The Legal Quays of England were created by the ''Act of Frauds'' (1 Elizabeth I, c. 11), an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

enacted in 1559 during the reign of

Elizabeth I of England Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is ...

. It established new rules for

customs Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...

in England in order to boost

the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

's finances. One of its most important provisions was the establishment of a rule that it was illegal to land or load goods anywhere other than authorised Legal Quays in London and other ports, under the supervision of customs officers. The legislation also set out which towns were authorised to act as ports.

Origins

The Act was enacted largely at the instigation of Sir

William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester (c. 1483/1485 – 10 March 1572), styled Lord St John between 1539 and 1550 and Earl of Wiltshire between 1550 and 1551, was an English Lord High Treasurer, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and statesma ...

and long-serving

Lord Treasurer The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Acts of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third-highest-ranked Great Officer of State in ...

. It established the Legal Quays and appointed commissioners to designate such quays at every port in the realm. At the most important port by far, London, Paulet himself was appointed along with Sir Richard Sackville and Sir Walter Mildmay, the Under-Treasurer and Chancellor of the Exchequer respectively, to undertake "the limitation, assigning and appointing of all the quays and wharves and places appertaining and belonging to the Port of London for the loading and lauding, discharging, unloading and laying on land thereof wares and merchandises". Their role consisted of surveying London's wharves and quays to recommend which should be designated as Legal Quays.

Legal Quays in London

Although many quays already existed along the Thames shoreline, Paulet, Sackville and Mildmay decreed that "all creeks, wharves, quays, loading and discharging places" in

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...

Barking Barking may refer to: Places * Barking, London, a town in East London, England ** London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, a local government district covering the town of Barking ** Municipal Borough of Barking, a historical local government dist ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...

, Blackwall,

Limehouse Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is east of Charing Cross, on the northern bank of the River Thames. Its proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains throug ...

Ratcliff Ratcliff or Ratcliffe is a locality in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames between Limehouse (to the east), and Shadwell (to the west). The place name is no longer commonly used. History Etymolog ...

Wapping Wapping () is a district in East London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Wapping's position, on the north bank of the River Thames, has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, ...

, St Katherine's,

Tower Hill Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher grou ...

Rotherhithe Rotherhithe () is a district of south-east London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, as well as the Isle of Dogs ...

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

and

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...

should be "no more used as loading or discharging places for merchandise". Twenty existing quays with a frontage of , all located on the north bank of the Thames between

and the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...

, were designated as Legal Quays. In order of their position between London Bridge and the Tower of London, they were: To cope with the volume and complexity of trade in London, particular quays were required to specialise in particular cargoes. For instance, Bear and Young's Quays were reserved for trade with Portugal, due to the presence nearby of warehouses used by Portuguese merchants; other wharves were reserved for the import and export of commodities such as fish, corn, woollen cloths, oil and wine. They were privately owned and operated as a ''de facto'' monopoly. During the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

in September 1666, which started a short distance to the north in

Pudding Lane Pudding Lane is a small street in London, widely known as the location of Thomas Farriner's bakery, where the Great Fire of London started in 1666. It runs between Eastcheap and Thames Street in the historic City of London, and intersects Monum ...

, all of the Legal Quays were destroyed. They were quickly rebuilt and were all back in operation by the mid-1670s.

Expansion

The regime set out in the 1559 Act lasted into the 18th century. Seventy-four English towns were eventually designated as ports and authorised Legal Quays were established within them. However, this system proved too limited to cope with the demand in the Port of London and further wharves, known as "public sufferance wharves", were established under an Act of 1786. Most were located on the south bank of the Thames. They were used to land low-duty goods, but with no expansion in the list of ports or Legal Quays, or increases to the size of the quays themselves, quay space was constantly in short supply and was not remotely adequate for the demands of increasing levels of trade. By way of illustration, by 1800 around 1,775 vessels had to moor in a space with capacity for only 545. The legal quays had not added any more frontage since 1666 and warehouse space was very limited. Congestion and delays were constant and chronic, with most vessels forced to unload while moored in the river rather than being able to moor alongside a quay. The long delays and lack of security led to widespread problems with theft and pilferage. The issue was eventually addressed with the construction of enclosed docks to the east of the City, notably on the

Isle of Dogs The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England, which includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Ham ...

and in Wapping, Blackwall and Rotherhithe, each with their own Legal Quays and secure bonded warehouses. The Customs Consolidation Act 1853 allowed Legal Quays and bonded warehouses to be built outside the docks, and by 1866, nearly 120 riverside wharves had obtained these privileges.

References

{{reflist, 30em * City of London Taxation in the United Kingdom