♫ Claire ♫
ExCel Arena London
The Royal Victoria Dock is dominated by the ExCeL Exhibition Centre, constructed on the north quayside and opened in November 2000. This is where we were heading for the Women's Team Foil event. For the 2012 Summer Olympics, ExCeL London was divided into five sports halls with capacities ranging from 6,000 to 10,000 that were used for boxing, fencing, judo, taekwondo, table tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling.
Royal Victoria Dock was opened in 1855 on a previously uninhabited area of Plaistow Marshes. It was the first of the Royal Docks and the first London dock to be designed specifically to accommodate large steam ships.
The dock was an immediate commercial success, as it could easily accommodate all but the very largest steamships. By 1860, it was already taking over 850,000 tons of shipping a year - double that of the London Docks, four times that of St Katharine Docks and 70% more than the West India Dock and East India Docks combined. It was badly damaged by German bombing in World War II but experienced a resurgence in trade following the war. However, from the 1960s onwards, the Royal Victoria experienced a steady decline - as did all of London's other docks - as the shipping industry adopted containerization, which effectively moved traffic downstream to Tilbury. It finally closed to commercial traffic along with the other Royal Docks in 1980.
ExCel Arena London
The Royal Victoria Dock is dominated by the ExCeL Exhibition Centre, constructed on the north quayside and opened in November 2000. This is where we were heading for the Women's Team Foil event. For the 2012 Summer Olympics, ExCeL London was divided into five sports halls with capacities ranging from 6,000 to 10,000 that were used for boxing, fencing, judo, taekwondo, table tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling.
Royal Victoria Dock was opened in 1855 on a previously uninhabited area of Plaistow Marshes. It was the first of the Royal Docks and the first London dock to be designed specifically to accommodate large steam ships.
The dock was an immediate commercial success, as it could easily accommodate all but the very largest steamships. By 1860, it was already taking over 850,000 tons of shipping a year - double that of the London Docks, four times that of St Katharine Docks and 70% more than the West India Dock and East India Docks combined. It was badly damaged by German bombing in World War II but experienced a resurgence in trade following the war. However, from the 1960s onwards, the Royal Victoria experienced a steady decline - as did all of London's other docks - as the shipping industry adopted containerization, which effectively moved traffic downstream to Tilbury. It finally closed to commercial traffic along with the other Royal Docks in 1980.