A plan for expanding the Legal Quays of London

DANCE, George.

Proposed Improvement of the Legal Quays and Parts Adjacent.
London: Hansard, 1800. Original colour. 565 x 930mm.

A plan of the Thames riverside between London Bridge and the Tower of London, with proposed new docks covering as far back as the Monument, St Dunstan's Church and All Hallows Barking, with a 100-foot wide new road linking Fish Street and Tower Hill.
Since 1559, the second year of the reign of Elizabeth I, it was illegal to import or export goods from anywhere but 'Legal Quays', to enable easy oversight of customs revenue. There were 20 in London, all situated between the Tower and London Bridge (the limit of sea traffic) but these were getting badly congested: in 1800, the year of publication of this map, it was estimated that 1,775 ships were trying to moor in a space with capacity for only 545. The delays this caused made the ships easy targets for crime, including both theft and smuggling, resulting in a parliamentary search for a solution.
This plan for redevelopment of the original quays was the work of George Dance the younger (1741-1825), who had already rebuilt many of the existing quays in the previous decade. However it was decided to invest in the building of the new West and East India Docks downstream.


Stock ID : 18760