Canary Wharf is a commercial district in Greater London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is one of the main financial centres of the United Kingdom, along with the City of London, and contains many of Europe's tallest buildings, including the 2nd-tallest in the UK, 1 Canada Square.
Canary Wharf is 97 acres (39 hectares) and contains around 16,000,000 square feet (1,500,000 m2) of office and retail space. It comprises many open areas, including Canada Square, Cabot Square and Westferry Circus. Together with Heron Quays and Wood Wharf forms the Canary Wharf Estate.
Video Canary Wharf
History
Canary Wharf is located on the West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs.
- West India Dock Company
From 1802 to the late 1980s, the Canary Wharf Estate was apart of Millwall, Limehouse and Poplar and was one of the busiest docks in the world. After the 1960s, the port industry began to decline, leading to all the docks being closed by 1980. West India Docks was primarily developed by Robert Milligan (c. 1746-1809) who set up the West India Dock Company.
- Port of London Authority
West India Dock was by this time owned by the Port of London Authority in 1909. Canary Wharf itself takes its name from No. 32 berth of the West Wood Quay of the Import Dock. This was built in 1936 for Fruit Lines Ltd, a subsidiary of Fred Olsen Lines for the Mediterranean and Canary Islands fruit trade. The Canary islands were so named after the large dogs found there by the Spanish (Gran Canaria from Canine) and as it is located on the Isle of Dogs, the quay and warehouse were given the name Canary Wharf.
- London Docklands Development Corporation
After the docks closed in 1980, the British Government adopted policies to stimulate redevelopment of the area, including the creation of the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) in 1981 and the granting of Urban Enterprise Zone status to the Isle of Dogs in 1982.
The Canary Wharf of today began when Michael von Clemm, former chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), came up with the idea to convert Canary Wharf into a back office. Further discussions with G Ware Travelstead led to proposals for a new business district and included the LDDC developing a cheap light metro scheme, called the Docklands Light Railway to make use a large amount of redundant railway infrastructure and to improve access.
The project was sold to the Canadian company Olympia & York and construction began in 1988, master-planned by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with Yorke Rosenberg Mardall as their UK advisors, and subsequently by Koetter Kim. The first buildings were completed in 1991, including 1 Canada Square, which became the UK's tallest building at the time and a symbol of the regeneration of Docklands. By the time it opened, the London commercial property market had collapsed, and Olympia and York Canary Wharf Limited filed for bankruptcy in May 1992.
Initially, the City of London saw Canary Wharf as an existential threat. It modified its planning laws to expand the provision of new offices in the City of London, for example, creating offices above railway stations (Blackfriars) and roads (Alban Gate). The resulting oversupply of office space contributed to the failure of the Canary Wharf project.
- Canary Wharf Group
In December 1995 an international consortium, backed by the former owners of Olympia & York and other investors, bought the scheme. The new company was called Canary Wharf Limited, and later became Canary Wharf Group.
In 1997, some residents living on the Isle of Dogs launched a lawsuit against Canary Wharf Ltd for private nuisance because the tower interfered with TV signals. The residents lost the case.
Recovery in the property market generally, coupled with continuing demand for large floorplate Grade A office space, slowly improved the level of interest. A critical event in the recovery was the much-delayed start of work on the Jubilee Line Extension, which the government wanted ready for the Millennium celebrations.
In March 2004, Canary Wharf Group plc. was taken over by a consortium of investors, backed by its largest shareholder Glick Family Investments and led by Morgan Stanley using a vehicle named Songbird Estates plc.
Maps Canary Wharf
Tallest buildings
This table lists completed buildings in Canary Wharf that are over 60 metres tall.
Corporations and agencies
Canary Wharf contains around 16,000,000 square feet (1,500,000 m2) of office and retail space, of which around 7,900,000 square feet (730,000 m2) (about 49%) is owned by Canary Wharf Group. Around 105,000 people work in Canary Wharf, and it is home to the world or European headquarters of numerous major banks, professional services firms, and media organisations, including Barclays, Citigroup, Clifford Chance, Credit Suisse, EY, Fitch Ratings, HSBC, Infosys, J.P. Morgan, KPMG, MetLife, Moody's, Morgan Stanley, RBC, Deutsche Bank, S&P Global, Skadden, State Street, and Thomson Reuters, and hosts two European Union agencies; European Medicines Agency and European Banking Authority
Leisure
- Marina
West India Quays and Poplar Dock are two marinas that are used as moorings for barges and private leisure river crafts and is owned by the Canal & River Trust.
- Library
A local public library, called Idea Store Canary Wharf, is in Churchill Place shopping mall and run by Tower Hamlets Council which opened on Thursday 16 March 2006 as part of the Idea Store project and is the borough fourth Idea Store.
- Cinema
Canary Wharf hosts two multiplexes (cinemas), one on West India Quay run by Cineworld. and another at Crossrail Place called Everyman Cinema.
Transport
The Canary Wharf developers played a pro-active role in improving transport links, which they recognised as essential to the success of the project.
Beginning in 1985, they proposed extension of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to Bank, and upgrading of frequencies and capacity. The DLR now serves four stations in the area: West India Quay, Canary Wharf, Heron Quays and South Quay DLR stations with two additional stations located close by just beyond the district, Poplar and Blackwall DLR stations.
In 1988, they proposed construction of a second rail line to Docklands, which ultimately became the Jubilee Line Extension. After the Jubilee Extension opened in 1999, Canary Wharf began to actively promote Crossrail, as a new station on Crossrail's Elizabeth line will serve the area. It's due to be open in December 2018.
- Aviation
London City Airport in Silvertown is linked to both Canary Wharf and the City of London via the Docklands Light Railway, and an interchange to the London Underground. London City Airport DLR station is situated immediately adjacent to the terminal building, with enclosed access to and from the elevated platforms. The Vanguard helipad serves a parcel service by helicopter to Heathrow Airport.
- London Buses
Canary Wharf is served by several London Buses routes, including route 135 connecting the estate with Old Street and Crossharbour and the 24 hours route 277 to Highbury via Bow, Hackney Central, Dalston from Crosshabour via Millwall and also the D prefix network serving the London Docklands with the D3 running between Bethnal Green and Leamouth via Wapping and D7 between Mile End and Poplar while the D8 from Crossharbour to Stratford via Bromley-by-Bow and the night route N550 between Trafalgar Square and Canning Town and has been since its beginning, which has been vital in the continuing development of the estate.
- Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated light metro system that has three stations in Canary Wharf. Heron Quays Station, one of the first stations to be built in the Canary Wharf Estate, was first opened in 1987. The station has two platforms in use, is in Travelcard Zone 2, and is on the Lewisham branch, between Canary Wharf and South Quay. The station was moved 200 metres south (to fit inside the new buildings) and a longer platform was built at this new site to accommodate three-unit trains planned as part of the DLR Capacity Enhancement; the station re-opened on 18 December 2002.
While Canary Wharf Station had been part of the original DLR plans, but the station was not ready when the DLR opened in August 1987. It was originally planned that the station would be similar to the original station at Heron Quays, with 2 small platforms either side of the tracks. The station is located on the DLR between Heron Quays station and the West India Quay station, in Travelcard Zone 2.
- London Underground
Canary Wharf Underground station is a 2 platform station designed by Norman Foster and opened in 1999 as part of the Jubilee Line Extension from Charing Cross to Stratford. Canary Wharf station has increasingly become 1 of the busiest stations on the network, serving the ever-expanding Canary Wharf business district.
The station was used as a location for some scenes of Danny Boyle's 2002 film 28 Days Later and its sequel 28 Weeks Later, which was mostly based in Canary Wharf.
- National Rail
Canary Wharf railway station began construction in May 2009 and will be completed in 2017 (due to officially begin operating in 2018) as part of the £15 billion Crossrail project. The station will be served by the Elizabeth line and will have 2 platforms and will be in Travelcard Zone 2.
- London River Services
The Canary Wharf Pier is a London River Services pier on the River Thames located to the west of Canary Wharf, close to Narrow Street, Limehouse.
- Cycling
Cycle Superhighway CS3 between Tower Gateway and Barking passes to the north of Canary Wharf near Westferry station and the National Cycle Route passes to the west on the Thames Path.
Gaming
Canary Wharf has been reported since 2017 as part of the Pokémon Go augmented reality game to being the home for the most wanted Pokémon gyms in London including Canary Wharf DLR station and Montgomery Square.
Canary Wharf Group published an official Pokémon map for PokéStop's and Pokémon Gyms, the managing director for retail Camille Waxer said in 2016 that Pokémon Go has serious potential to attract new audiences to the area, particularly food and drink outlets are seeing an increase in footfall.
See also
- Canary Wharf - Rotherhithe Ferry
- Canary Wharf bombing
- The Wharf newspaper
- Spinning fields
References
Further reading
- Kevin D'Arcy (2012). London's 2nd City: Creating Canary Wharf. Rajah Books. ISBN 0955670624.
External links
- Canary Wharf - Official Information Site
- Canary Wharf Group plc
- Canary Wharf projects on Skyscrapernews
- The Definitive Guide to Canary Wharf Pier
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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