Canary Wharf Research Articles

Construction engineering to transform the composite frame of YY London

As part of the first phase of London’s Canary Wharf redevelopment, 30 South Colonnade was a 13-storey composite framed office building completed in the early 1990s. Between 2020 and 2023 it was refurbished to become YY London, a highly sustainable modern workspace. A key aspect of the project was retention and reuse of much of the existing structure, dramatically reducing the new development’s Embodied Carbon Dioxide equivalent (embodied CO2e) impact. This paper describes the way the composite steel-framed building’s original structural configuration was developed to accommodate the move to on-screen share trading in the 1980s. It then outlines the reasons why that change was needed for the 2020s. A key feature of the construction engineering was a demolition that disconnected several bays of the original bracing from the surrounding slab, requiring staged construction of temporary stability, and complicated by an unusual decision by the original designers. UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 (Responsible consumption and production) is stimulating architect, engineers and clients to propose more extensive reuse of structures and their embodied CO2e. This paper describes the construction engineering challenges that these schemes generate for contracting teams, and some of the solutions that can be implemented to preserve and reuse the embodied CO2e of composite buildings.

URBAN RESONANCE: Reconsideration of Public Art and Civic Spaces in Financial Districts in the Post-COVID-19 Era

In the post-COVID era, global financial centers are facing significant transformations, challenging traditional notions of urban space. This paper critically examines the public art and urban spaces of London's Canary Wharf, exploring how new forms of public art can serve as potential avenues for enriching civic spaces within these financial districts. We argue that outstanding public art not only mirrors the dynamic evolution of the urban financial landscape but also acts as a bridge fostering communication between commerce and community.

The Licensee Called - He Wants His Peace Back!

English jurisprudence has long established that only those with a legal interest in land may bring an action for nuisance. Although thought to have been challenged by the Court of Appeal in Khorasandjian v Bush, the House of Lords in Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd affirmed the original position, noting the importance of nuisance as a tort against land. With the highest Court in the nation in Fearn v Tate Gallery reframing nuisance as a tort against land, it appears that Courts have conclusively closed the prospects of relief under nuisance for those whose rights fall short of a legal interest in land such a licensees. Yet the policy imperatives advocating for the converse are not insignificant. Licences are important not only in both the domestic and commercial context. This paper seeks to examine the principles on standing to sue for nuisance to consider whether there is anything to gain from extending its protection to licensees. It argues that there is sufficient reason to afford some protection for licensees, albeit it might best be done not by expanding the tort of nuisance, but through the development of a new tort following Manchester v Dutton as identified by Professor Adam Baker.

Observing inclusivity in a crowded London underground station using service design methods

Accessibility is a considerable and growing issue in the design of many public buildings and vital infrastructure. This research study uses video diaries to explore how service design methods were used to observe user experiences of inclusivity within a crowded island platform station at Canary Wharf station during a November evening rush hour. Auto-ethnography is discussed as part of a broader methodological debate about how to explore and consider inclusive design issues from a user's perspective, and in the context of empathetic design. The study concludes that this method of enquiry is appropriate to investigate the movement of people within crowded underground stations and, identifies actionable insights into how spatial factors and congestion impact the mobility requirements of station users.

Reinforcement of piling platforms with geogrids over dewatered docks with very soft soils: Wood Wharf, London

Wood Wharf is a major redevelopment of 23 acres designed to provide residential and office buildings as well as public spaces for shops, restaurants, parks and community uses. The development is located on the Isle of Dogs, Canary Wharf, London. This paper describes the design and results of the piling mats required to construct the buildings in the area of the South Dock, where 14,000m2 of land had to be reclaimed. Cofferdams were installed to create a watertight retaining structure to facilitate dry construction methods in the reclaimed area behind the new quay wall. To construct the different buildings, CFA and LDA piles between 8m to 34m deep were installed for the foundations. The soil profile primarily comprised Made Ground, Dock Sediments and River Terrace Deposits with very low undrained shear strengths between 2.5 to 42 kPa. The rigs to be used on site were 225 tons with applied pressures in the range of 300 to 470kPa and loadings of more than 1500kN. A series of reinforced piling mats were required to support the heavy rigs and reduce the applied pressures over the foundation soil. The design of the working platforms reinforced with geogrids was conducted in two stages, first to improve the modulus of the platform using recycled granular material, and second to provide safe platforms to support the heavy rigs.

TOWN PLANNING PRACTICE OF REVIVAL OF COASTAL TERRITORIES

The world experience of revitalization of coastal areas is considered. Vivid examples of revitalization for the citizens of coastal areas are "Hafen City" in Hamburg, "VКstra Namnen" in MalmЪ, "Fjord City" in Oslo, "Canary Wharf" in London. Until the beginning of the 21st century, people were not often seen on the banks of the Yonning River in the Chinese city of Taizhou because the embankment was a concrete road without trees. A 2002 project to create a park along the river was a successful solution to flood control and stormwater management. The effectiveness of such a system was proven by the simulation of regular floods. A wooden structure was added to the natural structure, which performs a technical function, where pedestrian routes were laid. Today, the park is a popular place for residents throughout the year, because the wetland system with pontoon paths is not at risk of flooding due to rising water levels. 3.8 hectares of public space were returned to the residents of Lisbon by building the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, and the area on the site of the former road and car park opened access to the Tagus River. It is possible to make the embankment active and accessible by leaving concrete anti-flood structures, as was done on the boulevard along the Vistula in Warsaw. The embankment, which before the reconstruction was not a public space, has become one of the most popular promenade spots in Warsaw after 2017. Domino Park on the waterfront of New York is an example of how a comfortable public space can be built in the context of an industrial area. In many American cities, the revitalization of coastal areas is accompanied by the organization of festival market places in the style of European cities with a predominance of local small shops, unpretentious architecture and the creation of a festive atmosphere.
 It was concluded that complex projects of embankment regeneration involve the construction of new offices and housing, certain tourist attractions - concert halls, museums, walking paths, restaurants and cafes. It is emphasized that the location of the headquarters of large corporations and educational institutions on the coastal territories is an important factor in the further development of such areas. The given examples of revitalization of coastal areas in different parts of the world prove that the creation of public spaces that are optimal in terms of comfort, safety, and aesthetics is the basis of urban planning organization of coastal areas. Attracting investments in the revitalization of coastal areas contributes to solving a number of environmental issues, the aesthetic quality of the urban environment, and the humanization of society.

Farringdon Welcomes the Elizabeth Line

In construction for over a decade, the Elizabeth line finally opened to passengers on 24 May, serving stations between Paddington and Abbey Wood. The service uses Bombardier-built Class 345 trains that traverse the new tunnels under central London. Farringdon, one of the ten newly built stations, is expected to be the UK's busiest and became the first Crossrail station to be handed over to TfL back in March 2021. It connects the London Underground with Thameslink to provide links with outer London, the Home Counties, the City, Canary Wharf, and three of London's five airports. E&T took a tour around the development before its grand opening, away from all the crowds, gaining more insight into the sustainability aspects of the project, construction of the tunnel and design of the station.

Multi-Epoch 3D-Mapping-Aided Positioning using Bayesian Filtering Techniques

<h3>Summary</h3> The performance of different filtering algorithms combined with 3D mapping-aided (3DMA) techniques is investigated in this paper. Several single- and multi-epoch filtering algorithms were implemented and then tested on static pedestrian navigation data collected in the City of London using a u-blox EVK M8T GNSS receiver and vehicle navigation data collected in Canary Wharf, London, by a trial van with a Racelogic Labsat 3 GNSS front-end. The results show that filtering has a greater impact on mobile positioning than static positioning, while 3DMA GNSS brings more significant improvements to positioning accuracy in denser environments than in more open areas. Thus, multi-epoch 3DMA GNSS filtering should bring the maximum benefit to mobile positioning in dense environments. In vehicle tests at Canary Wharf, 3DMA GNSS filtering reduced the RMS horizontal position error by approximately 68% and 57% compared to the single-epoch 3DMA GNSS and filtered conventional GNSS, respectively.

Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery: A Lost Opportunity for the UK's Protection of Physical Privacy

The inadequacies of English common and statutory law have left a noticeable gap in the UK's protection of physical privacy. Mann J's 2019 decision in Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery helped fill this gap as it acknowledged that overlooking between neighbours could constitute an actionable nuisance. A year later, the Court of Appeal reversed this development and reaffirmed that private nuisance cannot be used to combat breaches of privacy. This article evaluates the extent to which the High Court decision in Fearn was a useful and desirable tool for defending physical privacy in order to assess the correctness of the appellate decision. The article contends that Mann J's extension was a justified development as it conformed with precedent, the scheme and principles of private nuisance, the text and horizontal effect of art 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, cases decided in the European Court of Human Rights, and broader policy. However, the article acknowledges that Fearn was also a problematic development with limited potential as a protection mechanism. Its limitations arose from the conflict between traditional understandings of the right to privacy and nuisance's association with property, the land-based rationale for compensation in nuisance, the standing restrictions retained from Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd, irregularities with the common law's favourable attitude towards children's privacy, and Fearn's similarities to anti-harassment legislation. Overall, the article concludes that although Fearn was imperfect in its treatment of physical privacy, it was a step in the right direction and contributed at least partially to filling the persistent lacuna in English privacy law.

The Impact of Urban Regeneration on Land Use in Land with High Urban Value – London VS Beirut

The paper explores the relationship between the economic, social and political forces shaping urban regeneration and its impact on selected case studies (London-Beirut). It draws on experiences with planning and delivery of regeneration schemes through various forms of public / private partnerships in England and Lebanon. The paper discusses urban regeneration definition and its analytical framework, policies, strategies, and key success factors. Then the study analyses two international experiences of urban regeneration for land with high urban value namely; Canary Wharf in London and Downtown Beirut, in order to draw an outline of the objectives of this process, its approach and its analytical framework. Finally, the paper summarizes the most significant findings and highlight the importance of funding resources, institutional management and public / private partnerships to achieve successful and sustainable results.

Walking with light and the discontinuous experience of urban change

This paper is concerned with the affective power of light, darkness, and illumination and their role in exposing and obscuring processes of rapid urban change. Little academic attention has focused on how lighting informs multiple, overlapping, and intersecting urban temporalities and mediates our experience of an ever‐changing city. This paper foregrounds a walk through the illuminated city at night as an epistemic opportunity to develop an embodied account of material and temporal change in ways that disrupt the aesthetic organisation of the sensible world at night. By detailing the discontinuous experience of walking through differently lit spaces, the paper develops novel ways of conceptualising the experience of urban change that unsettle common understandings of subjectivity, temporality, and the city. The paper draws on a single night's walk from Canning Town to Canary Wharf in east London – an area that has recently undergone rapid change, including the erection of enclaves of high‐rise development. By accentuating the shared experiences of walking with light, we reveal the affective capacities of light and dark to conceal and expose wider material, embodied, and temporal urban changes but also how we might challenge the organisation of the nocturnal field of the sensible.

Transforming delivery of Water Street Bridge abutment in London, UK through innovation

This paper describes the innovative temporary works used for abutment construction of a moveable bridge in London’s Docklands. Completed in 2019, the 27 m span Water Street Bridge and its approach causeway connect the Canary Wharf estate to the new Wood Wharf development on a reclaimed island site. Using strand-jacking, grout-bag seals, heavy temporary steelwork and innovative use of permanent works, the contractor-designed solution for delivering the bascule span abutment transformed a marine operation into a land-based one. The challenging logistics required careful planning and collaboration with all stakeholders to meet the programme and client brief, ensuring a safe, high-quality outcome.

Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery: A Lost Opportunity for the UK's Protection of Physical Privacy?

The inadequacies of English common and statutory law have left a noticeable gap in the UK's protection of physical privacy. Mann J's decision in Fearn v Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery helped fill this gap as it acknowledged that overlooking between neighbours could constitute an actionable nuisance. However, the Court of Appeal reversed this development, reaffirming that private nuisance cannot be used to combat breaches of privacy. This paper evaluates the extent to which the High Court decision in Fearn was a useful and desirable tool for defending physical privacy, so as to assess the correctness of the appellate decision. It contends that Mann J's extension was a justified development as it conformed with precedent, the scheme and principles of private nuisance, the text and horizontal effect of art 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, case law in the European Court of Human Rights and broader policy. However, the paper acknowledges that Fearn was also a problematic development with limited potential as a protection mechanism. This is due to the conflict between traditional understandings of the right to privacy and nuisance's association with property, the land-based rationale for compensation in nuisance, the standing restrictions retained from Hunter v Canary Wharf Ltd, irregularities with the common law's favourable attitude towards children's privacy, and Fearn's similarities to anti-harassment legislation. Overall, the paper concludes that although Fearn was not perfect in its treatment of physical privacy, it was a step in the right direction and contributed at least partially to filling the persistent lacuna in English privacy law.

'Brexit' as a Frustrating Event and the Case of Canary Wharf v. European Medicine Agency

Lawyers and commercial contracting have been stressed by political uncertainty over the past four years. Brexit its uncertain outcome and the debate on the appropriate application of the frustration doctrine represent one of the most challenging issues for the current contract law scholarship and practitioners. This paper contributes to the extensive scholarly debate on whether the Brexit constitutes a frustration of purpose event in contracts by exploiting the findings of economic literature on the consequences of supervening events. Moreover, paper adds a novel conceptual framework for an improved legal intervention in case of supervening events where a court must decide whether a certain event classifies as a frustration of purpose and whether to discharge the promisor’s obligations. In addition, this paper offers a critical evaluation of the recent decision in Canary Wharf v European Medicines Agency.

“Visually Stunning” while Financially Safe: Neoliberalism and Financialization at Canary Wharf

The links between design and the forces of capitalism, while contingent conditions of practice, are easily elided in architectural discourse. An architectural poster-child of neoliberalism, Canary Wharf, was conceived at a time when global financial markets were deregulating, real estate developers were looking across oceans for more prestigious downtown redevelopment projects, and architectural practices split responsibilities in complex arrangements between a lead designer and teams of consultants. What this article seeks to investigate is a more nuanced understanding of the contingent relationships among the increasing financialization of real estate, a political tide-shift, and the ways in which architects responded to these conditions, both in their designs and in the organization of their practices. How was the financial risk understood, and to what was it seen to be contingent?

BREXIT consequences - relocation of the European Medicines Agency

Introduction The UK decision to leave the European Union (BREXIT) has many potential consequences for the health of European citizens. One of the actions already taken has been the decision to move the location of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) from Canary Wharf in London to Amsterdam from April 2019. Aim The aim of this article is to analyze the EU criteria for the process of EMA relocation from London to Amsterdam based on the comparison of the EMA bids placed by the EU candidates and the indicators among those member states (MSs). Materials and Methods Documentary and analytical methods are used to provide scientific data on the decision of EMA relocation from London to Amsterdam and the consequences of BREXIT from a drug policy point of view. Many different indicators, like accommodation, living cost were compared and surveyed in the MSs. Results EU opened procedure for EMA relocation after BREXIT in 2017. A total of 19 cities have applied to host the EMA headquarters, including Bulgaria, with Amsterdam winning the battle. EMA is working with the Dutch authorities and the relocation of EMA to Amsterdam is a fact. Bulgaria, Hungary, and Croatia were the top three countries with the lowest possible living costs, and accommodation. Conclusion After EMA relocation to Amsterdam as a result of BREXIT, the pharmaceutical industry is dealing with significant implications in order not to lose its market access. Many innovative and generic medicines across the MSs updated their marketing authorizations due to the fact that the exclusion of the UK from all medicines authorization procedures should be finalised by the end of March 2019.

Thames Estuary: The capital corridor

The Thames Estuary, stretching from capital to coast, has arguably the UK’s greatest economic potential. However, while the success of Canary Wharf and London’s docklands development is clearly evident, government support for regeneration and growth further along the estuary has waxed and waned in recent years. Local partners in Kent and Essex have achieved significant success, but game-changing commitment and investment from central government has remained elusive. From the perspective of democratic leadership, this paper is prompted by Sir John Armitt’s Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission (Sir John taking over the chairmanship from Lord Heseltine in 2017) and the opportunity for a renewed focus on the area and direct support from government to unlock its true potential. It examines recent strategic approaches and local successes, the potential that remains for perhaps Europe’s largest brownfield development area, and the challenge of local governance. It recognises the need to attract new private sector investment in supporting a dynamic and varied economy, with public funding still limited. It considers the potential of developing new growth corridors and clusters within the estuary for the creative and life science sectors and the connectivity to support growth. Fundamentally, it addresses the challenge of promoting the estuary’s potential while looking both ways: internally to government for recognition and support, and externally for international investment and growth.

Design of Canary Wharf Elizabeth line station and Crossrail Place oversite development

Canary Wharf was the first station on the Elizabeth line to be constructed, and the first to be let as a design-and-build contract, with developer Canary Wharf Group. Innovative design and construction techniques enabled the station box to be completed four months ahead of the development programme. Construction of the Crossrail Place retail and leisure oversite development (OSD) proceeded concurrently with that of station. The OSD included a number of features aimed at increasing future flexibility for the developer and tenants. A timber gridshell roof completes the development, partially covering a large roof garden that is open to the public. The OSD opened in May 2015, nearly four years ahead of the planned station opening.

Against the Grain: Insight from an Economic Contrarian

In the summer of 2012, I was invited to write a weekly opinion column for City A.M. newspaper. It is a free, business-focused newspaper, launched in 2005, and is distributed at more than 250 commuter hubs across London and the Home Counties, as well as 1,600 offices throughout the City, Canary Wharf and other areas of high business concentration. The general views of the newspaper are broadly supportive of the free-market economy, of capitalism and private enterprise. It is therefore very appropriate that this selection of my columns is being supported and published by the Institute of Economic Affairs. As Allister Heath, editor of City A.M. from 2008 to 2014 and now editor of the Sunday Telegraph, wrote: ‘the IEA is the home of good economic analysis applied to public policy.’ As a description of what I aim to do in my columns, Allister Heath’s statement could hardly be bettered. In the confines of 500 words each week, I try to shed light on a contemporary issue in political economy. I use the phrase ‘political economy’ rather than ‘economics’ deliberately. The great founding figures of the discipline in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo, regarded themselves as addressing broad questions of public import, rather than being confined to mere technical analysis.

Managing Change and Strategic Thinking: Evidences from Hospitality and Tourism Sector of the UK

This qualitative paper examines the strategic thinking and managing change in complex business environment in the hospitality and tourism sector of the UK through the cases of Hilton London Canary Wharf and Hilton London Tower Bridge. For the purpose of analysis, researchers explored the research phenomenon under different models including TALC model and IBTEE Model. Using convenience sampling, researchers interviewed face-to-face 12 Line Managers and 30 employees through open-ended semi-structured interview questions regarding change management process and obstacles interlinked with it. Findings revealed that although Hilton hotels have adapted changes to some extent but there is still more room for further improvement. The management of the selected hotels highly relies on the training purpose for the effective change adaption whereas coaching and research is lagging behind. The biggest constraint during effective change adaption is the diverse background of the workforce as most are from the multicultural backgrounds. Moreover, the communication, ritual, and cultural barriers are causing issues in the change process. Lastly, the recommendations are given for consolidating effective change management at workplace.