Secure berths for loading and unloading at all states of the tide have always been essential to London’s shipping trade. London was an active port from Roman times and by the late 18th century it was a global hub for imports and exports.

The East India Docks were Rennie’s second wet dock project in the capital after London Docks. They were intended for the East India trade and located near Blackwall where the East India Company based its shipping and shipbuilding activities, focused on importing goods from eastern India and south east Asia.

The East India Company had a long association with the Blackwall shipbuilding and repair yard that was owned by the Perry family in the late eighteenth century and incorporated the adjacent twin-basin Brunswick Dock built in 1789-90. The site’s disadvantage was its remoteness as it was then only accessible by river and imported cargoes had to be carried by lighters to city wharfs for road transport to the Company’s warehouses around Aldgate in the City of London.

East India merchants, impressed by the improvements to port accommodation secured by the West India Docks and London Dock companies, obtained the backing of the East India Company for a new dock scheme for the East India trade. In March 1803, Rennie and Ralph Walker (1749-1824) proposed remodelling Brunswick Dock into a combined export dock and entrance basin with an entrance lock to the Thames, including the excavation of a new 5.2 hectare import dock. Few warehouses were planned as imports would continue to be stored at Aldgate. The total estimated cost of was £198,740.

Rennie’s scheme was submitted to Parliament in April 1803. The enabling Act was passed in July and the new East India Dock Company created. The Company spent £63,270 purchasing Brunswick Dock with adjoining land to the east and north, plus a large area of Bromley Marsh.

Rennie and Ralph Walker were appointed joint engineers for the project in August. In line with his many other engineering commitments, Rennie received £500 for at least 90 days attendance annually. Walker was paid £1,100 per year and also worked as resident engineer.

Excavation of the import dock started in September 1803, and the first stone was laid on 4th March 1804. The initial design was amended to include a new, separate, entrance basin constructed to the east of Brunswick Dock, as combining an entrance basin and export dock was deemed impractical given the expected volume of through shipping. Brunswick Dock became a 3.27-hectare export dock and the import dock was enlarged to 7.35 hectares. Locks connected the basin with the river and the import dock, with an open channel between basin and export dock.

The floors of the basin and docks were 6.7m below high-water springs. Their walls were curved so they were thicker at the base. The locks were designed for East Indiamen, generally the largest ships afloat, and were 14.6m wide. The entrance lock from the Thames was 64m long, making it London’s largest until the mid-19th century.

The dock walls were constructed within timber coffer dams to provide dry working conditions. The timber walls of the north, east and west sides of the original Brunswick Dock were retained as was the tower and adjoining building on the west side of the dock, used for masting and dismasting vessels. It survived until 1862.

Some 18 million bricks for the dock structures were manufactured on the site, using the materials from the 655,000 cubic metres of excavation. A steam-powered mill on the site produced mortar. Among the raw materials brought in by river were over 8,000 tonnes of stone and large quantities of lime and oak timbers. The perimeter of the complex was secured by 6m high buttressed brick walls. Landward access to the docks was through an imposing stone-faced brick gatehouse, designed by Walker. It was about 21m tall with clock, bell tower and commemorative plaque.

The not-quite-finished East India Docks opened on 4th August 1806. After a 21-gun salute, the Trinity House yacht and four East India Company ships sailed into the docks, watched by around 15-20,000 onlookers.