The Stave Hill Ecology Park (6 acres) and the adjoining Russia Docks Woodlands (36 acres) have been created out of the former Surrey Commercial Docks when the docks closed in the 1970s. This marshy area alongside the Thames has been the site of docks in one form or another from 1696 to 1969. The first dock in the area, and only the second in London, was the Howland Great Wet Dock which was dug out at the end of 17C as a shelter for ships waiting to enter the docks upstream. It was later renamed the Greenland Docks and remains as a dock today, alongside the Park and Woodlands.
