Tobacco Dock is a Grade I listed warehouse located in the East London district of Wapping, and thereby the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Part of the London Docks designed by Scottish civil engineer and architect John Rennie, the warehouse was completed in 1812 and primarily served as a store for imported tobacco, hence the name. During the early 20th century, economic activity in the area fluctuated due to World War I and World War II, and both London Docks and nearby St Katharine Docks had closed by 1969. After the London Docklands ceased seaborne trade, the warehouse and surrounding areas fell into dereliction until it was turned into a shopping centre which opened in 1989. However, due to the early 1990s recession, it was forced to close two years later. In 2003 English Heritage placed it on its "at risk" register, preventing many developers from attempting a rejuvenation of the former London Docklands site. For two decades Tobacco Dock stood largely empty; it was used as a barracks for military personnel providing security to the 2012 London Olympics. In 2012 the company Tobacco Dock Ltd launched the building as an events and conferencing space for up to 10,000 people. It also houses offices and co-working spaces operated by Tobacco Dock Venue Ltd, although the site and building itself are owned by Kuwaiti investment company Messila House. History and usage The London Dock Company was initially established in January 1796 by a group of merchants, shippers and bankers and upon the drawing up of plans for The London Docks the company negotiated a 21-year monopoly on the management of vessels carrying rice, tobacco, wine and brandy. This excluded those coming from the East and West Indies, which were managed by the East India Trading Company. The vaults beneath the tobacco warehouses resembled the crypts of a Gothic cathedral, "with chamfered granite columns under finely-executed brick groins, connected with a 20-acre "subterranean city" for the storage of wines and spirits, where they could mature at a stable temperature of 15.5 °C". In Victorian England it was possible to obtain a permit from The London Dock Company to visit the vaults, although women were not admitted after 1pm and wine merchants provided visitors with tasting orders that allowed them to sample the various wines, brandies, spirits and ports that were in storage. Now only four of the original vaults survive. "Later, from