King George V Dock (London)
 
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Location of the King George V Dock in Greater London |
The King George V Dock is one of three docks in the Royal Docks in the East End of London and named after King George V , who was King of Great Britain and (Northern) Ireland from 1910 to 1936 . Today the area is part of the Docklands .
history
Its construction by the London Port Authority began in 1912, making the King George V Dock the last port basin built in London on the lower reaches of the Thames . The First World War delayed construction, but the port facilities were completed in 1921. The harbor basin has 26 hectares of water, making it the smallest of the Royal Docks. It had its own driveway from the Thames and could accommodate large ships of the line such as B. include the RMS Mauretania . At its west end there was a large, now filled, dry dock and a workshop building for ship repairs, which were operated by Harland & Wolff . Together with the other harbor basins of the Royal Docks, it was closed to merchant shipping in 1980.
today
The most important facility of the harbor basin today is the London City Airport , whose single runway was built along the north side of the harbor basin. The western end of the harbor basin was filled in and the airport terminal built on it. The rest of the water surface still exists, it represents the buffer zone between the runway of the airport and the surrounding areas. The warehouses on the south side of the harbor basin were torn down, the area is now mostly used as a parking lot for the airport.
The King George V station on the London-City-Airport line of the Docklands Light Railway , which opened in December 2005, is named after this harbor basin .
literature
- Dockland: an illustrated historical survey of life and work in east London . NELP / GLC 1983. ISBN 0-7168-1611-3 (English)
- Weinreb & Hibbert (Eds.): The London Encyclopedia . Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-30024-6 (English)