London's Docklands by Fiona Rule

Author:Fiona Rule
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: London’s Docklands: A History of the Lost Quarter
ISBN: 9780711033863
Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing
Published: 2013-05-03T04:00:00+00:00

11

THE PROS AND CONS OF PROSPERITY

During the 18th century, the population of London doubled from 400,000 to 800,000 as the city experienced a long period of unparalleled success brought about by the mechanisation of agriculture and industry. In 1708, the agricultural pioneer Jethro Tull invented the seed drill – a mechanical sowing device that transformed the previously slow, labour-intensive and back-breaking task of planting seeds. This allowed farmers to begin producing large quantities of crops without the expense of a huge workforce. A year later, one of the key developments of the industrial revolution arrived when a Staffordshire-born Quaker named Abraham Darby discovered a way of smelting iron ore using coke (which was in abundant supply) rather than the traditional charcoal (which wasn’t). Iron could now be produced in much greater quantities and became the industrial revolution’s chosen material in the construction of structures, such as bridges, and machines – for example, Thomas Newcomen’s revolutionary steam engine in 1712. Later in the century, cottage industries such as weaving were also transformed by mechanisation with the introduction of John Kay’s ‘flying shuttle’ in 1733 and James Hargreaves’ ‘spinning jenny’ – a mechanised spinning wheel – in the 1760s.

Commercial transport was also revolutionised with the introduction of canals. The first to open was the Bridgewater Canal in 1761, which ran from Worsley to Manchester. The new industrialists realised that they could now transport raw materials and finished products across the country in bulk rather than relying solely on horse-drawn carts. Eleven years after it opened, the success of the Bridgewater Canal prompted it to be extended to the Mersey and in 1777 a canal network was dug connecting the Mersey to the Trent, and the Midlands to ports at Bristol, Liverpool and Hull.

The construction of the new canals in the North and the Midlands proved to be hugely beneficial for London’s rival ports. Soon, concern about the effect they might have on trade at the docks induced the government to pass an act for the construction of a new canal linking London to the port of Bristol. The Kennet and Avon Canal opened in 1789 and, for the first time, bulk transportation between the two ports was possible.

The effect that these wholesale changes had on London was mixed. The increase in the number of people now inhabiting the city resulted in business and recreational facilities becoming so numerous and diverse that they provoked Dr Johnson to famously remark, ‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford.’

Jonathan Swift was equally complimentary when he described the city as an optimistic, frenetic and irreverent place in his poem Description of the Morning in 1709:

Now hardly here and there a Hackney coach

Appearing, showed the ruddy morn’s approach.

Now Betty from her master’s bed had flown,

And softly stole to discompose her own;

The slip-shod ’prentice from his master’s door

Had pared the dirt and sprinkled round the floor.

Now Moll had whirled her mop with dext’rous airs,

Prepar’d to scrub the entry and the stairs.

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