London - as a gateway between water and land

London - as a gateway between water and land - A moving element combined with a static settlement

History essay,
UCL, the Bartlett school of architecture,
MSc Urban Design, UD 02.05,
Urban Evolution - the Thames Gateway
Fabian Neuhaus 2005-12-09

Introduction
There are different reasons to bring a city into being. Some are brought into existence by the will of individuals or political expedience, some are related to special universe and star constellations. London, however, is the outstanding example of a city which is so favoured by position and circumstances that so long as commerce and industry endure it must continue to be great centre of activity and trade (Port of London Authority, The history of the Port of London, Page 1).
A static structure for an urban settlement accomplishes the Thames as a neverending stream of water with constant changing in its nature. To elements that get into a powerful symbiosis, as a base for a world-class city.

The site - a geological explanation
It starts a long from bringing goods from one place to an other. Humans practice this forever. Trough the Romans who brought the „over sea“ more „over canal“ trade into live, it became important to distribute goods from the south ports all over UK. To this action the Thames was a barrier.
The Thames was a barrier not because of its width, but because of the instability of its fl anking marshes (Wooldridge + East: The geography of the Port of London, Page 23). The river today is a relatively narrow stream. In prehistoric days it used to be broader without clear borders. The water stream turned into shallow water and marshes smoothly. A long the Thames where only a few possibilities to establish a durable crossing. The lowest possibility was in London close to the present London Bridge. To bring many goods from one place to another it was easier and cheaper to use a boat for. Trough the tide the Thames could be easily used in both directions upwards and downwards.
To allow long shipping distances, the port had to be as far upstream a possible, according to the tidal limit. But for the shipping a bridge is a barrier where you can’t pass with larger boats. A balance between water and road had to be found.
London in this sense seems to be best achieved at the current site of London.

The settlement - a symbiosis on land and water
The construction of an early bridge across the river the spans would be very narrow. This means that the larger ships, used for the canal crossing, could not pass trough any more. The distribution upwards along the Thames needed to be carried out trough smaller or different boats. Close to the bridge a transshipment process needed to take place. A port was brought in to place. The bridge served the settlement, the settlement protected the bridge. The Port supported the trade across the bridge and was served by the settlement.
These three elements cam into a spin where they could support each other but also highly depended on each other.
Out of the constant fl ow of the water, the settlement created an other fl ow. The fl ow of goods and trade.

Growth around the new business - fl ow makes a living
The town development of London around the 14th century was still on a lower level. It was clearly orientated to the river with the backside to its protecting wall. Also the wealth distribution shows a centric image. The rich areas are in the heart and on the waterfront of the settlement.
In all the great developments that took place till the Elizabethan times, London took the lead over the ports of the country. This is shown by the fact that at this time half the Customs revenue was collected in London; Southampton contributed 9 per cent; Newcastle 5 per cent; Bristol 3 per cent. Liverpool and Cardiff had not then become into prominence as ports (Port of London Authority, The history of the Port of London, Page 4).
The plague of 1665 temporarily straggled the trade of the Port and the Great Fire of the following year destroyed practically the whole of the existing wharf and warehouse accommodation. The reconstruction was partially paid trough a tax on goods brought into the Port. Up to the time of the Fire, London straggled along the waterside, the river being the main highway for passengers and goods and the limits of the city being in easy reach of the waterside. The streets were narrow, ill paved and of little use for traffic.
Along with the rising business of the trading exploded the amount of inhabitants in London. Till 1700 the population grew up to half a million inhabitants. It had become a major metropolis with almost ten per cent of the English population.
The resultant pressure on housing in the already overcrowded medieval city necessitated massive building outwards into the suburbs. Much of this city growth fell out of the existing city walls. The pressure on existing housing which this created resulted in the appearance of a new generation of buildings and alleys which spread over a wide area of former fi elds to the east of the City, fanning out from the ribbon-developments which already fl anked the approach roads into London, mostly towards the east, the East-End was born.
In the west a growth limit was set up. This prevented the area from unstructured growing and lead to spacious squares fl anked by elegant houses for gentlemen and aristocrats. The East End on the other hand was fast becoming a mixture of houses and small industrial concerns. These industries fl ourished outside the city because of several factors: the low cost of rents; the exclusion of certain trades from practising within the walls; the failure of the city authorities to control the industries springing up in these areas; and really important because of its relation to the activities at the port.
The East and West End was emerging which was to have profound long-term consequences on the geography of London - government and service industries were based to the west of the city, fi nancial service were located in the City itself, and manufacturing spread out to the east (Hough Clout ed. The Times: History of London, page 55).
In the days of the 17th century the trade doubled its value every 20-25 years. Trade became a „big“ business. But the infrastructure wasn’t able to handle this rising amount of goods. It laid exposed to the weather and thieves for weeks. It took years to catch up by the built infrastructure to the growing of the trade business. The catch up was managed by building wet docks into the marshes. Out of several institutions and owners grew several different docks and with this ports along the river.
Pushing out the former essentials - expansion place is needed [over write the starting places - pushing the business down the river] The new docks and warehouses were constructed on sites in east London. Several reasons leaded to this. On of them is the river crossing it self. With the amount of goods, the ships grew in size and needed deeper canals and wider streams. They weren‘t able to pass the London bridges. It was easier to unload and load them on the east side of London. With this development the differentiation between East and West London tied up. The East side got deep into this dock and ship working with accomplished industry and smaller concerns. While on the west side the richer people didn‘t want to get down to the dock workers. But still got the money from there.
The port with its trade has always been accomplished with industry. There where the imported goods used as raw material or where goods for the export produced. During the 20th century the Thames in London and further down accommodated the following industries with direct relation to the water as a transport route: Public utilities such as power stations for electricity, gas, oil, coal and fuel; cement works; Paper mills. The need of the industry changed and with the growing size of the transported goods grew the transporting ships. Now it was the river that couldn‘t handle any more the size and the amount of the incoming ships.
Together with the new needed space for larger amount of goods, more industry, larger ships and the inner pressure to the city development by rapid inhabitant growing the port industry was moved slowly further east out of the inner city. London then lost its direct relation to its once highly important moving element.
At the moment there is a planning process on the way for a new port on the site of the old shell haven close to Southend on sea. This is maybe the latest point on the Thames before the sea.

Bringing live back to the water - ideas, but solutions? [Re-discovering the old waterfront - get back in touch with the moving element]
As the Thames‘ economic importance has declined, Londoners now slowly rediscover the river as an amenity, as a visual theme and a place to visit. The Port of London Authority (PLA) identifi ed in the mid 1990 over 250 access points to the foreshore on London - stairways and slip ways - a legacy from previous eras when the Thames was London’s principal thoroughfare (Greater London Assembly, John Biggs AM, Access to the Thames, Page 3). But hardly any of them were accessible to public.
The brown fi elds and former industrial areas of the inner city are now turned into housing and shopping facilities. It became „chic“ to live in old warehouses or industrial buildings and have a loft. Of course with the great view on to the moving strip of endless water.
The closed industrial river shores turn into closed private housing grounds. The main moving element of the city stays buried under private interests. But after movements of the trade and industry have been pushed down the river, a new moving element discovers the water, the tourism. The city now makes a good living from travellers and guests. But they, as well as the Londoners, want to get in touch with the romantic side of the water. They ask for public access to the river shore.
London has to establish a new gateway between water and land. The National Thames Trail is only one project.

Conclusions - what remains - these facts will carry on [It‘s history makes London the way it is]
The East West differentiation in this world city is as we now see strongly related to its economy and business. Impacts from the geographical and geological perspective over to the development along the docks and ports to the complicate structure of the society were many factors working on the establishment of this separation. It remains as a historical gift whit that London will have to go along in the future.
London is diffi cult to describe. More than once was the question asked whether it is really a city or just a bunch of villages grown together. How can this agglomeration of villages be described, and further more how can this be a world-class city. The same questions can be asked on the port. It is really hard to point out „the London Port“. There is the Port of London Authority, which cam out of many different docks, ports and ownership, but only as an institution. The port it self has no constant appearance, nor has it continuous form. The more is it a theoretical construction trough the institution of the P.L.A. Maybe so is London to understand as a construction to circumscribe an urban conglomerate of former villages.




Bibliography

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Maurice Ash: A Guide to the Structure of London, (Bath: Adams and Dart, 1972)

Port of London Authority: The history of The Port of London - up to the advent of the Port of London Authority - Working for the Tidal Thames from Teddington to the Sea, London: 1993

Hough Clout ed. The Times: History of London, Times Books, London, 1999

John Pudney, London’s Docks, Thames and Hudson, London, 1975

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