A lock between two basins

Iron bollards held ropes at a lock now stilled

You're standing at the bollard, three iron posts still set beside a long-stilled lock. The bollards once held ropes steady as ships passed from the West Dock into the central basin. The dock itself opened in 1828, engineered by Thomas Telford, built to pack as much quayside as possible into a tight site near the Tower of London. Nearly 1,250 houses and a medieval hospital were cleared to make room for it. The docks never handled the biggest ships well, and bombing in the Second World War tore out the warehouses around the eastern basin. Commercial trade stopped in 1968. The lock you're standing by went quiet, its gates no longer needed once cargo ships stopped coming through.

The entrance lock was rebuilt twice after the war

The lock beside you was rebuilt once already, in 1957, after wartime bombing damaged the docks. It didn't save the trade. Commercial shipping ended in 1968, and the developer Taylor Woodrow later rebuilt the entrance lock again, with new bridges carrying traffic in from the Thames.

A rejected film prop became a Jubilee crown nearby

Just 41 feet from the lock, Queen Elizabeth II unveiled the Silver Jubilee Crystal Crown, a carved perspex sculpture by Arthur Fleischmann. The block itself had a stranger history. Stanley Kubrick commissioned it for the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, then rejected it for a black plywood version instead. Fleischmann picked up the unused block after the film studio closed in 1970 and carved a crown surrounded by sunburst rays into one face of it.

A Dutch queen unveiled a naval friendship plaque

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands came to the dock for a different ceremony. A plaque went up on the wall of the Dockmaster's House, next to the lock, marking three centuries of Anglo-Dutch naval friendship.

The bollards were listed and the basin became a marina

The bollards at your feet were listed Grade II on 8 May 1990, protected along with the quay walls, warehouses and footbridges around them. Regular repainting over the years has softened the relief lettering once cast into their iron sides, which read "St Katherine's Docks, 1828."

The basin now holds moored sailing boats. The St Katharine Docks around you are a marina, ringed by restaurants, bars and the old warehouses converted into shops and flats.

The crown's chapel became a coffee shop

The chapel that once housed the crown, called the Coronarium, was roofed over and turned into a coffee shop. The sculpture was moved and mounted on the side of the Tower Hotel, lit from behind at night.