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Canary Wharf
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Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf is a privately-owned financial district in London, England, located in the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The Greater London Authority defines it as part of London's central business district. With the City of London and the West End, it constitutes one of the main financial centres in the United Kingdom and the world, containing many major global companies and banks' headquarters and high-rise buildings, including the third-tallest in the UK, One Canada Square.
The district was developed on the site of the former West India Docks in East London. Canary Wharf, together with Heron Quays and Wood Wharf, forms the Canary Wharf Estate, covering around 97 acres (39 ha).
From 1802 until the late 1980s, the area now known as the Canary Wharf Estate was part of the Isle of Dogs (specifically Millwall) and Poplar. The West India Docks, a central feature of the area, were primarily developed by Robert Milligan (c. 1746–1809), who founded the West India Dock Company.
The Port of London Authority was established in 1909 and took control of the West India Dock. The enterprise of Alfred Lewis Jones, a Welsh shipping magnate and a prominent figure in the Canary Islands, led to a constant stream of ships arriving into London's South Quay Dock. No. 32 berth of West Wood Quay in the Import Dock was built in 1936 with a two-storey transit shed for Fruit Lines Ltd, a subsidiary of Fred Olsen Lines, for the Mediterranean and Canary Islands fruit trade, gaining the name Canary Wharf.
After the 1960s, when cargo became containerised, the port industry began to decline, leading to the closure of all the docks by 1980. 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 developer G Ware Travelstead led to proposals for a new business district. A crucial enabling factor was the LDDC's plan for an inexpensive light metro scheme, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), which opened in 1987. The project was seen as an innovative and cost-effective use of redundant Victorian-era railway viaducts to improve access. The project was sold to the Canadian company Olympia & York, who soon learned that the initial DLR service was "too tenuous to convince major companies to relocate". Consequently, Olympia & York agreed to fund half the cost of a vital extension into the City of London, connecting the DLR to Bank station via a new tunnel. That extension opened in 1991.
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 One 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.
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Canary Wharf AI simulator
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Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf is a privately-owned financial district in London, England, located in the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The Greater London Authority defines it as part of London's central business district. With the City of London and the West End, it constitutes one of the main financial centres in the United Kingdom and the world, containing many major global companies and banks' headquarters and high-rise buildings, including the third-tallest in the UK, One Canada Square.
The district was developed on the site of the former West India Docks in East London. Canary Wharf, together with Heron Quays and Wood Wharf, forms the Canary Wharf Estate, covering around 97 acres (39 ha).
From 1802 until the late 1980s, the area now known as the Canary Wharf Estate was part of the Isle of Dogs (specifically Millwall) and Poplar. The West India Docks, a central feature of the area, were primarily developed by Robert Milligan (c. 1746–1809), who founded the West India Dock Company.
The Port of London Authority was established in 1909 and took control of the West India Dock. The enterprise of Alfred Lewis Jones, a Welsh shipping magnate and a prominent figure in the Canary Islands, led to a constant stream of ships arriving into London's South Quay Dock. No. 32 berth of West Wood Quay in the Import Dock was built in 1936 with a two-storey transit shed for Fruit Lines Ltd, a subsidiary of Fred Olsen Lines, for the Mediterranean and Canary Islands fruit trade, gaining the name Canary Wharf.
After the 1960s, when cargo became containerised, the port industry began to decline, leading to the closure of all the docks by 1980. 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 developer G Ware Travelstead led to proposals for a new business district. A crucial enabling factor was the LDDC's plan for an inexpensive light metro scheme, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), which opened in 1987. The project was seen as an innovative and cost-effective use of redundant Victorian-era railway viaducts to improve access. The project was sold to the Canadian company Olympia & York, who soon learned that the initial DLR service was "too tenuous to convince major companies to relocate". Consequently, Olympia & York agreed to fund half the cost of a vital extension into the City of London, connecting the DLR to Bank station via a new tunnel. That extension opened in 1991.
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 One 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.
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