Clarence Dock was designed by by Jesse Hartley and opened on 16 September 1830, it was named after William, Duke of Clarence, who later became King William IV.
It was built as a self-contained steamship dock facility. This was for safety reasons to keep steamships and sailing ships separate to avoid the risk of fire spreading to timber sailing vessels which at the time were using the other docks.
The monumental gates are in a Greek Revival style with squared tapering piers on rusticated pitted bases with gabled caps and acroteria architectural ornamentation on the corners of the cappings.
The wall itself was built in red brick with sandstone copings in the same style as
John Foster’s 1821 wall around Princes Dock, but dates to between 1836 and 1841 when the docks were extended.
Clarence Dock was also the berth of the Irish ferry ships. During the Irish famine from 1845 to 1852 over 1.3 million Irish men, women and children arrived here and walked out of the docks through the gate shown in the photograph above. Many took a took ship to America from Waterloo Dock, there being no direct sailings to America from Ireland, others moved on to London and other British towns and cities. The small plaque seen to the right of the gate on the photograph above notes this fact.
The dock was in-filled in 1929 and the site was then used for a power station. The three large chimneys of the Clarence Dock Power Station were a familiar local landmark until the site was demolished in the 1990's.