New Port, New City: 1945 – present
Reinventing Docklands for a new century. From rebuilding, dereliction and back to rebuilding.
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Docklands changed dramatically in the 1980s and is now home to Canary Wharf.
This gallery takes you through the immense change that swept through Docklands
Although some of Docklands was rebuilt after the war, a lot of the area became derelict by 1975. Wharf, factory and business in the area were shutting up shop. The once-mighty Royal Docks even closed to commercial traffic, since they weren't suited to large container ships.
In the 1980s, the London Docklands Development Corporation began the physical, economic and social regeneration of the area. But it was met with a lot of opposition from local residents, who believed developers were putting profits over people.
Nothing could have prepared those local communities for the scale and pace of the change that followed. The area is now home to Canary Wharf, the Docklands Light Railway, an airport, shopping centres and international companies – all standing where the world's busiest docks once did.
New Port, New City is open 10am – 5pm every day at London Museum Docklands.
Please note that we'll start closing up the galleries at around 4.40pm.
There's lots to see, so we recommend you spend at least 15 minutes in the New Port, New City gallery.
It's the ninth and last gallery on our recommended route and you'll find it on the Second Floor.
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London Museum DocklandsNo. 1 Warehouse: Intro gallery
Our building is a rare survivor of the old docks and its story is at the heart of this gallery
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London Museum DocklandsTrade Expansion: 1600–1800
Meet the merchants, sailors and pirates who transformed London in the 1600s
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London Museum DocklandsLondon, Sugar & Slavery: 1600 – present
Shining a light on London’s overlooked role in slavery
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London Museum DocklandsCity and River: 1800–1840
A city transformed by its river with new docks, new bridges and new tunnels
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London Museum DocklandsSailortown: 1840–1850
Experience the sights, sounds and smells of Victorian London in a recreation of a street in Wapping
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London Museum DocklandsFirst Port of Empire: 1840–1880
When London was at the centre of the British empire and world trade
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London Museum DocklandsWarehouse of the World: 1880–1939
London's docks housed everything you could think of, giving them the title: Warehouse of the World
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London Museum DocklandsDocklands at War: 1939–1945
How London survived and helped the war effort, from Dunkirk to D-Day
