Docklands & Excel

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Some of our hotels are well placed if you wish to stay in or near to Docklands & Excel – the name given to a large area of London to the east of The Tower of London and its associated conference and exhibition centre. Docklands also has a major financial services business hub and it is close to the site of the 2012 Olympic facilities.

You can find out a little more about this area below.

The history of Docklands

Up to the 16th century, many areas of the river in the east were largely still rural or had industries associated with fishing and boat-building etc. Just a few minutes’ walk from the eastern boundary of London led to open fields and more-or-less country villages. Over the following centuries, London increasingly expanded to the east – particularly along the river banks, which became major centres of port activity and industry.

Large parts of what became known as The East End, though major centres of activity also became areas of total poverty, deprivation and notoriety, perhaps the most famous examples of which were the Jack the Ripper murders in Whitechapel at the end of the 19th century.

By the mid-20th century, much of the area was in steep decline. It had been hugely damaged by wartime bombing. Larger ships and containerisation meant that it was no longer possible or economically viable to bring cargo directly into the centre of London and large numbers of the local population had begun to relocate to the countryside towns further east to find employment in newer industries. The net result was increasing urban decline and dereliction.

Resurgence

In the 1970s and 1980s, huge investment was made in urban regeneration of the area and the new name Docklands was coined to describe a wide locality that encompassed areas of several existing London boroughs. Today, this area is a dynamic centre of commercial, residential, artistic and industrial activity.

Docklands boasts a modern light railway (The DLR) connecting it to The City and its own airport as well as numerous entertainment activities. The Excel centre is a major business and commercial attraction to the area.

Of course, challenges in urban regeneration exist in those parts of the eastern side of London a little further back from the river and that is why renewal, sustainability and legacy, were key components of London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympics.

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