Tilbury Harbor
 
| |
Location of the port of Tilbury near Greater London |
The Port of Tilbury is located on the River Thames in Tilbury (Essex) . It is the main port for London and the main paper port in the United Kingdom. There are facilities for loading and unloading containers , grain and other bulk goods . The port is also set up for the import of automobiles . It belongs to the now expanded port of London .
location
Tilbury Harbor is on the north bank of the Thames, 40 kilometers below London Bridge , at a point where the river turns south and is already 730 meters wide. The bend of the river is one of the lower stretches of the river Thames and its interior consisted of marshland that had been fortified since Roman times. For a long time, Gravesend (Kent) on the other side of the river was the mooring point for incoming ships that moored along the river itself to unload and load passengers and goods. There was also a British Navy shipyard in Northfleet . The new deep water port basins can be seen as an extension of all these port facilities.
construction
The first docks of London were located near the city center and were gradually opened in the early 19th century by the later East and West India Docks Company (E & WIDC). With the advent of the railroad and the increase in ship size, proximity to central London became less important than access to deep water and the time saved by avoiding the lengthy journey up the winding Thames. The E & WIDC had long been in competition with the neighboring London and St. Catharine Dock Company (L & StCDC) and did everything to outperform its competitors. The opening of the Royal Albert Dock , with its deep-water quays in 1880 granted by the L & StCDC access to the Thames on Gallion's Reach, 17.6 km below the London Bridge and thus further downstream than the then major port facilities in London. The E & WIDC absolutely had to follow suit.
A parliamentary act enabled the E & WIDC to build the Tilbury docks; work began just two weeks later and the first ship entered the port basin on April 17, 1886. The port was opened at the beginning of the steamship era and its location soon proved advantageous.
The newer docks
The original harbor basin consisted of a tidal basin at Gravesend Reach opposite Northfleet , which was connected by a lock to the main basin with three branches (east, middle and west arm). There were two dry docks between the tidal basin and the main basin.
expansion
In 1909 the port of Tilbury, like the port facilities further up the river, was placed under the administration of the new Port of London Authority (PLA).
In 1921 and again in 1929 the PLA carried out decisive modifications. They consisted of a new lock system (305 m long, 33.5 m wide), which connected the harbor basin directly with the Thames west of Northfleet Hope , and a third dry dock, 229 m long and 33.5 m wide.
In the 1960s, when the upstream docks were closed, the PLA continued to expand Tilbury Port. 1963-1966 a huge fourth harbor basin was built, which extended from the main basin for almost a mile (1.609 km). The tidal basin was closed and later backfilled. In 1969, a £ 6 million grain terminal opened at Northfleet Hope (the largest in Europe at the time). In the early 1980s, the Tilbury docks were the only ones the PLA still operated.
Container ships
The first container ships were handled in 1970 and Tilbury soon became the largest container port in the United Kingdom at the time; In 1978 a pier was created along the river for large container ships at Northfleet Hope on reserved land.
The port today
The port was privatized in 1992 and is now part of the Forth Ports Group; the PLA was given the role of monitoring the tidal river Thames.
Today the port handles a wide range of general cargo (timber, cars and containers) and, along with the ports of Felixstowe and Southampton, remains one of the UK's most important container ports. It is the UK's main port for the import of paper and printed matter.
The Port of Tilbury Police , one of the oldest of its kind in the UK, is responsible for port security.
London pier for cruise ships
One of the shipping lines that used the port was the P&O . Tilbury became the PLA's only port to handle cruise ships when berths were reserved specifically for P&O in 1916 . When an expansion of the facilities became necessary, the PLA and the London Midland and Scotish Railway built a new jetty with a rail connection. It was opened in May 1930 by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald .
Tilbury was in operation as the London pier for ocean liners until the 1960s. Many people emigrated to Australia from Tilbury , with the Australian government largely paying for the ship's passage. The "Ten Pound Poms" boarded ships like the Mooltan and set out for a new life. Tilbury was also a port of immigration for people from many nations, including a large group from the British West Indies on the Empire Windrush in 1948. The pier was reopened from Tilbury port as a pier for cruise ships, albeit without a railroad connection.
People
A memorial to Peter de Neumann , a British war hero and later harbor master, who died in an accident on September 16, 1972, stands near the harbor master's office at the Neue Schleuse . Rolf Harris visited the port in an episode of the television series Rolf on Art when he was recreating or restoring William Turner's famous painting The Fighting Temeraire .
The Tilbury Docks in the movie
The port was also the location of various films:
- The waterways represented the Venetian channels in the boat chase scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is
- Scenes from Batman Begins were filmed there
- as well as a scene from the 2004 Jude Law film Alfie
- The docks were also used as a set for John Wayne's Brannigan Smugglers' Hunt in 1975 .
Web links
Wikisource: Encyclopedia Britannica (1911): Tilbury Docks (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The competition between the two companies (English) ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Timeline of the Port of Tilbury (English)
- ↑ The ship passage to Australia was only £ 10 per person.
- ↑ Tony Reeves: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade . The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations. titanium
- ↑ Tony Reeves: Batman Begins . The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations. titanium
- ^ Tilbury: Alfie comes to Essex . Clacton and Frinton Gazette (August 17, 2004) ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Filming in Thurrock . Thurrock Heritage Files. Thurrock Council
Coordinates: 51 ° 27 ′ 36 ″ N , 0 ° 20 ′ 42 ″ E