Once the city’s port, London Docklands has a rich maritime history that developers wanted to honour by converting the dock cranes into celebratory monuments.  

In one of our earliest maritime heritage projects, Beckett Rankine was commissioned to preserve the cranes, while avoiding long-term maintenance challenges within a growing commercial and residential development.  

The site was largely undeveloped at the time, allowing the cranes to be dismantled and stripped back to bare metal, or in some cases, timber. The machinery was carefully removed, and steps were taken to prevent wildlife from entering or occupying the structures. We applied advanced protective coatings designed to last 20 years before requiring any further upkeep.  

More than 30 years later, the Docklands cranes are an iconic feature that bridge modern life and London’s industrial history.