Flickr/Matt Brown. Some rights reserved.By 1888, working conditions in the London docks were at crisis point. A new dock had been opened eastward down the Thames at Tilbury in Essex, and those in charge of the new dock began a rate war against the St Katherine, East and West India docks in an attempt to lure business away. It was the turning of the tide for London as an industrial port city, and the beginning of the slow death of the London docks leading to their final closure in the 1960s.
The effect of the shortage of work this caused draws an interesting parallel with events in present day Britain.
Competition for work in the docks became rife, and an abundance of labourers in an environment with little work led to a great deal of manipulation by those that employed people to unload and transport cargo.
