Information about Canary Wharf

For the landmark building sometimes referred as Canary Wharf, see One Canada Square.

8 Canada Square (left), One Canada Square (centre), Citigroup Centre (right)

Canary Wharf is a large business development in London, located on the Isle of Dogs 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); and 8 Canada Square and the Citigroup Centre joint second tallest at 654 ft (199.5 m).^[1]

History

Canary Wharf, seen from a high-level walkway on Tower Bridge

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 out-of-town sites like Felixstowe and Harwich, and by 1980 the docks were closed.

Thousands were out of work and a huge area of the Docklands lay in ruins — 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 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

HSBC World Headquarters and One Canada Square, viewed from the western end of West India Quay

Canary Wharf in the evening

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 do not know why we do not go for a shed like 31 as a 200,000 sq ft (20,000 m²) back office."^[2]

This led on to discussions at CSFB's offices, during which their American property adviser G Ware Travelstead, raised his hand and said: "We're asking ourselves the wrong question. Of course we can take Shed 31 and convert it into a back office, but we have 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?'."^[3]

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 was not 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 did not feel that they had been part of the consultation process and did not 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 chaos, but again the concerns of local residents had stolen the limelight.

Other campaign tactics used during the 1980s included the brief Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) by the Isle of Dogs, with Ted Johns installed as President, and the roads onto the island blocked for one week.

In 1997, various 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

Docklands Light Railway and entrance to underground station

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 world property market collapsed in the early 1990s, and Olympia and York filed for bankruptcy in May 1992, with over US$20 billion in debts. Tenant demand evaporated despite the availability of special rent concessions for early occupiers and Jubilee Line work had not 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 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

Entry to the shopping mall

Canary Wharf at twilight

Canary Wharf tenants include major banks, such as Credit Suisse, HSBC, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Barclays, law firms such as Clifford Chance, as well as major news media and service firms, including Reuters, the Daily Mirror and the Naseba Group. 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 which 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

This article or section contains information about expected future buildings or structures.
Some or all of this information may be speculative, and the content may change as building construction begins.

Canary Wharf at dawn

Plans are well underway for Canary Wharf to more than double in size again. Planning permission has been granted for the 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. The new State Street, Bear Stearns and KPMG Headquarters buildings are currently under construction with work expected to complete in 2009.

Following these three buildings Canary Wharf still has planning permission under the old enterprise zone for two additional buildings of approx 15 storeys - one next to KPMG's new HQ on Canada Square and one next to State Street at Churchill Place. Additionally there is 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 two skyscrapers have been drawn up, but these are unlikely to be built until both Riverside South and North Quay are completed.

Along with the development of the 7,000,000 sq ft (650,000 m²) 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 15 million square feet of development, doubling the existing area of the estate.

The SkyscraperNews website^[4] 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 is also significant commercial and residential development in other Docklands areas such as Silvertown Quays,^[5] Greenwich Peninsula, and on the Isle of Dogs at Arrowhead Quay, Crossharbour and Millharbour.

Transport

Canary Wharf tube station (Jubilee Line)

Canary Wharf tube station

Canary Wharf is connected to central London via the Canary Wharf DLR station, opened in 1991, and the extension of the Jubilee Line to Canary Wharf tube station in 2000. Heron Quays DLR station is also nearby. London City Airport is a few miles further to the east and can be accessed by bus, taxi and, since December 2005, DLR. A river boat service from Canary Wharf Pier provides regular commuter river boat services to Greenwich in the east and the City of London and the West End of London, as well as a shuttle service to Rotherhithe.

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.^[6]

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

One Canada Square seen from inside the adjacent shopping centre (2003)

Canary Wharf is not just an office scheme. It has had impact at the local level, at the metropolitan level and, to a lesser extent, 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 middle class 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 Corporation of London 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 bleakly demonstrated on 9 February 1996 when the IRA detonated a bomb at 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.^[7]

Recently, Canary Wharf has gained unwelcome notoriety by banning a demonstration highlighting poor pay for office cleaners. Ken Loach – whose film Bread and Roses inspired the march – denounced the ban as "despicable".

Canary Wharf (soap opera)

Canary Wharf was also a short running soap opera on L!VE TV, a British Cable television channel. It used the channel's premises there as sets.

References and notes

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ A back office is where a financial institution carries out administration and their settlement activities - i.e. arrangements for the exchange of cash and securities are carried out
3. ^ A front office is where a financial institution carries out its trading activities (before electronic trading, those for different institutions had been historically proximate to each other)
4. ^ [2]
5. ^ [3]
6. ^ [4]
7. ^ [5]

External links

• • [ e] Canary Wharf, London

Coordinates:

One Canada Square, a skyscraper in London; it is the tallest habitable building in the United Kingdom, at 235 m (771 ft) and 50 storeys (reduced from original plans for 60). Designed by the Argentinian-American architect César Pelli, construction was completed in 1991.
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London
Canary Wharf is the centre of London's modern office towers
London shown within England
Coordinates:
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Constituent country England
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The Isle of Dogs

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This article or section may be confusing or unclear for some readers.
Please [improve the article] or discuss this issue on the talk page. This article has been tagged since October 2007.
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West India Docks are a series of three docks on the Isle of Dogs in London.

Why the docks were built

Robert Milligan (c. 1746-1809) was largely responsible for the construction of the West India Docks.
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Docklands is the semi-official name for an area in the east of London, England, comprising parts of several boroughs (Southwark, Tower Hamlets,Globe Town, Newham and Greenwich) in Greater London.
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For London as a whole, see the main article London.

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City of London

Coat of arms
Motto: Domine dirige nos Latin: Lord, guide us
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8 Canada Square (also known as HSBC Group Head Office, or HSBC Tower) is a skyscraper located in the Canary Wharf development in the London Docklands.
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Citi Centre is the EMEA^[1] headquarters of financial services firm Citi, located in Canary Wharf in London's Docklands. The centre provides for 170,000m² of floor space across two merged buildings - 33 Canada Square (known as "CGC1") and 25 Canada Square
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West India Docks are a series of three docks on the Isle of Dogs in London.

Why the docks were built

Robert Milligan (c. 1746-1809) was largely responsible for the construction of the West India Docks.
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The Isle of Dogs

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Comunidad Autónoma de Canarias
Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands

Flag Coat of arms

Anthem: Arrorró
Capital Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Official language(s) Spanish
Area
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C. l. familiaris

Trinomial name
Canis lupus familiaris
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a domestic subspecies of the wolf, a mammal of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora.
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The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was a quango agency set up by the UK Government in 1981 to regenerate the depressed Docklands area of east London. During its 18 year existence it was responsible for regenerating an area of 8.
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Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (née Roberts; born 13 October 1925) served as British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 until 1990, being the first and to date only woman to hold either post.
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Limehouse Studios was an independently-owned television studio complex, located at the eastern end of Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs in London, which opened in 1983. The building was demolished just six years later, in 1989, to make way for the massive Olympia & York development
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Dr Michael von Clemm (1935-1997) was an American businessman, restaurateur, anthropologist and President of Templeton College, Oxford. Although in one interpretation of his life, he was merely a high-flying banker, he could also have been said to have helped start the restaurant
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Credit Suisse First Boston was originally the trading name of the Financière Crédit Suisse-First Boston, a London-based 50-50 investment banking joint venture formed in 1978 between the First Boston Corporation and Credit Suisse.
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Reg Ward was the first Chief Executive of the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) from 1981 to 1988.

Early life and education

Ward was born in the Forest of Dean, a son of a miner.
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A back office is a part of most corporations where tasks dedicated to running the company itself take place. Examples of back-office tasks include IT departments that keep the phones and computers running, accounting, and human resources.
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Gooch Ware "G" Travelstead is an American property developer and entrepreneur, born in Kentucky in 1938.

While head of First Boston Real Estate, a subsidiary of Credit Suisse First Boston, Travelstead was the original designer and promoter of the Canary Wharf estate in
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For London as a whole, see the main article London.

For wider coverage, visit the .

City of London

Coat of arms
Motto: Domine dirige nos Latin: Lord, guide us
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In Business, front office refers to Sales and Marketing divisions of a company. It may also refer to other divisions in a company that involves interactions with customers.

In Information Technology, front office may refer to an integrated CRM software.
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The phrase Big Bang, used in reference to the sudden deregulation of financial markets, was coined to describe measures including the abolition of the distinction between stockjobbers and stockbrokers on the London Stock Exchange by the United Kingdom government in 1986.
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Citibank

Subsidiary (of Citigroup)
Founded 1812
Headquarters New York, New York

Key people Chuck Prince, CEO & Director
Industry Finance
Products Financial Services
Slogan Let's get it done.
Website www.citibank.
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City of New York
New York City at sunset

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Seal
Nickname: The Big Apple, Gotham, The City that Never Sleeps
Location in the state of New York
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Anthem
March of the Volunteers^[1]

Capital None^[2]
Largest district (population) Sha Tin District
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Canary Wharf

History

The origins of the idea for Canary Wharf

Local opposition to the development

Phase one: 1988–91

Property market collapse

Rescue and recovery

Phase two: 1997–2002

Present day

The future

Transport

Significance

See also

Canary Wharf (soap opera)

References and notes

External links

Why the docks were built

Why the docks were built

Early life and education