Day out at Canary Wharf

We are on our way to Canary Wharf (seen here in the hazy distance)in the East End of London and a 35 minute drive from home. Canary Wharf is part of the Docklands area on the banks of the River Thames. It is a modern Business, Fiancial and Banking Centre. There are many hotels, restaurants and coffee shops where people like to hang out, both indoors and outdoors. The Docklands overhead light railway goes right through the complex. There is also a large underground shopping mall. The area is still expanding. It would be impossible to count the number of high rise apartment buildings, including the apartments attached too, and serviced by, the major chains. Looking in the Canary Wharf Magazine I see that the most expensive apartments are in excess of 2 million pounds (at the present rate of exchange that would be almost 4 million dollars). There are also many apartments to rent. The weekday business centre very much becomes a leisure and tourist area at weekends.

Here to enjoy are just a few of the many photographs that I took yesterday, plus a VERY brief history of this part of East London.

1200's Known as Stepney Marsh. It was drained to support meadows and pastures

1500's Port of London expanded and docklands became a point of departure for Merchant ships

1620 The Mayflower set sail for America from here

1800's West India Docks opened and were considered to be the U.K.'s greatest civil engineering structure of it's day

1920's In July 1921 King George V Dock was opened by the King

1930's By the 1930's the Port of London handled 35 million tons of cargo

1940's Mass bombings during the second world war. Saturday 7th September 430 dead,

1,600 seriously injured and 10,000 homeless

1960's 60 million tons of cargo handled

1970's Most of the docks had closed

1980's Became an Enterprise zone

We began our day at the riverside where we enjoyed delicious cappucinnos in the sunshine. We are looking towards the City

Part of the City in closeup

I like reflections

Leaving the river front behind

The train over one of the docks

A re-use of the old warehouses

Some of the docks are empty and some are full of various boats and ships that are used as resturants and party venues

And this one a lunchtime church

An enjoyable day and now back to the river to rest awhile and watch the river craft before walking back to the car

We pass the controversial London Dome as we head away from the river and home