The Buildings
Goods Depots
The plans for Poplar Dock drawn up in 1846 included a
'terminus and goods station' with quayside sheds for
letting to other carriers as depots. In fact, only the most
basic cover was provided. In 1851 Henry Martin designed
and George Myers built an open-sided timber-and-slateroofed goods shed at the end of the railway line, set back
from the western half of the north quay, and smaller
sheds over sidings on the north and west quays, with
awnings to cover barges. Further building was deferred,
though the goods shed was extended to the north in 1852
to cover the handling of carted goods. (ref. 48)
In 1852 the London and North Western Railway
Company arranged designs for a substantial warehouse
on the eastern half of the north quay. Built for the East
and West India Docks and Birmingham Junction Railway
Company by George Myers, the brick warehouse had
iron columns and timber floors. It was used for exports,
notably the storage of Bass & Company and Allsopp &
Company Burton ale (Plate 60b). The lower levels were
for ale, with bottling in the basement, and the upper
storey was used by the London and North Western
Railway Company for general goods. (ref. 49) The north quay
buildings came to be known as the London and North
Western Railway Goods Station.
The North London Railway Company sold the ale
stores to the parent company in 1859 and they were then
extended to the west with a block displacing the carting
shed. That shed was re-erected on the west side of the
goods shed, a part brick-walled structure that was altered
to be two storeys. The carting shed was extended to the
north in 1880–1. (ref. 50) Allsopp & Company and Bass &
Company remained at the ale stores into the twentieth
century, with other tenants, until all the buildings on the
north quay were destroyed in 1940. (ref. 51)
The North London Railway Company built a goods
shed on the south quay in 1868, for letting to the Great
Northern Railway Company. Thomas Matthews prepared
plans and the building contract went to Francis Hedges.
This open shed covered two lines of railway under an
M-roof, with a central row of columns and about 20ftclearance to the tie beams. Barges using the building
were covered by an awning (Plate 60a). The shed was
cleared in the mid-1960s. (ref. 52)
Three goods depots were built on the quays of the
1875–7 barge dock extension. The Great Western and
Great Northern railway companies rented buildings
erected by the North London Railway Company, and the
London and North Western Railway Company built its
own warehouse.
The Great Western Railway Goods Depot, on the west
quay of the dock extension, was built in 1876–8 by John
Cardus to plans by William Baker and Thomas Matthews
at a cost of £24,000 (Plate 60d). Swingler & Company
of Derby supplied the ironwork. (ref. 53) The depot measured
218ft by 130ft, with a 20ft-high open ground floor and a
cellar below the platform. The two upper storeys were
supported on wrought-iron girders weighing up to 30
tons, 30 large hollow-cylindrical cast-iron columns on
5 ½ft-square granite bed-stones and foundations 30ft deep.
The triple-span slate roof was iron and timber framed
and an awning over the dock was extended upwards in
front of the loopholes. The road on the other side had
glazed roofing as cover for carts. There was a two-storey
office building to the north with smaller offices to the
south, and seven internal cranes, three on the quay and
four on the platform. Locomotives stopped at turntables
outside the station and wagons were hauled in by
hydraulic capstan, to be unloaded either directly into
barges or into the warehouse above. Iron, machinery and
hardware were the main goods handled at the depot, but
the Great Western Railway Company was said to refuse
nothing. The depot was destroyed in 1940. (ref. 54)
The Great Northern Railway Goods Depot was a
similar, but smaller, building on the south quay of the
dock extension. It was built in 1877–8 by William Bangs &
Company, to plans by Baker and Matthews, for £21,750
(Plate 60a). (ref. 55) It was 180ft by 125ft, with a single upper
storage floor. Goods housed included bottles, scrap iron,
biscuits, linseed oil, grain and meal, rope, earthenware
and oil cake. (ref. 56) This depot was damaged during the Blitz.
The bomb damage was repaired in 1944 5 with tubularsteel roof trusses. The depot had closed by 1967 and was
demolished in 1970–1. (ref. 57)
The London and North Western Railway Goods Warehouse was on the east quay of the dock extension (Plate
60a). Baker prepared plans and J. Parnell & Son, of
Rugby, built it in 1877–9 for £39,092. (ref. 58) This was the
largest and most ostentatious warehouse at Poplar Dock.
It had four storeys and a cellar, with polychrome brick
walls and an ornate modillioned cornice. The ground
floor was open for railway wagons towards the quay, with
iron-girder and brick-arch floors over this platform and
over the cellar. The enclosed part of the ground floor
was a single space on massive iron columns. There was
another corrugated-iron awning extending over the dock
and the loopholes were enclosed. In 1882 the building
housed iron goods on the ground floor, hardware on the
first floor, pottery on the second floor, grain on the third
floor and guano in the cellar. It was destroyed in 1940. (ref. 59)
The London and North Western Railway Company
built open shedding, erected by Kirk & Randall, over
sidings on the west quay of the old dock in 1881 (Plate
60a). The shedding comprised iron roofs on timber
supports with a barge awning, cleared in the late 1960s. (ref. 60)
Boundary Walls, Offices and Stables
The 1828–9 reservoirs were separated from Preston's
Road by a dwarf wall and fence, erected by Jolliffe &
Banks. This was raised by the East and West India Docks
and Birmingham Junction Railway Company in 1850. (ref. 61)
The wall is 22ft 2in. tall to Preston's Road, but only
6ft 6in. tall to the dock, indicating the extent to which
the quays of the dock are raised. Only 1ft 2in. thick, it
is buttressed at regular intervals with iron ties extending
through to the wharfing. (ref. 62)
A dock company wall south of Poplar Dock was
replaced with fencing in 1853. Then, in 1873–4, brick
walls 8ft high were built along the south and west
boundaries of the site. (ref. 63) These walls were cleared in
1988–9.
There were several office buildings at Poplar Dock,
reflecting the arrangements of the site. The first offices
may have been located in makeshift cabins or within the
sheds. However, purpose-built goods station offices were
erected for the railway companies in 1856–7, to plans by
Henry Martin. The London and North Western Railway
Company's office was near the north-west corner of the
dock, that of the North London Railway Company was
on the south side of a road that linked Preston's Road to
the West India Docks. The London and North Western
Railway Company took over its junior company's office
in 1869 and extended it with stables, then rebuilt it in
1876–8 as a two-storey building with more stabling and
a wheelwright's shop. (ref. 64) These offices survived into the
1980s. The North London Railway Company Goods
Manager's Office of 1876–7 stands at the junction of
Poplar High Street and the east side of Harrow Lane
(see page 88).
A coal-traffic control office was built in 1858, when the
North London Railway Company took over operations at
the east quay. It was sited near Preston's Road amidst
the sidings north of the London and Blackwall Railway. (ref. 65)
A two-storey office and house was erected on Preston's
Road in 1866–7 as part of the removal of T. C. Parry's
coal depot from the east side of Harrow Lane to the area
between Poplar High Street and the Poplar Dock coal
sidings. This stood until 1986–7. (ref. 66)
There were several stables for horses used for shunting
at Poplar Dock. The North London Railway Company
built stables on the east side of Harrow Lane, just south
of the London and Blackwall Railway, in 1868. These
were let to the Great Western Railway Company in 1878
and extended in 1885 and 1900–1. (ref. 67) They were destroyed
in the Blitz. The North London Railway Company also
provided stables for 20 horses of the Great Northern
Railway Company at the south-west corner of the Poplar
Dock estate in 1876. (ref. 68) These survived into the 1980s.
Power
The steam engine that impounded water into the West
India Docks from 1830 until 1843 was housed on a
raised bank between the settling reservoirs and the upper
reservoir in a T-plan brick building erected by T. & J.
Johnson in 1828, to plans prepared under (Sir) John
Rennie's supervision. (ref. 69) This engine house survived on
the north quay of Poplar Dock, refitted as an hydraulic
pumping station in 1850–1. (ref. 70) The building was later used
to house a boiler for pasteurizing beer, and was destroyed
in 1940. (ref. 71)
In 1850–1 eight hydraulic box crane coal derricks with
timber jibs (seven of 15-cwt and one of 1-ton capacity)
were erected on the east quay, probably by W. G.
Armstrong & Company, with an accumulator tower near
the south end of the quay (Plate 60a). (ref. 72) Hand-operated
cranes were used for handling exports at the north and
west quays. Beecroft, Butler & Company, of Kirkstall
Forge, Leeds, supplied four 3-ton cranes, a 10-ton crane
and a 30-ton crane in 1851–2. The 30-ton one was later
moved to the west quay of the barge-dock extension
(Plate 60d). (ref. 73)
The North London Railway Company began to consider extending the Poplar Dock hydraulic system in
1870–1, to replace hand cranes and shunting horses.
Armstrong & Company prepared plans for hydraulic
cranes on the south, west and north quays, jiggers in the
north quay warehouses, and capstans and snatch-heads
for shunting. The north quay pumping station was
unsuited to expansion so a new station was projected. (ref. 74)
None of this went ahead until work on the dock extension
was under way. The pumping station and an attached
accumulator tower were built in 1876–8 by George James
Watts to a plan submitted by John Carter Park (1822–
96), the railway company's locomotive superintendent. It
was north-east of Millwall Junction Station amidst
sidings, on the site of the Harrow Lane policemen's
cottages. Armstrong & Company supplied three pairs of
horizontal compound pumping engines, each of 60hp,
and four accumulators. A water tank and six boilers were
supplied by the London and North Western Railway
Company from Crewe Works. (ref. 75) Following Park's recommendation, John Cardus was contracted to build four
remote accumulator towers, put up in 1877–8. Armstrong & Company supplied three more pairs of compound pumping engines for the pumping stations in
1878–80, to cope with demand generated by the London
and North Western Railway Company's goods warehouse,
which had its own accumulator tower at its south end.
Here the railway company provided its own hydraulic
machinery. (ref. 76)
Figure 124:
Accumulator tower built at Poplar Dock in 1877–8, east elevation, plan, and sections in 1986. This tower stands withinthe Billingsgate Market site
The hydraulic pumping station had its engine house
to the south, linked to the boiler house by the accumulator
tower, with a tall octagonal chimney to the east. At the
north end there was a workshop below the water tank.
The building was demolished in 1981. The remote
accumulator towers, two of which survive, had rams of
17in. diameter and 17ft stroke, with ballast tanks guided
by vertical iron rails (fig. 124). The south-west tower is
shorter, as its stroke continued below ground level. <Excavation in 1998 by the Corporation of London uncovered the surviving ballast tank and ram.>
The towers originally had double doors under boarded
tympana. The upper-level hatch openings are secondary
insertions. (ref. 77)
The extension of hydraulic cranage included a 30-ton
straight-jibbed quay crane, supplied in 1877 by Tannett,
Walker & Company, of Leeds, and erected near the north
end of the east quay. Its base, which survives, was built
by John Cardus as a granite-and-brick projection into the
dock. A 12-ton crane was erected at the south-west corner
of the barge dock extension. Other cranes and hoists
were supplied by Armstrong & Company. The Hydraulic
Engineering Company of Chester supplied a 3-ton ship's
capstan for the entrance lock, which survives on its west
side, and 1-ton shunting capstans and snatch-heads at
the depots. (ref. 78) A remodelling of the east quay to equip it
to deal better with the discharge of inland coal was also
part of the 1877 work. The north end of the quay was
refitted with Armstrong & Company's 10-ton side coal
tips, simple wrought-iron girdered quay-level platforms
over hydraulic rams, some with turntables to allow end
tipping. (ref. 79)
The remaining coal derricks from 1850–1 were replaced
in 1894 with four 25-cwt travelling quay cranes supplied
by the East Ferry Road Engineering Works Company. (ref. 80)
The rebuilding of the entrance lock as an ungated passage
in 1898–9 brought an increase in water depth, causing
problems with the coal tips. Sir W. G. Armstrong,
Whitworth & Company raised two of the tips and then,
in 1901–2, supplied an 18-ton combination twin coal
hoist-tip, erected near the north end of the east quay
(Plate 60c). This enormous piece of hydraulic machinery
was a steel-framed structure that lifted wagons for highlevel end or side tipping, with funnels for coal dust. (ref. 81) It
was dismantled in 1966–8. (ref. 82)
In 1900 Poplar Dock had 73 hydraulic cranes, 11 handpowered cranes, 8 coal tips, 40 hydraulic capstans and
156 snatch-heads. It was by far the most densely equipped
dock in the Port, in terms of machinery per mile of
quay. (ref. 83) By the 1930s there were seven electric luffing
cranes on the east quay, two of 5-ton and five of 2-ton
capacity, some, if not all, of which had been supplied by
Sir William Arrol & Company of Glasgow. Electrically
driven pneumatic plant for transferring grain from barges
to railway wagons had come into use by this date. (ref. 84) In
1960 Stothert & Pitt supplied or remodelled 6-ton electric
travelling cranes.
Bridges and Railways
When the cut from the Blackwall Basin to what became
Poplar Dock was made in 1844 the East and West India
Dock Company provided a cast-iron turning footbridge,
supplied and mounted by Hunter & English. (ref. 85) This was
replaced with an open-framed traversing drawbridge by
the East and West India Docks and Birmingham Junction
Railway Company in 1850–1, when the cut became a
lock. (ref. 86) The railway company added a single-leaf irongirder swing-bridge, supplied by Westwood & Baillie,
over the north end of the lock in 1862, to allow the
railway to reach the south quay. (ref. 87) These bridges were
replaced when the lock was widened in 1898–9. The
Thames Iron Works & Shipbuilding Company supplied
another traversing drawbridge for foot passage and
another swing-bridge for railway traffic. The former was
75ft 6in. long and 6ft 2in. wide overall, rolled on wagon
wheels and rails, and had lattice girder sides; the latter
had solid girder sides. Both bridges had been removed
by 1978. (ref. 88) A swing-bridge was mounted across the cutting
between the two parts of Poplar Dock in 1988 to improve
road access to Canary Wharf. (ref. 89)
The railway line to Poplar Dock, as built by George
Myers in 1850–1, originally had two branches separating
just south of Poplar High Street, leading to the east quay
for coal traffic and to the north quay for export goods
(fig. 122). The London and Blackwall Railway Company
refused to allow a level crossing, and so each line was
carried over its viaduct on bridges. There were coal
sidings on the east quay and also at the north end of the
site, south of Poplar High Street. Further sidings and
another bridge were laid south and west of these in 1852
to serve the ale stores. The export sidings were extended
to the west quay. (ref. 90) The line to the south quay was laid
in 1862–3, to give the Great Northern Railway Company
inland-coal sidings. The General Steam Navigation
Company had a cattle station on the site of the barge
dock extension until 1873. It was moved to sidings north
of the viaduct, where it remained until the 1890s. (ref. 91)
Access to the north, west and south quays was hampered by a steep rise to the western bridge over the
viaduct. From 1864 the North London Railway Company
planned to improve this approach via a new bridge and
sidings on a large plot of empty dock company land
north of the viaduct and west of Harrow Lane. The first
Harrow Lane sidings were built in 1866 and they were
extended as far west as Dolphin Lane in 1873–5. (ref. 92) The
bridge over the viaduct was built by John Cardus in
1874–5. It had two 25ft spans, over the railway and a
road, and carried 16 lines on wrought-iron girders and
timber floors. (ref. 93) Traffic to all but the east quay was
shunted into Poplar Dock over this bridge, via the Harrow
Lane sidings on a loop line (fig. 123). (ref. 94)
British Rail simplified the railways at Poplar Dock in
1967–8. Redundant sidings were removed and, as part of
the viaduct had been demolished, the line to the northwest corner of the old dock was relaid to run on the
level. This and the line to the east quay, the two earliest
lines, were the last to remain in use. (ref. 95)
Surviving Structures
In 1994, much of Poplar Dock itself survives. The dock
of 1850–1, slightly diminished by the filling of its north
end in 1988–9, retains its original timber wharf walling.
There are two Stothert & Pitt 6-ton electric travelling
cranes on the west quay. The barge dock extension of
1875–7 was more extensively filled in 1988–9, but the
passage linking Poplar Dock to the West India Docks
remains as built in 1850–1 and enlarged in 1898–9. The
brick wall along the Preston's Road side of the site stands
as built in 1828–9 and raised in 1850. The two southern
remote accumulator towers of 1877–8, one on Preston's
Road, the other inside the grounds of Billingsgate Market,
are unused but listed shells.