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Amidst the cold, biting winds of winter, the shipyards along the Thames stand as silent witnesses to time. The heavy, storm-laden sky looms above, casting a dramatic contrast over the rusted metal and old timber, while the river churns beneath.
The cylindrical building is One Park Drive; designed by Herzog & de Meuron, completed 2021.
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
Parking for Billingsgate Market
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
Crossrail Place (designed by Foster + Partners and Arup, completed 2015)
Crossrail Place is a mixed-use scheme encompassing the over-ground elements of a new station for the Crossrail project at Canary Wharf. Located in the north dock, adjacent to the HSBC tower at Canary Wharf and the residential neighbourhood of Poplar, the mixed-use scheme creates an accessible amenity between the two, creating new shared and open space.
Central to the scheme, was a new enclosure unifying the station and other elements including new retail units and a park, as well as furthering the main aim of the Crossrail project – to open up London from east to west with a series of high quality projects. The design is characterised by a landscaped, sheltered public park on the roof, accessible from ground level by connecting bridges. The movement and access throughout the building is designed to be intuitive, escalators, lifts and staircases are open on to the same areas providing a legible and inclusive experience to all visitors.
The park and the rest of the building is enclosed by a distinctive roof, which wraps around the building like a protective shell. This 300-metre-long timber lattice roof opens in the centre to draw in light and rain for natural irrigation. Timber was an appropriate material to enclose the park – it is organic in nature and appearance, strong, adaptable and is sustainably sourced. It also clearly differentiates this building from others on Canary Wharf’s estate, which are predominantly stone, metal and glass.
The design of the lattice itself is a fusion of architecture and engineering. Remarkably, despite the smooth curve of the enclosure, there are only four curved timber beams in the whole structure. To seamlessly connect the straight beams, which rotate successively along the diagonals, the design team developed an innovative system of steel nodes, which resolve the twist. Between the beams there are ETFE plastic cushions, which are filled with air and lighter than glass. The air cushions, which are a highly insulating material, create a comfortable environment for people to enjoy the gardens all year round, as well as providing a favourable microclimate for some of the plants, which include some of the species that first entered Britain through the historic docks.
[FosterandPartners.com]
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
Public housing in Poplar, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson, completed in 1972.
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
Crossrail Place (designed by Foster + Partners and Arup, completed 2015)
Crossrail Place is a mixed-use scheme encompassing the over-ground elements of a new station for the Crossrail project at Canary Wharf. Located in the north dock, adjacent to the HSBC tower at Canary Wharf and the residential neighbourhood of Poplar, the mixed-use scheme creates an accessible amenity between the two, creating new shared and open space.
Central to the scheme, was a new enclosure unifying the station and other elements including new retail units and a park, as well as furthering the main aim of the Crossrail project – to open up London from east to west with a series of high quality projects. The design is characterised by a landscaped, sheltered public park on the roof, accessible from ground level by connecting bridges. The movement and access throughout the building is designed to be intuitive, escalators, lifts and staircases are open on to the same areas providing a legible and inclusive experience to all visitors.
The park and the rest of the building is enclosed by a distinctive roof, which wraps around the building like a protective shell. This 300-metre-long timber lattice roof opens in the centre to draw in light and rain for natural irrigation. Timber was an appropriate material to enclose the park – it is organic in nature and appearance, strong, adaptable and is sustainably sourced. It also clearly differentiates this building from others on Canary Wharf’s estate, which are predominantly stone, metal and glass.
The design of the lattice itself is a fusion of architecture and engineering. Remarkably, despite the smooth curve of the enclosure, there are only four curved timber beams in the whole structure. To seamlessly connect the straight beams, which rotate successively along the diagonals, the design team developed an innovative system of steel nodes, which resolve the twist. Between the beams there are ETFE plastic cushions, which are filled with air and lighter than glass. The air cushions, which are a highly insulating material, create a comfortable environment for people to enjoy the gardens all year round, as well as providing a favourable microclimate for some of the plants, which include some of the species that first entered Britain through the historic docks.
[FosterandPartners.com]
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
Public housing in Poplar, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson, completed in 1972.
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
Crossrail Place (designed by Foster + Partners and Arup, completed 2015)
Crossrail Place is a mixed-use scheme encompassing the over-ground elements of a new station for the Crossrail project at Canary Wharf. Located in the north dock, adjacent to the HSBC tower at Canary Wharf and the residential neighbourhood of Poplar, the mixed-use scheme creates an accessible amenity between the two, creating new shared and open space.
Central to the scheme, was a new enclosure unifying the station and other elements including new retail units and a park, as well as furthering the main aim of the Crossrail project – to open up London from east to west with a series of high quality projects. The design is characterised by a landscaped, sheltered public park on the roof, accessible from ground level by connecting bridges. The movement and access throughout the building is designed to be intuitive, escalators, lifts and staircases are open on to the same areas providing a legible and inclusive experience to all visitors.
The park and the rest of the building is enclosed by a distinctive roof, which wraps around the building like a protective shell. This 300-metre-long timber lattice roof opens in the centre to draw in light and rain for natural irrigation. Timber was an appropriate material to enclose the park – it is organic in nature and appearance, strong, adaptable and is sustainably sourced. It also clearly differentiates this building from others on Canary Wharf’s estate, which are predominantly stone, metal and glass.
The design of the lattice itself is a fusion of architecture and engineering. Remarkably, despite the smooth curve of the enclosure, there are only four curved timber beams in the whole structure. To seamlessly connect the straight beams, which rotate successively along the diagonals, the design team developed an innovative system of steel nodes, which resolve the twist. Between the beams there are ETFE plastic cushions, which are filled with air and lighter than glass. The air cushions, which are a highly insulating material, create a comfortable environment for people to enjoy the gardens all year round, as well as providing a favourable microclimate for some of the plants, which include some of the species that first entered Britain through the historic docks.
[FosterandPartners.com]
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
At East India DLR Station
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
Crossrail Place (designed by Foster + Partners and Arup, completed 2015)
Crossrail Place is a mixed-use scheme encompassing the over-ground elements of a new station for the Crossrail project at Canary Wharf. Located in the north dock, adjacent to the HSBC tower at Canary Wharf and the residential neighbourhood of Poplar, the mixed-use scheme creates an accessible amenity between the two, creating new shared and open space.
Central to the scheme, was a new enclosure unifying the station and other elements including new retail units and a park, as well as furthering the main aim of the Crossrail project – to open up London from east to west with a series of high quality projects. The design is characterised by a landscaped, sheltered public park on the roof, accessible from ground level by connecting bridges. The movement and access throughout the building is designed to be intuitive, escalators, lifts and staircases are open on to the same areas providing a legible and inclusive experience to all visitors.
The park and the rest of the building is enclosed by a distinctive roof, which wraps around the building like a protective shell. This 300-metre-long timber lattice roof opens in the centre to draw in light and rain for natural irrigation. Timber was an appropriate material to enclose the park – it is organic in nature and appearance, strong, adaptable and is sustainably sourced. It also clearly differentiates this building from others on Canary Wharf’s estate, which are predominantly stone, metal and glass.
The design of the lattice itself is a fusion of architecture and engineering. Remarkably, despite the smooth curve of the enclosure, there are only four curved timber beams in the whole structure. To seamlessly connect the straight beams, which rotate successively along the diagonals, the design team developed an innovative system of steel nodes, which resolve the twist. Between the beams there are ETFE plastic cushions, which are filled with air and lighter than glass. The air cushions, which are a highly insulating material, create a comfortable environment for people to enjoy the gardens all year round, as well as providing a favourable microclimate for some of the plants, which include some of the species that first entered Britain through the historic docks.
[FosterandPartners.com]
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
Public housing in Poplar, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson, completed in 1972.
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
Public housing in Poplar, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson, completed in 1972.
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
The cylindrical building is One Park Drive; designed by Herzog & de Meuron, completed 2021.
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]
A data centre, built in 2002, now moving towards obsolescence.
Taken on the Canary Wharf Walking Tour
This walking tour around the northern end of the Isle of Dogs – starting at Canary Wharf and finishing at East India Docks – takes in the area’s history as the industrial centre of a global trading empire with strong colonial ties to the empire, through its industrial decline, regeneration and recent construction boom. Once a relatively isolated part of industrial London, the area is now a financial district with towering office skyscrapers, new homes, landmark retail centres and multiple transport links to the rest of the capital.
This tour will tell the story of the original West India Dock complex built by Robert Milligan – whose statue outside the Museum of London Docklands has recently been removed following Black Lives Matter protests around the world. Here, the dock complex and the Grade I-listed sugar warehouses offer a rare glimpse of the area’s colonial past as a vast landscape created to receive the products of empire and slavery.
Moving on to a dramatic viewpoint revealing one of the River Thames’ most enigmatic post-industrial landscapes, the tour will then discuss some of the early docklands developments in Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe and Wapping, and the later work of the London Docklands Development Corporation. The unique planning and ideas behind the early approaches to rethinking London’s formerly derelict docks will be compared to the later thinking behind the private sector-led Canary Wharf development and some of the more recent towers going up on the island.
Passing through the former West India Docks complex, still apparent as vast expanses of water alongside the new banking towers, the tour will consider Reuters Plaza and the transformation of the area from one of toil, industry and colonial extraction to one of big banks, finance, shopping, recreation and luxury living. It will then pass through Crossrail Place’s roof garden before travelling on to East India Dock – originally created to receive tea, spices, indigo, silk of the East India Company which had been key to the creation of the British Empire – where a 1990s office complex has recently been reinvented as a multi-use campus with landscaped public realm and spaces for local charities.
Led by an expert guide on London’s architectural and social history, participants will examine the success of the area in the context of the incoming Elizabeth Line, Covid and the shift to working from home as well as the impact of Brexit. Referring back to the area’s strong links to empire, colonialism and slavery – the tour will also ask what the area’s future might hold as well as what the former docklands’ relationship to its many surrounding communities might be.
[Open City]