King George V Dry Dock

King George V Graving Dock, also known as No. 7 Dry Dock, is a dry dock in Southampton's Western Docks. It was designed by FE Wentworth-Shields and constructed by John Mowlem & Company with Edmund Nuttall Sons & Company. The dock was formally opened by HM King George V and Queen Mary on 26th July 1933, though work was not completed until 1934.

The dock is constructed of reinforced concrete and steel. Granite was used only for the sills and caisson stops, the flights of steps leading to the floor, and the coping of the walls at the entrance. All other parts, including the copings of the side walls and the altar steps near the base, are of concrete.

The shape of the dock's cross-section reflects developments in ship design. From the 17th to late 19th centuries, docks had curving or semi-circular cross-sections matching the shape of ship hulls. Their sloping walls featured stepped altars that provided footings for timber props supporting the ship's hull. By the early 20th century, dock profiles became more trapezoidal, and by the mid-20th century, rectangular with near-vertical walls. King George V Graving Dock mirrors these developments, with steep sides and a restricted number of stepped altars confined to the base of the walls. High-level altars proved unnecessary, as large ships could dock on three lines of blocks without shoring.

The dock measures 1,200 feet long and 135 feet wide. Mooring bollards are spaced at intervals along the sides and set into the dock wall. Service access points and inspection slipways exist on either side. At the east side of the dock entrance is the chamber for the caisson door, though the caisson has been removed. The side and end walls were constructed with a batter of 1 in 4 to resist lateral earth pressure and economise on concrete. The floor is 25 feet thick at the centre line, tapering to 17.5 feet thick at the sides where it adjoins the walls.

The most distinctive aspect is the provision of vertical buttresses or piers projecting from the side of the dock at 200-foot intervals. These were needed to prevent the bilge keels of vessels striking the base of the battered walls. The faces of the piers were fendered for about 10 feet below the coping with English elm timbers, giving the structure a distinctive Modernist architectural character.

The dock was designed for the repair and maintenance of the largest ocean liners of the period. Two years after its opening, the Queen Mary used it before embarking on her maiden voyage. Its construction involved major engineering work including deep wells and pumps to lower the water table, thought to be the first application of the deep well method since Robert Stephenson constructed the Kilsby tunnel a century earlier. The dock remained the longest in the world for almost 30 years, and by 1939 attracted half a million sightseers annually who came to see the world's largest liners.

During the Second World War, the Western Docks, of which King George V Graving Dock is part, served as one of the principal embarkation points for Operation 'Overlord'. The famous Mulberry Harbour, used in the D-Day landings in June 1944, was constructed there. By the 1960s the era of the transatlantic passenger liner was ending due to the rise of the jet airliner. Since the 1950s, the other dry docks at Southampton have been infilled, apart from No. 6 Trafalgar Dry Dock, the design of which included work by Wentworth-Shields. These two docks represent the great achievements of Southampton Docks' development during the first half of the 20th century.