Back in 1855 the Royal Docks supercharged London’s economy. A bold engineering vision, they became a nexus for trade in everything from wool to tobacco. Once the world’s largest enclosed docks, they cemented the capital as a global trading centre. But there’s a dark history here too, as it played a central role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade and moved goods such as sugar, rum and molasses. As a major infrastructure target, they were also extensively bombed in the Second World War.
The world has changed a lot since then and today the Royal Docks is to many people a hidden gem, at the northern end of the Emirates cable car. But it is once again undergoing a transformation, a new kind of commerce is taking shape, as ideas and imagination become the currency of the 21st century and this part of the capital becomes an engine room once more.
