Dover
Lock and Key of the Kingdom

Aerial Photo of the Eastern Docks in the late 1990s.

The now important Eastern Docks grew from a small beginning, in the eastern corner of the Admiralty Harbour. In the right angle made by the junction of the Eastern Arm with the shore a, roughly square, area of the harbour, known as the Camber, was enclosed by the West Jetty, jutting out from the shore, and the South Jetty, built out from the Eastern Arm.

During the First World War the Camber was used to accommodate the Dover submarine flotilla and their depot ship, HMS Arrogant. An oil and coal storage depot had been established on the shore in 1907 and was used by the Admiralty in both World Wars. After the war the Admiralty broke-up obsolete naval vessels at their dockyard and in the Camber, before withdrawing completely by 1925.

Naval vessels awaiting scrapping in the Camber in the early 1920s.

After the Admiralty’s withdrawal a private ship-breaking business started up in the Camber. In 1930 the Tilmanstone Aerial Ropeway was opened, bringing coal from Tilmanstone Colliery to a bunker for loading ships at the end of the Eastern Arm. The Southern Railway also had a coaling hopper, opened in 1932 and supplied by coal wagons worked along the Promenade Railway to the Eastern Docks. From the late 1920s Captain Townsend started to operate his car ferry service from the Camber, thus starting the trade which was to build the Eastern Docks into what it is today.

In the Second World War the Camber became home to motor torpedo and motor gunboats of the Royal Navy. Torpedoes and mines were stored in specially excavated tunnels in the cliffs. A number of cavernous fuel storage tanks had also been built into the cliffs to supplement the existing Admiralty fuel depot.

After the war the ship-breaking business returned to the Camber. The old Admiralty oil depot was taken over in two parts, one by Esso and one by Shell-Mex. Parker Pens opened a factory here and freight ships docked at the Eastern Arm. Townsend car ferries resumed operation and in 1951 designed their own linkspan at Calais, which allowed car to drive off the ferry in France even though they were loaded by crane in England.

In 1953, when 117,000 vehicles a year were using the port, a new car ferry terminal at the Eastern Docks was opened allowing roll-on, roll-off traffic to start. The ever-increasing demand soon rendered the two berths inadequate and extra capacity and new terminal building opened in 1970.

The first Hoverport opened here in 1968 increasing the cross-Channel car carrying capacity. The Hoverport moved to its new location at the Western Docks in 1978.

The steady growth in traffic caused serious traffic congestion in the town at peak times and in 1977 the A2 by-pass was opened and named Jubilee Way in celebration of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee that year. The road left the top of the cliff and was carried down to the dock gates by a graceful curved viaduct. Originally built with some of its supports actually in the sea, this viaduct is a good measure of how much the Eastern Docks have grown since the late 1970s. Land reclamation for further ferry births and parking for cars and lorries waiting to cross has resulted in the viaduct now being firmly landlocked, with all of its supports on dry land.

The original Car Ferry Dock in June 1963.

The original Hoverport at the Eastern Docks.

The Eastern Docks Ferry Terminal is reaching full capacity with little scope for further expansion, and Port of Dover Master Plan published in March 2006 outlined proposals to develop a new ferry terminal at the Western Docks.