Joan Grosvenor

A book mainly aimed at younger readers, but which illustrates a vanished world. In 1957, London was one of the largest ports for imports and exports in the country, with a centuries-old tradition. The London docks were a closed world all of their own. Now, they are history; and not just recent history. I was shocked when I visited the area last year to see that St. Katherine's Dock, the first to be redeveloped, had been reopened as a marina, shopping and residential centre in 1977 - 36 years ago!

This book dates from the year of my birth, 1957. So in my lifetime, the Port of London has gone from thriving economic powerhouse and symbol of a trading nation, through a byword for theft and corruption in the 1960s, to a symbol of reconstruction and redevelopment, or rampant capitalism and the Thatcherite dream of a gleaming, consumerist world, with actual labour relegated to the outskirts of the city or erased by the march of market forces and modern economics, and history and tradition erased and written out of the popular record (depending on your point of view).… (more)