The St Katharine Docks open in London.

In 1805 the London dock was opened at Wapping, to ships from the Mediterranean, North Africa and the near Continental and coastal ports. It was followed in 1828 by the St. Katharine Dock built on the western side of the London Dock and hard up against the Tower of London. In 1864 the two proprietary companies amalgamated to form the London and St. Katharine Docks.

This complex of entrances, cuttings, quays and warehouses with a total area of 125 acres (water area 45 acres) and four miles of quays (26 berths for ships up to 360 ft. long) is to be sold by the owners, the Port of London Authority. The target set is September 30th, 1968, with all warehoused goods cleared by the end of the year.

These docks, known for a century and a-half throughout the Seven Seas, were built for permanence. Their builders knew nothing of ‘limited obsolescence’—putting up premises whose continued usefulness could be reviewed each decade. They built for the ships of the period whose average size was not, by 1844, more than 241 tons. Inexorably this has risen; by 1903 the average size of ocean-going ships was 1,300 tons, by 1950, 2,700 and by 1963, 3,700 tons.

The St Katharine Docks are opened in London.

The ‘Elizabeth’ entering the St Katharine Docks on the opening day in 1828. The docks had over a million square feet of storage area to house items such as tea, rubber, wool, marble, ivory, tallow and turtle shell. Despite this, the docks were never a great financial success and were finally closed in 1968, having long run at a loss. They were sold by the Port of London Authority to the Greater London Council. St Katharine Docks, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, were one of the commercial docks serving London, on the north side of the river Thames just east of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. They were part of the Port of London, in the area now known as the Docklands, and are now a popular housing and leisure complex.