At Clarendon we’re really proud to have Canary Wharf, the heart of London’s business community, on our portfolio. We know that plenty of our guests stay at Canary Wharf because they need to be close to the office and our apartments are centrally located. Yet Canary Wharf also has a rich and diverse history that isn’t just about its commercial stature. We’ve chosen our favourite facts about Canary Wharf ….
- Around 292,000 trips every working day in Canary Wharf. About three quarters are taken on public transport.
- The name Canary Wharf comes from sea trade with the Canary Islands. That name derives from dogs – the Latin Canis which the spanish found there. That’s why you have the linguistic coincidence between the ‘Dog Islands’ and the ‘Isle of Dogs’.
- The East End was a prime target for german bombers during WWII. Around 2,500 bombs were dropped into the area destroying a great deal of dockland and housing.
- By the 1980s much of the major East End docklands had closed down. The government established the London Docklands Development Corporation setting up new business rules like tax exemptions and capital allowances to encourage new firms to set up there.
- Some of the world’s biggest banks and professional organsaitions are based in Canary Wharf, like Barclays, Citigroup, Clifford Chance, Credit Suisse, Infosys, HSBC, JP Morgan, KPMG, Moody’s Morgan Stanley and Thomson Reuters.
- The latest development of Canary Wharf has seen an influx of new restaurants, like Japanese venues, French and British food. There’s also a range of different shops like Banana Republic Godiva and the eclectic jewellers Monica Vidar.
Clarendon Serviced Apartments have been in the area for over 15 years and offer exquisite extended stay serviced apartments in Canary Wharf. We are always keen to learn more about the areas we operate in, so if you have any other fun facts about Canary Wharf you would like to share with us, please tweet us @clarendonapts