Canary Wharf
From ArticleWorld
Canary Wharf is a fairly recently re-developed, vibrant, financial business district, situated in Tower Hamlet on the Isle of Dogs, London, U.K. Although Canary Wharf has existed as a site of cargo warehouses for a long time in the Dockland Area of East London, its life as an important port area of U.K. suffered a decline along with the decline of the port industry of the island nation back in the 1960s.
The rise of the phoenix
The prospects of Canary Wharf as a potential residential and business area first came to light through the chance visit of an investment banker, who noticed land that could be developed. This was in the year 1984. Plans were drawn up, the government alerted, and banks chosen. Things dragged for a while but with the collapse of world property market in the early nineties, all hope for a Canary Wharf rejuvenation seemed to be dead.
It was only in December 1995, eleven years after their inception, and due to the joint efforts of Canadian developers, Olympia & York along with a few others, that the plans to develop Canary Wharf were finally put into motion.
The U turn
The much hyped and very much delayed work on the Jubilee Line was started and completed by the end of the millennium. This underground railway line has helped in a major way to restore Canary Wharf to its former glory. Today Canary Wharf not only boasts of a modern banking network, with all major banks in the world having set up offices there (HSBC, Citigroup, Bank of America, to name a few), it also houses major news media firms(The Telegraph, The Independent, The Reuters) as well as numerous public sector industries.(Financial Services Authority, LOCOG)
The number of people employed on the Canary Wharf estate swelled and at the end of 2005, this figure officially stood at an astounding 78,000 with more joining the ranks every day. This soon translated into residential complexes, shopping malls, hospitals, and schools of which Canary Wharf has an ever growing number.
Importance
The importance of Canary Wharf can be gauged by the following enumerations:
- well developed transport system which keeps it connected to central London,
- it’s up rated land values
- it’s position as an emerging threat to corporate London