7. The Docks in the Twentieth Century
The PLA

The Royal Commission decided that co-ordinated control of the port was necessary if efficiency was to be improved. It recommended that a single public authority should be set up.

In 1909 the Port of London Authority (PLA) took over the docks from the private companies. It was run by a board made up of representatives of the private and public users of the port. As well as running the docks, the PLA had overall control of the river from Teddington to the sea and was responsible for managing the river, river traffic, pollution and so on.

A PLA police force replaced the private company forces. The main source of its income came from charges on all ships using the port and on goods passing through the port; also from handling and storing cargoes which passed over the dock quays.

Any profits were to be used to improve the river and part facilities.

It did not acquire the wharves which were left in private hands. The free-water clause remained but lighters had to pay a registration fee to the PLA.

The development of the port in the twentieth century

The PLA immediately began works to improve the docks and port facilities. The most important of these was the decision to build an entirely new dock, south of the Royal Albert Dock, which would be capable of taking very large ships.

The work on this was interrupted by the First World War but it was eventually opened in 1921 as the King George V Dock.

During the 1920s and 1930s, despite the ups and downs of trade including the major trade depression of the 1930s, the port continued to handle an increasing amount of goods.

This was to continue after the Second World War, once the docks had recovered from the losses and damage caused by extensive bombing.