Dockland is the area of a port where the docks are — the warehouses, roads, and open ground around the water, not just the edge where the ship ties up. It is mainly British. You will often hear the plural docklands for the same kind of place. In many cities the old dockland is no longer full of working ships; the port moved, and the land was rebuilt with flats and offices. So the word can still mean “the port area,” but people also use it of a neighbourhood that used to be that. Americans are more likely to say the docks or the waterfront.