Tilbury Port (London International Cruise Terminal)

 

Tilbury Port (London International Cruise Terminal)

We are working as structural engineers for the repair and refurbishment of the Grade II* listed rail and cruise terminal at the Port of Tilbury - now known as the London International Cruise Terminal. The reconfiguration will create a new café, event spaces and direct access to the Tilbury-Gravesend Ferry.

The proposals have also been aided by our Heritage advice for a proposed new landing stage pier at the eastern end of the existing Passenger Landing Stage and Cruise Terminal. Through our work, we established the history of the site, the significance of the landing stage and that of its wider setting. We also established the key design principles that should inform the emerging proposals, such as how the design would affect nearby designated assets of the Tilbury Fort (Scheduled Monument) and the World’s End Inn (Grade II).

The first military fort at Tilbury was constructed in the sixteenth century and a link between the ferry and a railway was built in 1854 when the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway opened a station at Tilbury riverside. Tilbury Docks opened in 1886, with the town of Tilbury developing in the following decades. HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in 1948, carrying the first significant wave of migrants to Britain from the Caribbean, and the same year saw Tilbury Fort cease to be a military site. The latter twentieth century saw the decline of passenger traffic from Tilbury Docks, with the Riverside Station closing in 1992.

In 2023, the Heritage Lottery Funding granted £3.4m for the 'Back on Track' project, which will transform Tilbury’s rail and cruise terminal complex into a new community and commercial facility that celebrates the site’s unique trade, military and migration history. Find out more about the project here.

Client: Port of Tilbury