Табачный док: История лондонского склада и история с тигром.

Tobacco Dock is a Grade I listed warehouse located at Wapping, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Part of the London Docks in the East End of London, it was 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. It also houses offices and co working spaces operated by Tobacco Dock Venue Ltd, although the site and building itself are owned by Kuwaiti Real Estate Group Al Mubarakia Ltd .

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, One such shop along Ratcliffe Highway was German born wild animal trader Charles Jamrach's "Jamrach's Animal Emporium", which also served as a museum. Jamrach also owned a menagerie in Betts Street and a warehouse in Old Gravel Lane, Southwark; he was a leading importer, breeder and exporter of animals, selling to noblemen, zoos, menageries and circus owners, and buying from ships docking in London and nearby ports, with agents in other major British ports, including Liverpool, Southampton and Plymouth, and also in continental Europe. In 1857 a wild Bengal tiger escaped from its box as it was waiting to be loaded into its new den and carried off a young boy of around nine years of age who tried to stroke it. Upon his command, one of Jamrach's men brought a crowbar and struck the tiger three times until it released the boy. However, it was only stunned and jumped up again once Jamrach pried the boy from its jaws; so, after a final blow Jamrach and his men managed to return the tiger to its den largely unharmed. Hospital reports showed that the boy was unharmed yet Jamrach offered his father, a tailor, £50 in compensation "for the alarm he had sustained". Despite this he sued Jamrach for damages which ended up costing £300: £60 for the father and £240 for the lawyers. Jamrach eventually sold the tiger to Mr. Edmonds of Wombell's menagerie for £300, who made a fortune by exhibiting it as the tiger that swallowed a child. At the north entrance of Tobacco Dock there now stands a 7 feet (2 m) bronze sculpture of a boy standing in front of a tiger to commemorate the incident

The name Tobacco Dock comes from its original use as a warehouse built to store tobacco and other valuable imports from the New World. It made up part of The London Docks for which plans were first proposed in 1800 when the London Dock Act was passed authorising the building of a wet dock in Wapping, the initial cost of the docks was £4 million. While the majority of the wet dock was built on drainage fields, many houses as well as the former site of the Raine's Foundation School were demolished to make way for warehouses, offices and quays, one of such warehouses is now Tobacco Dock. This resulted in many people being made homeless due to a compulsory purchase order being made for the land by the London Dock Company. Part of the St. John's Churchyard was also used in the creation of the docks, resulting in a need to rebury some of the dead. In Harper's New Monthly Magazine it was written that The London Docks were made up of more than 100 acres with space for more than 500 ships, and warehouses capable of holding 234,000 tons of goods, with the capital of the company alone exceeding £4 million.

Although the homes built for dock staff on the Pier Head are a classic example of late Georgian architecture, most specifically of the Regency era, the dock itself deterred would be thieves with its prison like design.

In 1980 the upper floor of Tobacco Dock was used as the filming location for the music video "Messages" by the band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. In early 2004, part of the building was used as the studios of the Channel 4 reality television show Shattered. Several film première after parties have also been held there. Tobacco Dock was used for scenes in the sixth episode of the 2008 BBC drama Ashes to Ashes, set in 1981 despite the centre only being developed for its failed use as a shopping centre in 1990. In February 2011 the complex was used to hold a Secret Cinema event for The Red Shoes. In the summer of 2012 the Ministry of Defence used Tobacco Dock as temporary accommodation for 2,500 soldiers deployed to guard the Olympic Games in London.

Tobacco Dock is regularly used for large corporate and commercial events and is a smoke free venue, including its attached car park. In November 2013 and 2014 it was used to host RuneFest 3 and 4 respectively, an event celebrating RuneScape, an online role playing video game. From 2013 it was the venue of the annual live fire food event Meatopia where chefs from around the world cook for over 10,000 people over a weekend. Since 2014, the British Academy Games Awards were held every spring as part of EGX Rezzed.