Everything about Canary Wharf totally explained
:
For the landmark building sometimes known as Canary Wharf (Tower), see One Canada Square.
Canary Wharf is a large business and shopping development in
London, located in the
London Borough of Tower Hamlets, centred on the old
West India Docks in the
London Docklands.
Rivalling London's traditional financial centre,
The Square Mile, Canary Wharf contains the UK's three tallest buildings:
One Canada Square (sometimes known as the Canary Wharf Tower) at 771 ft (235.1 m); followed by
8 Canada Square and the
Citigroup Centre, both at 654 ft (199.5 m).. However, according to the official Canary Wharf website
,
One Canada Square is 800 ft (244 m).
History
Canary Wharf is built on the site of the old
West India Docks on the
Isle of Dogs. From 1802 to 1980, the area was one of the busiest docks in the world, with at one point 50,000 employed. Canary Wharf itself takes its name from the sea trade with the
Canary Islands, whose name comes from the
dogs (Latin
canis) which the Spaniards found there, producing the linguistic coincidence of trade between the
Dog Islands and the
Isle of Dogs.
During WWII, the docks area was bombed heavily and nearly all the original warehouses were destroyed or badly damaged. After a brief recovery in the 1950s, the port industry began to decline. Containerisation and a lack of flexibility made the central London docks less viable than coastal ports like
Felixstowe and
Harwich, and by 1980 the docks were closed.
Thousands were out of work and a huge area of the Docklands lay derelict — a testament to the changing world economy.
The project to revitalise the eight square miles of derelict London docks began in 1981 with the establishment of the
London Docklands Development Corporation by the Conservative government of
Margaret Thatcher. Initially redevelopment was focused on small-scale, light industrial schemes and Canary Wharf's largest occupier was
Limehouse Studios, a TV production company.
The origins of the idea for Canary Wharf
In 1984 the restaurateurs the Roux Brothers were looking for several thousand square feet of space to prepare pre-cooked meals. The late
Michael von Clemm, chairman of
Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and also chairman of Roux Restaurants, was invited for lunch by the
London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) on the boat
Res Nova moored alongside Shed 31 at Canary Wharf, to promote the idea of this food packaging factory being based on the Isle of Dogs. Von Clemm came from Boston and when he looked through the porthole at Shed 31, a simple brick-concrete infill, he commented that it reminded him of the warehouses in Boston harbour which had been converted into back offices and small business premises.
Reg Ward, at the time LDDC Chief Executive, remembers him suddenly leaning back and saying: "I don't know why we don't go for a shed like 31 as a
back office."
This led on to discussions at CSFB's offices, during which their American property adviser
G Ware Travelstead, said: "We're asking ourselves the wrong question. Of course we can take Shed 31 and convert it into a back office, but we've spent the last five years courting at the Court of the
City of London for a new site for a new configuration of building without success. The question is: 'Can we move our
front office to the Isle of Dogs?'."
This idea came from a basic need. The
Big Bang deregulation of financial services in London had radically changed the way merchant banks operated. Instead of the small, corridor and office based buildings occupied in the traditional square mile, the demand was now for large floor-plate, open plan space which could be used as a trading floor. The Corporation of the City of London had been resisting such development, preferring instead to conserve its historical architecture and views. So banks like CSFB had spent years trying without success to locate suitable space close to the financial heart of London.
At the meeting, Travelstead's idea provoked dissent. Reg Ward, however, agreed with Travelstead and pointed out that
Citibank had successfully moved into mid-town
New York and had also moved from the central business district in
Hong Kong, drawing other users with it. (Eventually it would do the same in Docklands, constructing its own building,
Citigroup Centre at Canary Wharf). So Von Clemm and Travelstead decided to take this idea on, committing CSFB to both fund and occupy the new development, and persuading another US Bank with the same issues about space,
Morgan Stanley, to join them.
Travelstead managed to persuade the LDDC and the Government of
Margaret Thatcher that a new financial services district of ten million square feet, located at the old
West India Docks, was viable. He was the first to propose a single main tower, which later became One Canada Square. He proposed building the project as part of a consortium led by his own company The Travelstead Group, together with CSFB and Morgan Stanley. He also brought in Canadian developer
Olympia and York, who had recently completed the World Financial Center and Battery Park developments in New York.
However, Travelstead was unable to fund his project and in late 1986, CSFB and Morgan Stanley pulled out of the consortium, effectively pulling the plug. However, they remained interested in occupying the development if someone else were to build it.
On
17 July 1987, Olympia and York Canary Wharf Investments and the LDDC signed the Master Building Agreement for a 12.2 million sq ft (1.2 million sq.m.) £3 billion international financial centre. The price paid for the 20 acres (8 ha.) of the 71 acre (28.75 ha.) site which the LDDC owned was equivalent to £1 million an acre of which £8 million was payable in cash and £12 million was represented by the developer's commitment to various site works of public benefit.
Local opposition to the development
The idea of a new financial services district wasn't popular with local residents or their representatives on the
Isle of Dogs. Residents' groups including the Association of Island Communities led by individuals such as Ted Johns didn't feel that they'd been part of the consultation process and didn't see that local people would gain any benefit from the development. The expectation was that the development would provide no local jobs or transport improvements.
However, over the course of the development relations with the local community have improved and more than 7,000 local (Tower Hamlets) residents now work at Canary Wharf.
During a bitter campaign against the LDDC's plans, the residents made their voices heard and gained concessions. One memorable stunt took place at the ground-breaking ceremony for Canary Wharf. With dignitaries and government ministers in attendance the developers were launching their plans. Local campaigners released a herd of sheep from
Mudchute Farm into the audience, followed by thousands of live bees. The result was dramatic and local residents demands were given attention.
In 1997, some residents living on the Isle of Dogs launched a lawsuit against Canary Wharf Ltd. which reached the House of Lords (
Hunter v. Canary Wharf [1997] AC 665). They sued for private nuisance because the tower caused interference with television signals from the BBC transmitter in Crystal Palace until a relay transmitter was built to overcome these problems. The court found against the appellants (Hunter and others) as private nuisance generally lies for things emanating from a land, not the blocking of something.
Phase one: 1988–91
Construction of Canary Wharf began in 1988, with phase one completed in 1991. Critically, Olympia and York agreed to meet half the cost of the proposed
Jubilee Line extension, seen as vital to the long-term viability of the project. When topped out in 1990,
One Canada Square became the UK's tallest building and a powerful symbol of the regeneration of Docklands.
The other buildings completed in Phase one include those around Westferry Circus and
Cabot Square, and two either side of One Canada Square, now housing the
Financial Services Authority and
Reuters.
Property market collapse
The London commercial property market collapsed in the early 1990s, and Olympia and York Canary Wharf Limited filed for bankruptcy in May 1992. Tenant demand evaporated despite the availability of special rent concessions for early occupiers and
Jubilee Line work hadn't started yet, leaving the development accessible only by the under-specified Docklands Light Railway. The scheme went into
administration.
One Canada Square stood with its top half in darkness, symbolic of the difficulties that had befallen not only Canary Wharf, but also the entire UK commercial property market.
Rescue and recovery
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, which listed on the London Stock Exchange and later rose to become one of the UK's largest property companies. Paul Reichmann became Chairman again. At the time Canary Wharf came out of administration, its working population was around 13,000 and well over half the office space was empty.
However, recovery in the property market generally, coupled with continuing demand for high floor-plate grade A office accommodation, slowly improved the level of interest in the estate. A critical event in the recovery of Canary Wharf was the much-delayed start of work on the Jubilee Line, which the government wanted ready for the
Millennium celebrations. In 1998 the
Financial Services Authority moved to Canary Wharf, signalling a shift in the centre of gravity within the financial services sector.
From this point on tenants and workers began to see Canary Wharf as an alternative to traditional office locations. Not only were the remaining phases completed, but new phases were built.
Phase two: 1997–2002
Phase two of Canary Wharf consisted of the construction of the
HSBC Tower and
Citigroup Centre headquarters buildings, followed by
Heron Quays.
From 15,000 in 1999 just before the opening of the Jubilee Line, its working population in 2004 had more than quadrupled to 63,000. Around this time Canary Wharf Group, the scheme's owner became, briefly, the UK's largest property company.
In March 2004 Canary Wharf Group plc was taken over by a consortium of investors led by
Morgan Stanley using a vehicle named
Songbird Estates. Songbird is now listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM rather than on the Main Market.
Present day
Canary Wharf tenants include major banks, such as
Credit Suisse,
HSBC,
Citigroup,
Lehman Brothers,
Morgan Stanley,
Bank of America,
Northern Trust, and
Barclays, law firms such as
Clifford Chance, as well as major news media and service firms, including
Reuters, and the
Daily Mirror. It has some technology companies, too, including
Infosys. It has also gained more tenants from the public sector including the
Financial Services Authority and
2012 Olympic Games organisers
LOCOG and the
ODA.
At the end of 2006 the official number of people employed on the estate was 90,302, of whom around 25% live in the surrounding five boroughs. Increasingly Canary Wharf is becoming a shopping destination, particularly with the opening of the Jubilee Place shopping centre in 2004, taking the total number of shops to more than 200 and increasing employment in retail to around 4,500. About 500,000 people each week shop at Canary Wharf.
The future
Riverside South development of two towers designed by
Richard Rogers Partnership (work began in April 2007) and in 2006 the company announced that
State Street Corporation,
KPMG, and
Bear Stearns had signed deals to move to new HQ buildings on the estate. In 2007 they were joined by FIMALAC, the parent company of Fitch the ratings agency who took the building next to KPMG. The new State Street, Bear Stearns, Fitch and KPMG Headquarters buildings are currently under construction with work expected to complete in 2009.
Following these four buildings Canary Wharf still has planning permission under the old enterprise zone for one additional building of approx 15 storeys next to State Street at Churchill Place. Additionally there's planning permission for two large towers and a mid-rise building at
North Quay, although this site will have to wait until the
Crossrail project is completed. This would leave
Heron Quays West as the last undeveloped part of the main Canary Wharf estate, for which plans for another large development have been submitted, however these are unlikely to be built until both
Riverside South and
North Quay are completed.
Along with the development of the
Wood Wharf project to the east, in which Canary Wharf is a partner (with
Ballymore and
British Waterways) and neighbouring future sites, these represent another potential of development, doubling the existing area of the estate.
The SkyscraperNews website describes some of the new building projects underway with a 3d Google Earth model. The number of people working in Canary Wharf is set to rise to 100,000 by 2009 (CWG estimate) and to 200,000 by 2025 (according to the Mayor's London Plan and DCLG's Thames Gateway Interim Development Plan).
Around Canary Wharf, there's also significant commercial and residential development in other Docklands areas such as Silvertown Quays,
Greenwich Peninsula, and on the
Isle of Dogs at Arrowhead Quay, Crossharbour and Millharbour.
Tallest under construction, approved and proposed
This is a list of Towers U/C, approved and proposed in Canary Wharf
Transport
Canary Wharf is a major transport hub for connections to
central London and elsewhere.
The sustainable transport charity
Sustrans has proposed the construction of a bicycle and pedestrian swing bridge from Canary Wharf to
Rotherhithe, and a feasibility study is underway.
Canary Wharf is one of the most important stations on the proposed
Crossrail project, which would link the estate with Heathrow in the West and the Thames Gateway in the East. The Crossrail station, if built, will be situated in the North Dock and linked to the underground malls.
Significance
Canary Wharf isn't just an office scheme. It has had impact at the local level, at the metropolitan level and even at the national level.
The most immediate impact of Canary Wharf has been to substantially increase land values in the surrounding area. This means that the
Isle of Dogs, which had previously been seen as suited only for low density light
industrial development, has been up-rated. Projects like South Quay Plaza and West India Quay are a direct consequence of this. More recently, Canary Wharf has opened the path for other developments in
East London such as
Stratford City and
Greenwich Peninsula. It has given fresh impetus to already well established residential construction, especially of
owner occupier apartments and
townhouses.
At the
metropolitan level, Canary Wharf was, and remains, a direct challenge to the primacy of the
City of London as the UK's principal centre for the finance industry. Relations between Canary Wharf and the
City of London Corporation have frequently been strained, with the City accusing Canary Wharf of poaching tenants, and Canary Wharf accusing the City of not catering to occupier needs.
Canary Wharf's national significance comes from what it replaces: the former docks were, as recently as 1961, the busiest in the world. They served huge industrial areas of east
London and beyond. Both the docks and much of that industrial capacity are gone, with employment shifting to the kind of
service industry accommodated in office buildings. In this respect, Canary Wharf could be cited as the strongest single
symbol of the changed
economic geography of the United Kingdom.
Its symbolic importance was demonstrated on
9 February 1996 when the
IRA detonated a bomb near
South Quay DLR station, killing two people, destroying the South Quay Plaza development and damaging several nearby buildings. The bomb ended a 17-month ceasefire.
In 2007, the project made headlines again when the tower at 8 Canada Place sold for £1.1 billion, setting a new record for commercial real estate in London.
Recently, Canary Wharf has gained unwelcome notoriety by banning a demonstration highlighting poor pay for office cleaners. Director
Ken Loach, whose film
Bread and Roses inspired the march, denounced the ban as "despicable".
References and notes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Canary Wharf'.
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