[Picture: The London Docks]
Are situated in Wapping, between Ratcliffe Highway and the Thames. One
of the docks is so large, that it covers more than twenty acres of
ground, being 1262 feet long, and 699 feet wide. It was first opened on
the 31st of January, 1805. The new dock covers a space of fourteen
acres. There are also immense warehouses. One of them is 762 feet long,
and 160 feet wide, a representation of which was too large to introduce
into our picture; but we have given a view of the grand entrance, with a
ship going into the docks, to be unladen of her merchandise, which will
be taken care of in one of those warehouses, till it is sold for public
use.
86, 87. Greenwich and Chelsea Hospitals, and Pensioners,
[Picture: Greenwich and Chelsea Hospitals, and Pensioners]
The wise and benevolent design of founding an hospital for those brave
men who have been disabled by age or accident, from serving any longer in
the navy, is said, to the honour of the female sex, to have originated
with that excellent woman, Queen Mary, the wife of King William the
Third; and the founding of an asylum for invalid soldiers at Chelsea, was
also attributed to a female, one of King Charles the Second’s favourites.
The buildings at each place are more like palaces than hospitals, and
great care is taken to render the objects of the institution comfortable
in their situations. The hospital at Chelsea, with its appendages,
covers above forty acres of ground. There are three hundred and
thirty-six in-door pensioners, and an unlimited number of out-door
pensioners, who receive an annual allowance of seven pounds twelve
shillings and sixpence each. Greenwich Hospital admits two thousand
three hundred and fifty pensioners, who are provided with lodging, food,
clothing, and pocket-money; exclusive of about twelve hundred
out-pensioners, who receive seven pounds each per annum. Both hospitals
are situated by the water-side. At Chelsea, the pensioners have gardens
and fields to walk in; and at Greenwich, there is a large and pleasant
park.
[Picture: Greenwich and Chelsea Hospitals, and Pensioners]
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