers and cargo to Gothenburg in Sweden. In 1980, the Millwall Dock closed and in 1982 became part of the London Enterprise Zone. |
