FANtastic historical information about the London Docks! I’ll share Part II tomorrow. Thanks bunches, Author Regina Jeffers!
Before the later part of the Georgian Period in England few buildings/structures specifically designed for trade and commerce existed. One need only to look at the timber wharfs of the Port of London to understand the haphazard way the people took up the need to greet the large number of ships arriving from around the world. Merchants often had their offices in the ground floors of their abodes. Shops were often no more than the front room of a house with a large window for display purposes. Warehouses were kept in cellars or outbuildings. Markets appeared on streets or upon a square, and businessmen had stalls or wagons or carts from which they conducted transactions. Only custom houses and exchanges were built specifically for business.
The entrance to the London Docks. © NMM http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConFactFile.78/London-Docks.html
According to John Summerson in Georgian London (Yale University Press, 1988), English imports and exports were…
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