PLA Archive

The PLA’s archive is held and managed by the Museum of London Docklands.

Based at West India Quay, Canary Wharf, the archive includes more than 600 unique record books of private dock companies from 1799. Taken together, this archive tells the story of the formation and development of what was once the world’s largest port, out of which grew London’s pivotal role as a centre of commercial, maritime and financial prestige.

The PLA archive also includes:

50,000 plans and engineering drawings
10,000 books and pamphlets
500 maps
40,000 historic photographs dating back to the 1850s
4,000 historic glass slides
5,000 paintings, drawings and prints (framed and unframed)
350 film reels
Minute books and archives of the Thames administrators (1770-1909)

Museum staff are able to assist people looking into the history of the port or simply looking into their family history.

For more information about the PLA archive visit: http://www.museumindocklands.org.uk/English/Collections/