Geograph - photograph every grid square

The building in the southwest corner of the dock is a Holiday Inn hotel, proudly flying the EU flag on the day after Brexit. Albert Dock was opened in 1846 after five years of construction. It was built to the west of the existing Salthouse Dock Link . The design of a dock surrounded by warehouses Link was novel at the time and demanded the use of new technologies and materials to limit the danger of fires spreading in the dense ring of warehouses (providing 120000 square metres of floor space) surrounding the dock. No wood was used for the buildings or anywhere else in the docks except for underground piling to support the foundations. The buildings themselves are entirely built from stone, brick and cast iron. To allow flexibility in the internal layout of the warehouses, the buildings have thick load-bearing walls and cast iron columns along the quayside, allowing internal walls to be inserted and moved as required as uses changed over time. The dock closed as such in 1972 and re-opened in 1984 as a business and leisure space Link Link Link .