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Gauging Ground, London Docks |
| The London Docks, opened in 1805, specialised in the
handling of wines and spirits and became largely associated with the wine trade.
Here on the Gauging Ground, North Quay, Western Dock, casks of wine and
spirits, excluding rum, from all over the world would be measured, and tested for their
alcoholic content and quality. Once measured and tested the spirits would be stored above ground and the wine stored in the vast wine vaults below the warehouses of the Western Dock. The wine vaults had nearly twenty acres of storage space. They were dimly lit and a constant temperature of 60ø Fahrenheit was maintained throughout the year. From the roof of these wine vaults a fungus grew which appeared to owe its existence to the fumes given off by the wine! In 1925 the Port of London Authority (PLA), owners of all the docks in London, handled imports of over nine million gallons of wine. And in the Bonded Warehouses of the London Docks it was possible for a Wine Merchant to have all their vintage and table wines blended, bottled, corked, labelled and crated by dockworkers. The large warehouses seen on the left were constructed by Daniel Alexandra between 1804-1805. When the London Docks closed in 1963, these Grade One listed warehouses remained empty until in the 1980s when they were all demolished to make way for News International’s Wapping Print Works. Most of the gauging ground now lies beneath an office development and a Safeway Supermarket. |
