I like skyscrapers but I’m too scared to get on a plane these days so I’ve never been to America, never been to New York. I just settle for Canary Wharf instead. I’ve got all the skyscrapers I’ll ever need just three stops from London Bridge.
I must admit that I’m totally useless when it comes to finding my way around here. This is the one area of London where I always seem to get lost because every time I visit it they’ve put another couple of skyscrapers up. It’s like trying to find your way around a forest when they keep growing new trees.
Canada Square skyscraper
The rate of change is incredible because when One Canada Square went up in 1991 its 50 floors made it the tallest building in Europe – now it’s not even the tallest one in London. The two towers either side of it are just outside the Top 10 and if you stand behind the fountain in Cabot Square then all three make quite a sight – they’re actually tall enough to affect the weather. They funnel the wind down their sides and create fierce little eddies that scream across the street. The sunlight slices off the glass and hits the ground at sharp angles, turning shadows into night. One minute the pavement is bright white like a nuclear sun, and then it’s hurricane winds and hold-on-to-your-hat time. It’s like walking between spring, summer and winter every time you turn a corner.
Financial companies in Reuters Plaza
One of my favourite places to sit is Reuters Plaza. This is the banker’s equivalent of Piccadilly Circus, but instead of neon signs advertising Coke and iPhones there’s a news-ticker wrapped around the side of a building with all the latest stock prices on it and a huge TV screen showing the financial news.
I like peering into all the posh lobbies around here as well – those long cavernous halls with a metal desk at the end, staffed by a solitary blonde bird who looks like she’s stepped off a Parisian catwalk. That’s something you’ll notice straight away at Canary Wharf: everyone looks like they’re modelling for a fashion magazine. I thought that it was illegal to hire someone based solely on their looks, but here is definite proof of the way the world really works: long legs are better than ten GCSEs. Long legs will get you through more doors than an Oxbridge degree. And they’re all wearing expensive clothes as well… they’re wearing chunky gold watches and rimless glasses and sucking on an e-cigarette that looks like a fountain pen.
Shopping mall in Canary Wharf
They’ve got a luxurious shopping mall that reminds me of those wartime tunnels under Whitehall: you can walk from one end of the docks to the other without ever seeing sunshine. You can spend your whole life underground buying all sorts of expensive stuff: you can have a new suit fitted, have your hair cut for fifty quid, your shoes shined for thirty, you can buy a Rolex watch, Tiffany cufflinks, an apartment by the water, a coat, a boat, whatever you want. It’s the shiniest shopping mall I have ever seen. They polish the floors, the doors, the marble walls… they even polish the rubbish bins. They probably polish the rubbish as well.
Obviously I can’t afford to buy anything so I just pick a coffee shop and eavesdrop on a few business conversations. Everybody is very busy busy busy and I get the impression that they’re under intense pressure to do well. A couple of guys are discussing who was heard saying what to whom and which bloke is not pulling his weight this week, then all of a sudden they’re up and out the door and disappear into a troop of traders traipsing from one escalator to the next like a wave of military infantry, big formations of them advancing through the double doors, sharp umbrellas poking out like pikes, briefcases bashing together like Saxon shields, mobile phones always on the go. Have you noticed that people just talk into space these days, straight into the air? As long as their lips are within five feet of their phone then it all gets picked up so it looks like they’re just muttering and chuntering to themselves. You can’t tell the mad people from the sane ones anymore because they all look as mad as each other.
The Port of London docks
Another thing that I enjoy about Canary Wharf is all the water everywhere. As late as the 1960s and 1970s this was still one of the busiest ports in the world and the cargo docks were filled with big ships from the West Indies, India, Africa, America and Australia.
The deep waterways still give you some idea of the industry that must have happened here, but they’re surrounded by gleaming buildings now. A few of the cargo cranes have been preserved and turned into industrial sculptures, but they’re too rusted and busted to lift anything up anymore.
. If you’re travelling to Canary Wharf then you might like to ride the Docklands Light Railway or Thames Clipper. The only real attraction at Canary Wharf is the Museum of London Docklands
