Canary Wharf used to be known as a rather derelict and unpleasant area where the West India Docks used to be located, until the ultimate demise in the latter half of the 20th century, when the place looked more like it is coming out from the set of a post-apocalyptic film than one of the largest and most beautiful cities in the world – London. Then, in the 1980s things slowly started to change. If you have last visited this district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in those years and you come to the place today, you are guaranteed you are not going to believe your eyes.
It is actually rather logical that Canary Wharf became what it is today, because being an important part of the financial life of the country was what the fate has decided for the area in first place. As we have already mentioned, the West India Docks were based here, which means that whatever expensive exotic goods entered London from the colonies in the 19th century, they had to go through Canary Wharf. There was a time, I the first half of the 19th century, that Canary Wharf and Isle of Dog were the largest and busiest dock system in the world. This is the place where some of the biggest deals at those times were made – and the largest sums of money respectively – not the city. It was only after the fall of the colonial system when the docks were no longer necessary to sustain the commercial stability of London when Canary Wharf became a rundown and even scary place.
The true change began in 1995, when a large international consortium took over the managements of the area. Most of the financial backing came from the former owners of Olympia and York company, and many private investors who believed in the future of Canary Wharf. Their vision might have looked a bit ridiculous by the skeptics, but boy were they proven wrong. The newly founded company owned by the consortium was called Canary Wharf Limited, which later became Canary Wharf Group – the organization that is today responsible for the majority of the developments on the place, as well as the management of the territory.
Many new office buildings were made. It looks like the people at Canary Wharf Group knew exactly what they were doing, because around that time the crashed property market began to quickly recover, and the demand for top notch office space in London was increasing at a pace that could not be met by the major financial centre of the capital, and the world as a whole – The City of London.
Another contributing factor to the success of the project at Canary Wharf was the construction of the much-delayed Jubilee line, which the administration wanted completed by the time of the Millennial Celebrations in Britain.
Another contributing factor to the success of the project at Canary Wharf was the construction of the much-delayed Jubilee line, which the administration wanted completed by the time of the Millennial Celebrations in Britain.
It was in 2004 when the Canary Wharf Group changed owners. It was acquired by a consortium of investors who were led by one Morgan Stanley and his vehicle-company Songbird Estates. Glick Family Investments is now the largest shareholder in the group. Meanwhile property prices were continuing to skyrocket, reaching their peak in 2007. At that time, the HSBC building in Canary Wharf was sold for the record sum of 1.1. billion GBP.
Much like the City of London, Canary Wharf was planned to be a financial centre with no residential quarters, but that changed last year. In March 2014 the planning permission for the area’s first residential building was given. It is going to be a tower of 58-floors with 566 apartments, alongside several shops and a health club, according to the plans put forward by the investors in the endeavor. Furthermore, there is a permission granted to the Canary Wharf Group for a major expansion of the whole estate. The expansion, as described in the plans, will add nearly 5 million square feet to the total territory of Canary Wharf. There will be shops and commercial offices of course, but what is more intriguing is that the Group evidently is planning to built 3 100 homes here as well. If everything goes as planned the first buildings of the new expansion are going to be occupied by the end of 2018.
Let’s just have a look at some of the major companies that have their offices based in Canary Wharf and you will understand without further explanations the importance of the district for the financial future of the world:
- The Bank of New York Mellon
- the CFA Institute, Clearstream EEX (European Energy Exchange)
- Euler Hermes
- the International Sugar Organization
- Mahindra Satyam, MetLife
- Moody's Analytics
- Trinity Mirror
- Allen & Overy
- ANZ Bank
- China Construction Bank
- Duff & Phelps
- Saxo Bank and Skadden
- Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
- FTSE Group
- Infosys
- MasterCard
- Total
Have in mind that these are only a part of the tenants of only three office buildings in Canary Wharf. You get the picture, right?
If one is looking for a place where to settle their business at, no matter whether it is a large international bank or a company specializing in rubbish removal in London, Canary Wharf proves to be probably the most adequate place to do so. The thing is – no one is surprised that the City of London in on the top of the Global Financial Centers Index, because the place was in the middle of trade activities on a world-wide scale for centuries. But if such a derelict place like Canary Wharf, one which shows to good perspectives for the future whatsoever, can become the place it is today for just a couple of decades, imagine what the future is holding for it! It is only going to become more interesting in the years to come, when the markets stabilize further, and the demand for commercial space in London increases even more. Just wait and see.
If one is looking for a place where to settle their business at, no matter whether it is a large international bank or a company specializing in rubbish removal in London, Canary Wharf proves to be probably the most adequate place to do so. The thing is – no one is surprised that the City of London in on the top of the Global Financial Centers Index, because the place was in the middle of trade activities on a world-wide scale for centuries. But if such a derelict place like Canary Wharf, one which shows to good perspectives for the future whatsoever, can become the place it is today for just a couple of decades, imagine what the future is holding for it! It is only going to become more interesting in the years to come, when the markets stabilize further, and the demand for commercial space in London increases even more. Just wait and see.