Canary Wharf: The ‘all work, no play’ banking district tries to reinvent itself as a Millennial neighbourhood
Canary Wharf emerged out of the disused East London docklands in the 1990s and gave the capital its second financial centre, but it’s not the first area that springs to mind when looking for a new home in London.
Despite the adjacent financial hub and its many thousand job roles, young professionals tend to opt for flats in more traditional residential areas, with the allure of neighbourhood pubs, bars, restaurants, green space and cheaper rents.
Canary Wharf Group, the privately-owned firm that controls the estate, is now making a concerted effort to shrug off its “all work and no play” reputation, to make it a residential destination rather than the endpoint of a commute.
Signs of life
One of the preconceptions about Canary Wharf is that there simply isn’t much to do there, with a handful of chain bars and pubs to cater for the after work drinks crowd on Thursday and Friday nights and then abandoned at the weekend.
Even those faint signs of life have been eradicated by the pandemic.
The estate owner is pushing to bring in more food and drink operators, to give the area the buzz that is part of the draw of living in London.
It recently signed up street food market Mercato Metropolitano, which will open its doors this summer, to help the district shake off its up-tight reputation.
Mercato Metropolitano – which said it was approached by Canary Wharf Group and was able to negotiate a good deal – will occupy two levels of 10 George Street, the first build-to-rent residence in the new Wood Wharf development.
Alastair Mullens, head of Vertus, Canary Wharf Group’s build-to-rent arm, said he hopes the east London financial district will become a destination in its own right.
Restaurants and bars are a “very much the focus” of the new development, he says.
“The shift has already started away from being just a commercial area,” Mullens tells CityAM
“In the next five years it will become a destination that is not just a commercial destination, but a place to live, a place to shop, a place to go to bars and restaurants, like you might go to the West End.”
Home office
Wood Wharf opened to its first tenants in February 2020 and then the pandemic hit demand, with a drop in the number of people moving in and making enquiries.
However, despite the much-publicised surge in the number of people leaving the capital during the pandemic, estate agents have also seen a shift in the opposite direction.
The people swapping London for the countryside were “always going to do that”, says Canary Wharf Group’s head of residential Brian De’ath.
Knight Frank research showed a 21 per cent uplift in new applicants, a 23 per cent increase in viewings and a 35 per cent jump in offers accepted in Canary Wharf in the second half of last year compared to 2019.
Tom Bill, Knight Frank’s head of UK residential research, said: “While some people have gravitated away from central London during the pandemic, the strength of activity in Canary Wharf’s residential lettings market shows there is also movement in the opposite direction.”
Despite the shift to home working during the pandemic, many workers are keen to get back to the office at least a few days per week.
However, the absence of a lengthy commute over the last year has been a benefit of working from home, so young professionals are seeking to take advantage of falling central London rents to bag a flat nearer the office.
Knight Frank reported that tenants are flocking to Canary Wharf from all over London and the south east to avoid the return of the dreaded commute.
Private estate
Critics could see Canary Wharf’s attempt to lure matcha-supping Millennial residents by transplanting some food markets from cooler boroughs as the sort of prescriptive, artificial outcome typical of when a corporation runs a neighbourhood.
You can imagine the boardroom meeting:. “What do young people like?” “Craft beer and halloumi fries in an outdoor setting, Sir”.
However, Canary Wharf Group sees its status as a private estate as a benefit, as it allows it to control the whole picture.
“It will become a bit more like the rest of London, but it will always be different in that it is a private estate, which comes with added safety,” Mullens says.
“International residents want to know where they’re living in a new city is really safe”
“Because we are a sole landlord, we are in a position to do things that other people just can’t do because they are single buildings,” De’ath tells CityAM
The developer will be looking to use the “benefits” of being a single landlord to recover from Covid-19 and attract new residents and business tenants, he adds.
That position means the developer is able to look at the Canary Wharf estate as a whole and control all the elements at play, whether that is commercial, retail or residential.
It can also plot outside events, which will be part of the push to attract visitors from other areas of London.