A watercolour of Tilbury Docks by William Lionel Wyllie, circa 1890. These docks, 26 miles downstream from London Bridge, were opened in 1886 by the East and West India Dock Company as part of the intense rivalry between the dock companies. For many decades the Tilbury Docks were underused, but now, covering an area of over 325 hectares, they are the most important port on the Thames.