To the east of Hull, Salt End near Hedon became a petroleum distribution point in the 20th century, with piers into the estuary for shipment, and later developed as a chemical works.

[9] By the late 17th century Hull was the third port in the realm after London and Bristol, with the export of lead and cloth, and imports of flax and hemp as well as iron and tar from the Baltic.

[note 4] By the 18th century it was becoming increasingly clear that the Haven was unfit for the growing amount of trade: it was not only narrow, but tidal and prone to a build up of mud from the estuary.

[12][13] An additional stimulus to change was the demand for a 'legal quay' on which customs officials could easily examine and weigh goods for export without causing excessive delay to shipments.

[15] The Crown gave the land which contained Hull's city walls for construction of docks,[16] and the Kingston-upon-Hull Port Act 1774 (14 Geo.

[map 6] This made the old town of Hull an island bounded by the three docks, a river and an estuary,[51] and built roughly along the lines of the old fortifications between Beverley and Myton gates,[75] as set out in the 1802 act.

Both the wharf and main dock led into an entrance basin of 5 acres (2.0 ha), which was partially filled in c. 1875 to create more space for the MS&LR.

[141] In December 2013, a North Sea storm surge and high tide (Cyclone Xaver) caused overtopping of Albert Dock from the Riverside Quay waterfront and through the lockgates, resulting in flooding in Hull city centre.

[149][map 12] The 2013 storm surge (Cyclone Xaver) caused damage to the north-western wall of the dock—as a result Associated British Ports (ABP) sought to infill approximately 22,000 square feet (2,000 m2) of the dock as a repair.

The construction consisted of a bank of Middlesbrough slag around 40 feet (12 m) in depth deposited abutting the former quay wall, with about a 45° facing slope supported at the base by sheet piling.

[195] In the early 1990s, part of the port land was developed as a dredged aggregate marine terminal and plant, operated as Humber Sand and Gravel Co. (est.

[141] In January 2011, Siemens and Associated British Ports signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) concerning the construction of wind energy machine manufacturing plant at Alexandra Dock.

It also required the infilling of the dock west of the lock gates with about 28,000,000 cu ft (780,000 m3) of material to create additional land for operations.

The initial plan included a nacelle factory of up to 380,000 square feet (35,000 m2), plus office, warehousing, and external storage areas, as well as a helipad and a wind turbine of up to 6 MW.

[231] As part of the development, the Dead Bod graffiti, painted by Captain Len (Pongo) Rood in the 1960s on one of the West Wharf buildings, which had become a landmark to Humber shipping, was removed and saved for posterity.

[232][233] In early 2017, after restoration, the Dead Bod was temporarily removed to the Humber Street Gallery in Hull as part of the City of Culture 2017 celebrations.

[234] The blade factory was formally inaugurated in the presence of Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark on 1 December 2016.

As such, the bill contained clauses requiring the NER to inform the HBR of any planned dock to the east and allow them the option to join as partners in any such development.

Some dock walls were built as sloped constructions, with blue gum timber wharfing, due to poor ground conditions preventing satisfactory foundations.

The western arm had warehousing facilities,[note 31] while the central and eastern part of the northernmost quay had six coaling berths designed to allow ships to dock diagonally at the dockside.

[248] The machinery and mechanism for the lock gates were manufactured by the Hydraulic Engineering Company (Chester); the centrifugal pumps and electric motors for draining the dry docks were made by W. H. Allen of Bedford.

Other improvements included replacement of timber quay structures with concrete ones (specifically the south-west arm), over 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2) of storage in single-storey sheds, new electric cranes, and additional grain handling equipment, as well as investment in mobile mechanical handling equipment including fork lift trucks and mobile cranes.

Also included in the works were expansion of the grain silo capacity and an impounding station designed to maintain the dock water at a high level.

[264][note 32] It was renamed Hull All-Weather Terminal in 2009, and the facilities were expanded to allow the handling of other weather sensitive goods, including dry bulks, paper, and agribulks (fertiliser).

[300] Following the completion of the works, the small east-west running Railway Creek harbour connected at its east end to the Albert Dock basin.

[303] It was used as the terminus of the Hull to New Holland ferry, initially run by the MS&LR and later by the LNER and British Rail, until the service ended in 1981 because of the opening of the Humber Bridge.

[66][note 34][map 30] A railway booking office latterly named Hull Victoria Pier was established here c. 1849 by the MS&LR, and closed on 25 June 1981 with the cessation of the ferry service.

[309][310][note 35] The West Pier became defunct c. 1875 when the entrance basin of the Albert Dock was partially filled to provide more accommodation for the MS&LR, creating Island Wharf.

[330][331] On 18 September 2017, emergency crews attended a large-scale acid leak which had caused a vapour cloud to form over King George Dock.

By the early hours of 19 September 2017, firefighters confirmed that wind was blowing the vapour away from houses near the United Molasses site, where the leak occurred and declared the area near the dock safe.