Until 1966 Dad worked for the PLA and this logo, glimpsed on a trip to the Science Museum the other week, gave me a flash of being a kid again. There was one occasion when Dad took the family on a tour of the port in its full glory before the Royal Docks began closing one by one. If only I could remember more about it.
Instead, all that remains is a hazy impression of vastness, richness, density – hordes of people, cars, lorries, ships and cranes. Jumbled flashes of standing astride the central gap on Tower Bridge, St Katharine’s dock full of ships, Cable street, the river police – and more people of colour than I’d ever seen in my life.
Pointless wishing dad had taken photos on that family outing. To him it was mundane scenes from his working life, and he was unsentimental to a fault. He left the PLA just before the port’s traffic was transferred to the container port at Tilbury – where a single crane operator could do the work of dozens, maybe even hundreds of dockers. On the bright side, at least we got Fortress Wapping and Canary Wharf in return.
As so often, when you can’t remember what something looked like, Google will remember it for you. The top result for “Port Of London 1966” was this lovely image of the port in its last pomp in glorious 60s Kodacolor, taken by Ken Smith.
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