Canning Dock Liverpool - Canning Dock Is A Dock, On The River Mersey,LIVERPOOL England, And Part Of The Port Of Liverpool. It Is Situated In The Southern Dock System, Connected To Salthouse Dock To The South And Canning Half Tide Dock To The West. The Canning Graving Docks Are Accessed From The Dock. The Dock Was Opened In 1737 As A Protected Tidal Basin Providing An Entrance To Old Dock. Having Been Subsequently Enclosed As A Wet Dock Three Years Earlier, In 1832 It Was Officially Named After The Liverpool MP, George Canning. To The East Is The Site Of Old Dock, Built In 1709, Which Was The World First Enclosed Commercial Dock. Canning Dock Would Have Initially Served Ships Involved In The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Access To The Northern Half Of The Dock System Was Via Georges Dock, George's Basin And Into Princes Dock. In 1899, Both Georges Basin And George's Dock Were Filled In And The Site Is Now The Pier Head. Along With The Albert Dock And Others In The Immediate Vicinity, Canning Dock Was Abandoned As A Commercial Shipping Facility In 1972 Due To The Rising Cost Of Dredging And Falling Numbers In Traffic. It Was Restored In The 1980s And Provides Access To The Canning Graving Docks, Which Are Part Of The Merseyside Maritime Museum. LIVERPOOL CITY CENTRE 2012 Photo