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.

History

West India Dock Company

From 1802 until the late 1980s, the area now known as the Canary Wharf Estate was part of the Isle of Dogs and Poplar. The West India Docks, a central feature of the area, were primarily developed by Robert Milligan, who founded the West India Dock Company.

Port of London Authority

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, Spain, 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.

London Docklands Development Corporation

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 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, 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 an inexpensive light metro scheme, the Docklands Light Railway, to make use of 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 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 and roads. The resulting oversupply of office space contributed to the failure of the Canary Wharf project.

Canary Wharf Group

In October 1995, an international consortium that included investors such as Alwaleed, bought control of the Canary Wharf Group for $1.2 billion. Paul Reichmann was named chairman, and Canary Wharf went public in 1999. 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 One Canada Square, owned by the company, interfered with TV signals. However, the residents lost the suit.
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.

Tallest buildings

In addition to being a leading global financial district in the United Kingdom, Canary Wharf is famous for a cluster of tall modern commercial complexes and residential high-rise buildings. Built from scratch since the early 1990s, Canary Wharf's rapid grown skyscraper cluster has dramatically transformed the skyline of London with modern architecture.

As of August 2024, six of the United Kingdom's ten tallest buildings are located at Canary Wharf.
One Canada Square and Landmark Pinnacle are the third and fourth tallest buildings in the United Kingdom. Newfoundland, Aspen at Consort Place, South Quay Plaza, and One Park Drive hold the seventh to tenth positions.
The 75-storey Landmark Pinnacle is the tallest residential tower in Western Europe.
Newfoundland is the tallest build-to-rent building in the United Kingdom.
40 Marsh Wall is the tallest all-hotel building in the United Kingdom, and the tallest Novotel in the world.
One Canada Square, at, achieved a 21-year record of the tallest building in the United Kingdom from 1991 to 2012. With its distinctive pyramid pinnacle, the building is recognised as a London landmark, and has been featured in many films and television shows.
Listed buildings

As of 12 February 2023, there are 16 listed buildings in Canary Wharf of which 2 are grade I and 14 grade II.

Grade I listed buildings

Quay walls, copings and buttresses to Import Dock and Export Dock: the original West India Docks consists of three docks. The Import Dock, the earliest, was opened in 1800–02, and followed to south by the Export Dock of 1803–06.
Warehouses and general offices at the western end of North Quay: originally a range of nine warehouses was built 1800–04 at the western end of North Quay, West India Dock Road. Only two warehouses survived the bombing raids of World War II.

These docks along with Nos 1 and 2 warehouses are now the only surviving examples of the first intensive period of London Docklands construction: 1800–10.

Grade II listed buildings

Most of the grade II listed buildings in Canary Wharf sit to the north-west of West India Dock North, and are located within the West India Dock conservation area. In addition to architectural values, "these buildings and structures are of significance due to their association with the development of the docks and the community that grew up around them".

Photograph	Building name	Construction date	Location	Listing date	Description
	10 and 12, Garford Street E14	1800s, early	Garford Street	27 09 1973	Early 19th century pairs of stock brick houses. These cottages were originally built for the officers and sergeants who supervised the Docks.
	14, Garford Street E14	1800s, early	Garford Street	27 09 1973	Early 19th century stock brick house.
	16 and 18, Garford Street E14	1800s, early	Garford Street	27 09 1973	Early 19th century pairs of stock brick houses.
	Entrance gates to West India Docks	1800s, early	West India Dock Road	19 07 1950	Two rusticated Portland stone piers with a capping of four dwarf pediments and acroteria.
	Former west entrance gate to West India Docks with curved walling and bollards	1900s, early	Westferry Road	01 07 1983	Stock brick curved wing walls and Portland stone gatepiers. Modern brick wall blocks entrance. Two cast-iron obelisk pattern bollards with the inscription WIDC.
	Railings to west of main gate at West India Docks	1800s, early	West India Dock Road	30 09 1981	Cast iron railings approximately 70 yards in length.
	Former excise office	1807	West India Dock Road	30 09 1981	Also known as Dockmaster's House, by the architect and engineer Thomas Morris.
	Railings and gatepiers to former excise office	1807	West India Dock Road	30 09 1981	Contemporary iron railings with six rusticated stucco gatepiers on street front. The stucco decoration of the piers elaborated mid 19th century.
	Quadrangle Stores at West India Dock	1825	West India Dock Road	30 09 1981	Also known as Cannon Workshops, by engineer John Rennie the Younger. A rare survival of an early purpose built illustrative of the workings of the Docks Company.
	Salvation Army hostel	1905	Garford Street	27 09 1973	Neo Georgian style building by architectural partnership Niven and Wigglesworth. Also known as: 20 Garford Street.
	West India Dock former guard house	1803	West India Dock Road	27 09 1973	A one-storey, small circular building designed by architect George Gwilt. It originally formed one of a pair built by Docks Company as a lock-up and armoury.
	Former west entrance lock to South Dock, West India Docks	1803-05	Westferry Road	01 07 1983	By civil engineer William Jessop, built as the west entrance lock to the City Canal, later taken into the West India Docks system.
	Fitch and Sons Works	1870-80	Westferry Road	01 07 1983	A good example of the smaller warehouses in the historical West India Docks, with built in retail outlet on ground floor, a now rare feature.
	Cascades	1987-88	Westferry Road	18 04 2018	A 20-storey residential tower by CZWG, exemplary of British post-modernist architecture practice and an important residential scheme of the late 20th century British town planning and industrial reclamation.