The Resurrection of Canary Wharf

Abstract

Canary Wharf is now the central business district of the London Docklands and the third office node of Greater London. The project was politically controversial and widely regarded as a planning disaster as a result of its 1992 bankruptcy. This article shows that most of its problems were related to real estate development issues, rather than planning. Canary Wharf failed as a result of six factors: a recession in the London property market, competition from the City of London, poor transport links, few British tenants, complicated finances and developer overconfidence. Improved performance on most of these factors allowed the project to recover and become an important element in London's office market. The article concludes with an assessment of the winners and losers from the Canary Wharf experience and a summary of the general lessons to be learned from this story.