St Katharine Docks
St Katharine Docks is a former dock and now a mixed-used district[1] in Central London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and within the East End. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, immediately downstream of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. From 1828 to 1968, it was one of the commercial docks that made up the Port of London. It is in the redevelopment zone known as Docklands and is now a popular housing and leisure complex.
St Katharine Docks
United Kingdom
An Act for making and constructing certain Wet Docks, Warehouses, and other Works in the Parish of Saint Botolph without Aldgate and in the Parish or Precinct of Saint Katharine near the Tower of London in the County of Middlesex.
6 Geo. 4. c. cv
10 June 1825
Plan drawn up for the St Katharine Dock Company showing the street and buildings which would need to be demolished to make way for the new dock
Opening of St Katharine Docks, 25 October 1828
Bird's-eye view, 1829
St Katharine Docks took their name from the former hospital of St Katharine's by the Tower, built in the 12th century, which stood on the site. An intensely built-up area, the entire 23-acre (9.5 hectares) Precinct of St Katharine by the Tower and part of East Smithfield, was earmarked for redevelopment by an act of Parliament in 1825, with construction commencing in May 1827. Some 1,250 houses were demolished, together with the medieval hospital of St. Katharine. Around 11,300 inhabitants, mostly port workers crammed into unsanitary slums, lost their homes; only the property owners received compensation. The scheme was designed by engineer Thomas Telford and was his only major project in London. George Turnbull and James Waylen were working for Telford. To create as much quayside as possible, the docks were designed in the form of two linked basins (East and West), both accessed via an entrance lock from the Thames. Steam engines designed by James Watt and Matthew Boulton kept the water level in the basins about four feet above that of the tidal river. By 1830, the docks had cost over £2 million to build.[2]
Telford aimed to minimise the amount of quayside activity and specified that the docks' warehouses (designed by the architect Philip Hardwick) be built right on the quayside so that goods could be unloaded directly into them.
The docks were officially opened on 25 October 1828. Although well used, they were not a great commercial success and were unable to accommodate large ships. They were amalgamated in 1864 with the neighbouring London Docks. In 1909, the Port of London Authority took over the management of almost all of the Thames docks, including St Katharine Dock. By the 1930s the only regular use was by ships of the General Steam Navigation Company.[3]
St Katharine Docks were badly damaged by German bombing during the Second World War. All the warehouses around the eastern basin were destroyed, and the site they had occupied remained derelict until the 1960s.[4] The dock entrance lock was rebuilt in 1957 but the docks ceased commercial use in 1968. The remaining wharehouses on the western side were demolished to make way for revelopment.[3]
Notable boats regularly moored in the docks include:
Several Thames sailing barges are also based in the docks.[13]
In media[edit]
The area was used as one of the main filming locations for the Hammer Film Productions version of Dennis Wheatley's novel To The Devil - A Daughter in 1976, with the character played by Richard Widmark living in one of the residential flats. Scenes featured the Ivory House and the retractable bridge.[14]
In April 2021, it was filmed for Men, a folk horror film directed by Alex Garland and starring Jessie Buckley, released in 2022. It was used for Buckley's character's apartment with her abusive husband, and also where he died.[15]
The inner gatefold photograph for The Rolling Stones album Through the Past Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) was taken at St Katherine Docks by Ethan Russell in May 1969. [16]