At the South Eastern tip of?Millwall, near Canary Wharf in the East End of?London, lie the remains of the SS Great Eastern?s launch ramp. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the SS Great Eastern was built to carry passengers and cargo between England and Australia, and at the time of her launch in 1858 was the largest ship the world had ever seen. She was also the first ship of her time to be constructed almost entirely of metal.
Perhaps it is strange then that the launch site that was chosen for this behemoth was at a tight meander on the Thames, between the Isle of Dogs and Deptford. Why was this?
Right from the outset, Brunel and his business partner Scott Russell were under the constraints of an extremely tight budget for the building of the SS Great Eastern. Originally estimated to cost ?500,000, this soon had to be whittled down to ?377,000, and then further to ?258,000. Because of these cost restraints it was decided that building a brand new dock to accommodate the ship was simply not feasible. Instead, Brunel and Russell were forced to look for an existing site suitable to build and launch the ship.