London’s Port and Docklands Since 1945

The Thames & Docklands History Group hosted its inaugural Conference at the London Museum Docklands on Saturday 4th October. This represented a return to the regular conferences organised by the Docklands History Group, our predecessor body. Between 2012 and 2023 the Group held 10 very successful themed conferences, at which were presented 83 papers on a remarkably wide range of subjects.

 

For this first Conference, the Trustees of the TDHG have decided to focus on the post-1945 period. London’s Port and Docklands have undergone many fundamental social, cultural, economic and physical changes since the trauma and devastation of the Second World War. During this period, many working, cultural and architectural landscapes have changed beyond all recognition – much of it within living memory.

 

These themes were explored in the Conference through a range of talks by subject experts, together with contextualised historic film and  documentaries. 

 

Booking will go live on 1st August on Eventbrite. Click here to book.

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The programme was:

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09.30   London Museum Dockland’s doors open; registration and refreshments in the Quayside Room

 

10.15  Welcome and Opening Remarks

 

10.30  Dr. Chris Ellmers – The changing Port of London - 1945-1990

 

11.00  Professor Janet Foster – Islanders, interlopers and intruders: perspectives on the development of the Isle of Dogs in the 1980s and 1990s 

 

11.30  Mike Seaborne – Urban transformation: photographing London’s Docklands in the 1980s and 1990s

 

12.00  Comfort Break

 

12.15  Edward Sargent FSA – Conservation in Docklands during the 1980s

 

12.45  Dr. Tim Carter – Seafarers’ health care - the Greenwich Seamen’s Hospital, 1945-1986

 

13.15  Film – Waters of Time (1951)

 

14.00  Film –  Documentary film of Docklands regeneration (early 1990s)

 

14.30  Conference closes

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