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The three docks collectively formed the largest enclosed docks in the world, with a water area of nearly 250 acres (1 km²) and an overall estate of 1100 acres (4 km²). (This is equivalent to the whole of central London from Hyde Park to Tower Bridge.)

They were constructed to provide berths for large vessels that could not be accommodated further upriver. They were a great commercial success, becoming London's principal docks during the first half of the 20th century. They specialised particularly in the import and unloading of foodstuffs, with rows of giant granaries and refrigerated warehouses being sited alongside the quays. The docks' great size and indented shape gave them a collective span of over 12 miles (19 km) of quaysides, serving hundreds of cargo and passenger ships at a time.

The General Strike of 1926 hit the Royal Docks hard, with 750,000 frozen carcasses threatened by the docks' electrical supply being cut off. Fortunately for the dock owners, the Royal Navy was able to save the day by connecting the generators of two submarines to power the warehouses' refrigerators.

Although the Royal Docks suffered severe damage from German bombing in World War II, they recovered after the war but suffered a steady decline from the 1960s onwards, following the adoption of containerizationKotka ( Finland) on the Baltic Sea. Containerization is a system of intermodal cargo transport using standard ISO containers that can be loaded on container ships, railroad cars, and trucks. There are three common standard lengths, 20 ft (6. 1 m), 40 ft (. Nonetheless, they survived longer than any of the other London docks, finally closing only in 1981Events January-February January Sarawak Chamber found January 1 Greece enters the EEC January 1 Palau becomes self-governing January 4 Sheffield police arrests Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper January 16 Protestant gunmen shoot and wound Bernadette D. The docks' closure lead to high levels of unemployment and social deprivation in the surrounding communities of North WoolwichNorth Woolwich consists of two tracts of land, totalling 412 acres (1. 7 km²), on the north bank of the River Thames in east London. It is currently governed by the London Borough of Newham, London. It is north of Woolwich proper which is on the south ban and SilvertownAn industrialised suburb in the London Borough of Newham dominated by a sugar factory and transformed since 1970 by the construction of the Thames Barrier an adjacent park, new housing areas and the London City Airport. Access was much improved in 1999 wi.

Because of their relative remoteness and poor transport links, the redevelopment of London's DocklandsDocklands ''can also refer to the urban redevelopment project in Melbourne, Australia see Melbourne Docklands. Docklands is the semi-official name for an area in the east of London, England, comprising parts of several boroughs ( Southwark, Tower Hamlets has proceeded more slowly in the Royals than in the other former docks. The London Docklands Development CorporationThe London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was a quango set up in 1981 to regenerate the Docklands area of east London. It was responsible for an area of 8. 5 square miles (22 km²) in the London Boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets and Southwark. undertook much work during the 1980sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Events and trends and 1990sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s Years: Events and trends Computers, technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other techn to improve local transport and promote new residential and commercial developments in the area. Thousands of new homes were built at Beckton, just north of the Royal Docks, and an extension of the Docklands Light Railway was opened in 1994 to provide direct links to the City of London and Canary Wharf.

Several other major projects have been proposed or implemented since then: many more housing complexes have been built, notably at Gallion's Reach in the extreme east of the Royal Docks, and a series of major developments have seen the construction of a new university campus (for the University of East London) and the ExCeL exhibition centre , among much else. The Royal Docks have also seen the development of London City Airport (code LCA), opened in 1988 on the quay between the Royal Albert Dock and the King George V dock. While the docks themselves have been preserved largely intact, little remains of the old infrastructure, although some historic warehouses and cranes have been preserved.