Portcities London

The Royal Albert Dock. © NMM

The Royal Albert Dock was also used as a terminus by passenger vessels. The Great Eastern railway ran a passenger service from Fenchurch Street to Gallions, adjacent to the dock basin.

• The site covered 87 acres, the largest purpose built dock in Britain at this time.
• Lucas & Aird undertook the contract and the engineer for the project was Sir Alexander Rendel.
• Around 500,000 cubic yards (382,277 cubic metres) of concrete and 20 million bricks were used to construct the dock system.
  3000 men worked on the project, assisted by a steam land dredger, steam grabs, 70 steam cranes and 3 steam navvies.
• It cost £2.2 million and was one of the cheapest docks constructed in London.
• The dock was 1.75 miles (2.8 kiliometres) long and 9 metres deep. It had 3.125 (5 kilometres) miles of new quays. The dock was deepened to 10.36 metres in 1935.
• Two entrance locks connected the dock system to the river through a basin east of Manor Way. The Gallions Entrance Lock was 168 metres long by 24.4 metres across.
• The Royal Albert Dock had 2 small dry docks and 33 quayside transit sheds and warehouses. This included a large cold storage area.
• The Great Eastern Railway was taken across the dock, and an 860-ton swing bridge crossed the Gallions Entrance.
• The dock was served on both sides by extensions of the Great Eastern Railway. The dock had its own goods terminus in a warehouse on the north side of London Dock.
• The company built the Gallions Hotel for first-class steamer passengers. There were two subways, which gave direct access from the hotel to the quay of the Basin.
• The Royal Albert Dock was the first dock in London to be lit by electricity.