Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Waterside restaurants abound—at the West India Dock, along Mackenzie Walk, and
elsewhere. Or enjoy a picnic in Jubilee Place Park (delis and sandwich shops abound).
Safety and Services: Despite its rough past, the area we'll visit is now very safe and clean
(almost sterile). Public WCs are plentiful in the malls.
OVERVIEW
(See “Docklands Area” map, here .)
Centuries ago, this end of town was notorious for its smelly industries (bone boiling, glue
making, chemical works). It was conveniently downwind from the rest of London. By the
late 1700s, 13,000 ships a year were loaded and unloaded in central London, congesting
the Thames. So in 1802, the world's largest-of-its-kind harbor was built in the Docklands,
organizing shipping for the capital of the empire upon which the sun never set. When Brit-
annia ruled the waves, the Isle of Dogs hosted the world's leading harbor, with direct con-
nections to the North Sea.
After being destroyed by Nazi bombers during World War II, the Docklands struggled
for several decades and never regained its status as a port. With the advent of container
shipping in the 1960s, London's shipping industry moved farther east, to deep-water
docks. The old Docklands became a derelict and dangerous wasteland. Until a generation
ago, local surveys ranked it as one of the least desirable places to call home. It's said that
for every Tube stop you lived east of central London, your life expectancy dropped one
year.
But all of this misfortune paid off in the 1980s, when investors realized that the Dock-
lands was ripe for redevelopment...the perfect place to host a new and vibrant economic
center. Over the past few decades, Britain's new Information Age industries—banking,
finance, publishing, and media—have vacated downtown London and set up shop here.
You'll still see remnants of the past—those 1802 West India warehouses survive, but
rather than trading sugar and rum, today they house the excellent Museum of London
Docklands and a row of happening restaurants.
 
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