The Great Thames Barrage

Chapter 4: Port of London Bill, 1903.

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An engineering proposal argues for construction of a barrage across the lower Thames between Gravesend and Tilbury to create a non-tidal inland reservoir and maintain consistent deep navigation to central London, eliminating dredging, tide-waiting, and grounding, and improving safety and loading operations. The pamphlet catalogs complaints about inadequate depth, delays, overlapping authorities, high costs, and hazardous navigation, critiques dredging and administrative reforms as insufficient, surveys analogous international proposals, and advocates dockisation with locks and sluices as a comprehensive remedy while discussing technical, economic, and operational implications.

Port of London Bill, 1903.

The Government has sought to give effect to the Report of the Royal Commission on the Port of London in this Bill, which reached the stage of Committee of the whole House, and was then suspended till next Session (1904).

But as there were seventy petitions presented against the Bill, and a large number of amendments stand on the notices for Committee of the whole House, it may justly be concluded that the Bill satisfies no one, and that the attempt of the Government to force it through the House by stifling discussion of most of its vital points in Committee was a flagrant violation of public rights, and will have a disastrous effect on the future settlement of the question.