Laurie (Robert) and James Whittle, publishers.

a perspective view of the newly opened docks on the Isle of Dogs, now the site of Canary Wharf, created by the prosperous West Indies plantation owner, ship owner and merchant, Robert Milligan, who formed a consortium with similar businessmen who objected to the incompetence and lack of security in London’s existing docks. Depicted is the first phase, begun in 1800 when William Pitt the Younger laid the foundation stone, and opened in 1802 as the first commercial wet dock in London. The docks remained active until the 1960s when changes in global shipping with the introduction of containers rendered them too small to be practical, from when they progressively dwindled until finally closing for redevelopment in the 1980s,

hand-coloured engraving on wove paper, 295 x 400 mm. (11 5/8 x 15 3/4 in), a crease across the lower left blank corner of the title field, a faint small damp-stain in the sky,