Princes Dock History

Active Period - 1810 to 1981

1810

Building begins on the Princes Dock site. The project runs late because of:

• the Napoleonic War (money and staff shortages)
• mismanagement
• fiddling

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1821

Princes Dock opens. It is the first dock to be surrounded by walls to prevent theft. It has been built to take sailing vessels running to North America [image, new window].

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1840s   

Already Princes Dock is losing the North American trade after only twenty years. It moves into the high value, low bulk East Asia and South American trades, e.g. coffee and spices.

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1876 

Georges and Princes landing stages are joined together and extended. The whole structure becomes known as Princes Stage. At the time it is the longest floating structure in the world. Princes Landing Stage inhabits the northern end of the stage (the Pier Head is at the south end). It is visited by Cunard, White Star and Canadian Pacific Lines.

Most of the great passenger liners spend some time in the North Docks before collecting passengers at the stage. There they load and unload cargo as the liners are not profitable running only passengers.

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1895

Riverside railway station opens. It brings passengers from the main railway line right to Princes Landing Stage.

Following the dredging of the Pier Head area in the 1890s, and some extension and strengthening work, passengers no longer have to board ships anchored in the river via boats. Instead they can simply walk up a gangplank.

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1910 

Much of the South American and East Asian traffic has left Princes Dock and moved across the river. Transatlantic passenger traffic is based on the landing stage in the river. Princes Dock is the centre of the Irish trade [image, new window].

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1950s 

The number of passengers and boats falls and much of the huge length of the Princes Stage is not needed.

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1967

As trade with Ireland moves into containers, Princes Dock becomes a passenger terminal for Belfast. A ro-ro terminal is built at the south end of the dock.

1975-76

The Princes landing stage is very rusty. It is replaced by a smaller stage, serving only the Mersey Ferries and the Isle of Man boats. It sinks on its opening weekend (an inspection port had been left open) but is successfully raised and there are no further problems.

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1981

The passenger service from Princes Dock ends. This is due to the fall in passenger services and a new terminal at Victoria Dock. Princes Dock closes and is partly filled.

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