Following their commercial closure in 1980, the Canary Wharf development was built around the wet docks by narrowing some of their broadest tracts.

[1] Robert Milligan (c. 1746–1809) of a Scottish family, was largely responsible for the construction of the West India Docks.

He was a wealthy West Indies merchant, slave trader and ship owner, who returned to London having managed his family's Jamaica sugar plantations.

[2] Outraged at losses due to theft and delay at the extensive (continuously along the Thames for 11 miles (18 km)) riverside wharves comprising the Port of London, Milligan headed a group of powerful businessmen – including George Hibbert, the chairman of the London Society of West India Planters and Merchants who was a merchant, politician, and ship-owner – who promoted the creation of a wet dock circled by a high wall.

The docks were authorised by the Port of London Improvement and City Canal Act 1799 (39 Geo.

[5] The docks were formally opened on 27 August 1802 when the unladen Henry Addington was hauled in by ropes.

First, the development of the shipping container made this type of relatively small dock inefficient, and the dock-owners were slow to embrace change.

[9] After the closure of the upstream enclosed docks, the area was regenerated as part of the Docklands scheme, and is now home to the developments of Canary Wharf.

Subsequently, the North London Railway's Poplar Dock was also connected to Blackwall Basin.