Tobacco Dock

The London Dock Company was initially established in January 1796 by a group of merchants, shippers and bankers and upon the drawing up of plans for The London Docks the company negotiated a 21-year monopoly on the management of vessels carrying rice, tobacco, wine and brandy. This excluded those coming from the East and West Indies, which were managed by the East India Trading Company. The vaults beneath the tobacco warehouses resembled the crypts of a Gothic cathedral, One such shop along Ratcliffe Highway was German-born wild animal trader Charles Jamrach's "Jamrach's Animal Emporium", which also served as a museum. Jamrach also owned a menagerie in Betts Street and a warehouse in Old…

in 1831. Tobacco Dock is the large building marked 'Tobacco Warehouse'.|alt=|252x252px]] The name Tobacco Dock comes from its original use as a warehouse built to store tobacco and other valuable imports from the New World. It made up part of The London Docks for which plans were first proposed in 1800 when the London Dock Act was passed authorising the building of a wet dock in Wapping, the initial cost of the docks was £4 million. While the majority of the wet dock was built on drainage fields, many houses as well as the former site of the Raine's Foundation School were demolished to make way for warehouses, offices and quays, one of such warehouses is now Tobacco Dock. This resulted in…

One of the most notable features of Tobacco Dock that can be seen from the outside are the high walls surrounding the whole structure, costing £65,000. They are a result of the strict storage and import laws relating to tobacco and liquor, which were (and still are) subjected to excise duty; hence, it was required that they be kept in bonded warehouses with strict security measures. Another reason for the virtually impenetrable walls was defence; piracy was rampant in the 19th century and professional bandits such as The River Pirates, the Night Plunderers, the Scuffle-Hunters and the Mud Larks patrolled the waters and ports in search of a victim. Due to massive congestion on the river…