Port wine from Oporto being unloaded on a London Docks quayside, circa 1909

The London Docks were constructed in Wapping in 1805, forming what was at the time the closest set of docks to the City of London. They occupied a total area of about 30 acres (120,000 m²), divided into western and eastern basins linked by the short Tobacco Dock. They comprised part of the Port of London, in the area now known as the Docklands.

The London Docks' principal designers were the architects and engineers David Alexander and John Rennie. The docks specialised in high-value luxury commodities such as ivory, spices, coffee and cocoa as well as wine and wool, for which elegant warehouses and wine cellars were constructed. In 1864 they were amalgamated with the neighbouring St Katharine Docks.

The docks were finally closed to shipping in 1969 and sold to the borough of Tower Hamlets, which filled in the western portion of the London Docks with the (unrealised) intention of turning them into public housing estates. The land was still largely derelict when it was acquired in 1981 by the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC). It was subsequently redeveloped with over 1,000 individual properties centred around the old Tobacco Dock and the surviving eastern basin, renamed Shadwell Basin. The controversial "Fortress Wapping" printing works of Rupert Murdoch's News International corporation was constructed directly on top of the infilled western basin.