Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Nothing will convey to the stranger a better idea of the vast activity and stupendous wealth of London than
a visit to these warehouses, filled to overflowing with interminable stores of every kind of foreign and colonial
products; to these enormous vaults, with their apparently inexhaustible quantities of wine; and to these
extensive quays and landing-stages, cumbered with huge stacks of hides, heaps of bales, and long rows of
casks…Those who wish to taste the wines must procure a tasting-order from a wine merchant. Ladies are
not admitted after 1pm. Visitors should be on their guard against insidious effects of “tasting” in the heavy,
vinous atmosphere.
Baedeker's Handbook for London (1905)
14
Museum of London Docklands
West India Quay • Daily 10am-6pm • Free • T 020 7001 9844, W museumoflondon.org.uk/docklands/ • West India Quay DLR
If you've any interest in the history of the docks or the Thames, then a visit to the
Museum of London Docklands is well worth it. Housed in a warehouse built in 1803
for storing rum, sugar, molasses, coffee and cotton, the museum takes a chronological
approach, beginning on the top floor, where you'll find a great model of old London
Bridge, one side depicting it around 1450, the other around 1600. Also here is the
Rhinebeck Panorama, an 8ft-long watercolour showing the “legal quays” in the 1790s,
just before the enclosed docks were built. On the floor below are diverse sections on
slavery, frost fairs and whaling, a reconstructed warren of late nineteenth-century shops
and cobbled streets called “Sailortown”, plus mock-ups of a cooperage, a bottling vault
and a tobacco-weighing of ce. Look out, too, for the model of Brunel's Leviathan , the
fascinating wartime film reel and the excellent even-handed coverage of the docks'
postwar history. Those with kids should head for Mudlarks (daily 2-5.30pm; school
holidays 10am-5.30pm), where children can learn a bit about pulleys and ballast, drive
a DLR train or just romp around the soft play area.
Westferry Road
Points of interest elsewhere on the Isle of Dogs are few and far between, but one or
two monuments are worth pointing out around Westferry Road. One of Docklands'
more playful monuments is Pierre Vivant's Tra c Light Tree , west of Heron Quays,
at the top of Westferry Road, which features a cluster of tra c signals all flashing
madly - a strangely confusing sight for drivers after dark. Impossible to miss, to the
southwest, is Cascades , a wedge of high-rise triangular apartments that's become
something of a Docklands landmark. Equally unavoidable is Millennium Harbour , a
gated development whose weatherboarded top-floor penthouses jut out like
air-tra c-control towers.
Burrell's Wharf
At the southern end of Westferry Road, you come to Burrell's Wharf , a residential
development based around the industrial relics of the old Millwall Ironworks, built
in the 1830s. The boiler-house chimney survives, as does the Italianate Plate House,
where the steel plates for Isambard Kingdom Brunel's 19,000-ton steamship, the
Great Eastern (aka the Leviathan ), were manufactured. Built at a cost of £1 million,
the Leviathan was four times larger than any other ship in the world at the time,
but enjoyed a working life of just sixteen years as a passenger liner and cable-layer.
The timber piles of the ship's 1857 launching site can still be seen, a little further
upstream.
Mudchute and Island Gardens
In the southeast corner of the Isle of Dogs is a hilly area called Mudchute , where the
soil from digging out the nearby Millwall Docks was dumped in the 1860s. It's now
home to Mudchute City Farm (see p.442), one of the largest in Europe, with a great
café to boot (see p.379). From Mudchute, the DLR goes directly under the river to
 
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