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Canary Wharf

Local opposition
The idea of a new financial services district was not popular with local residents as 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 work at Canary Wharf.

In 1997, some residents living on the Isle of Dogs launched a lawsuit against Canary Wharf Ltd for private nuisance because the tower caused interference with television signals. The residents lost the case.

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 Limited, and later became Canary Wharf Group.

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 March 2004 Canary Wharf Group plc was forced to be taken over by a consortium of investors led by Morgan Stanley using a vehicle named Songbird Estates to buy Canary Wharf Group in a bitter attempt to overtake the one development the bank has always cast their eyes on since moving to the wharf.

Present day
Canary Wharf tenants include major banks, such as Barclays, Credit Suisse, HSBC and Citigroup, law firms such as Clifford Chance, as well as news media and service firms, including Thomson Reuters, and Trinity Mirror.

The number of people employed on the estate is over 100,000 of whom around 25% live in the surrounding five boroughs. With the opening of Jubilee Place shopping centre, Canary Wharf has become a shopping destination.

All info on internet.

Second post on Canary Wharf theme.