Originally a financial centre to rival the City of London, there is now more to the Wharf than commerce. It is a socially integrated district where people work, live and play.
West India Quay’s row of converted warehouses are the sole reminder of the area’s original 18th century hand-built walled dock. Chicago’s SOM Architects master-planned the epic 1980s Canary Wharf regeneration to accommodate financial services crowding out the City of London.
A floating pedestrian bridge, by Future Systems, links the Quay to the Wharf, while a Memphis-inspired Post Modern hotel, designed by Philippe Starck, and a nautically-inspired riverside residence The Cascades, by CZWG, are among new heritage gems. Gensler’s Columbus Courtyard offices were the first to open and now the 75-storey Newfoundland Quay, by Horden Cherry Lee, is about to complete as the first purely residential tower inside the Canary Wharf Group boundary.
Adjacent is KPF’s Bank Street office tower and near-complete residential tower Landmark Pinnacle by Squire and Partners. Halfway along the Wharf axis route and SOM’s Chicago/Post Modern pastiche, sits the Canary Wharf Docklands station built into One Canada Square by Cesar Pelli. From there to the east end of the Wharf, Foster + Partners’ forest of glass towers predominate, with Marshall Straballa and Kohn Pederson Fox contributions. The new curved shell profile of Canary Wharf Crossrail Station building contains the station below dock level and a thickly planted tropical garden, open to the public, on top under its translucent polymer roof.
The Canary Wharf Group has expanded the Wharf with new urban district Wood Wharf, where two new landmark residence towers - 10 Park Drive by Stanton Williams and One Park Drive by Herzog de Meuron - signal just the start of a 23-acre new community.
The walk starts at West India Quay Station (DLR) on ground level , and ends at Canary Wharf Station.
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