One the famous place in London's "sailortown" according to C. Fox Smith was known as the "Chain Locker" (from Sailor-Town Days, p. 21):
... the Chain Locker is the name given by sailormen to the Shipping Office on Tower Hill, where crews sign on and pay off, and where the effects of dead seamen are kept until they are claimed, or - failing a claimant - until they are sold by auction after the statutory time has elapsed."
I wonder if there is any sign left of such a building, boarded up and still chock-a-block filled with sailors' sea chests?