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Canary Wharf

  
 
illmatic
19:50 / 17.06.03
I had the weird experience of going to Canary Wharf, part of work related training (which was, shockingly enough, quite useful, but that's another thread). Ended up having a mosey around the new Museum in Docklands, which is devoted to the history of the area. I was glad to see they'd devoted a section at the end to the re-development of the area, and the way that local people protested at how the re-development was run, perceiving it as in opposition to their needs, and their feelings towards their communities. It was quite a big grassroots campaign back in the 80's.

And then you step outside.... and ... well, it's lovely and clean, there's lots of space, lots of open views over the docks, but the whole place .. it's sterile. There's no locally owned business, nothing small scale, it's all chains or yuppie gift shops. I sometimes get the feeling that London (well, England actually) is turning into a expensive, gated playground for white, graduate-professionals, earning ££35k+ (minimum) and everyone else can just fuck off. I've often wondered what Tony Blair's vision for this country actually is, and I think this might be it. No history, no community, just happy, well-paid consumers (oh, and a few African cleaners, and some homeless scum, but just call security, they'll get rid of 'em...) Something weird and souless going on. Someone I was with was reminded of Singapore. Another person brought up an old episode of Only Fools and Horses where Uncle Albert goes a bit bonkers and rushes off down to the docks, his old workplace. Del goes hunting for him and finds him in front of a big block of newly developed luxury flats. Albert, tears in eyes, says "look what they've done to 'em, look what they've to the docks". Del, puffing on big cigar, says "I know ... ain't it beautiful".

Any comments or similar reactions amongst folks here, in London or elsewhere? Am I just projecting my own resentment, or do other people share the same reaction to "re-development". Is there another side to it that I'm missing? I am seriously interested in the issues around urban development, though I'm not that well read on it. I don't know of many communities where the needs of local people have been recognised and championed over the needs of business and traffic, but this could be my ignorance of the subject. Some Euopean cities have a superior model, I'm sure - IIRC, they've pedistrianised most Italian city centres in the last few years. I'd be interested to hear anyone's thoughts on this ore related issues or reactions to the changing urban enviroment.

(Note to mods - wasn't sure where to put this one. Move to Switchboard if you think it's more appopriate there.)
 
 
sleazenation
21:07 / 17.06.03
Yeah the docklands development comes accross very much as a cultural vacuum filled by faceless multinational brands. It may sound humourless, but hey, so is the semi-public space it has created. Humouless, souless, and at weekends almost entirely devoid of a human inhabitants.
 
 
Unencumbered
06:25 / 18.06.03
I agree that it's very soulless and depressing there now but give it a couple of hundred years and it'll probably be quite decent. People have a tendency to customise their environment to suit their needs, it just takes time.
 
 
Cherry Bomb
10:02 / 18.06.03
I like to go to Canary Wharf when I'm homesick, not just because it's the location of the only known Chili's restaurant in London, but also because it is so like a built-up American city, or the suburbs and it reminds me of home a bit (sadly). As sleaze said, souless and humorless. I would add "completely" to those adjectives.

In a way, I find Canary Wharf absolutely fascinating in its complete lack of reality space and overdose on metallic finish. It is just so incredibly unreal. Imagine having a picnic there, or a party.

I once had the good fortune of managing to pick up the free Canary Wharf "newspaper." Brilliant in its attempt to make or pretend that Canary Wharf actually has a "community." Failing of course.

Of course it could have the yuppie 35k community, I suppose.
 
 
mondo a-go-go
12:05 / 18.06.03
"Imagine having a picnic there, or a party."

We almost did. But we went to St-Dunstan's-in-the-East instead. It's prettier.
 
 
w1rebaby
15:02 / 18.06.03
I once had the interesting experience of being chucked off the last tube there at midnight, and having to walk back to the East End. There is literally no-one for miles at that time of night. I was planning to get a cab... but by the time I'd seen the first one I was practically all the way to Bethnal Green anyway. I don't think I have ever felt so far away from another human being while actually in a city.

It's also a rather confusing place to walk round when you're trying to get off it, and that combined with all the lights and tiredness made it very dreamlike. I actually have a bit of a thing for walking round deserted construction sites, but the fun wears off.
 
 
Smoothly
15:20 / 18.06.03
I did go to a party there, a couple of weekends ago. It was on a barge in West India Dock, and I have to confess that I thought it was kinda cool (Canary Wharf that it - the party was gash). I think I like it in much the same way that I like airports. Something futuristic about it - a sort of 1980s futurism. To be honest, I dug the sterility, the shininess.
 
 
illmatic
07:54 / 19.06.03
Yeah, I dig it too in a weird way, it's certainly a strange zone, like the first outpost of our corporate future, (just slap that chip straight into the back of your neck) - it's just thinking about it's effect on traditional communities, and what it exemplfies about our economy etc. I'd like to hear if anybody has any comments on this sort of thing.

I'm also interested if anyone can name any communities where re-development has taken place, or any kind of large scale changes and it's come out in a way that benefits the community, or has been community led? Any ideas? Or failing that any theorists who comment on these sort of changes - the only person I've read in any depth is anrachist writer, Colin Ward - I've just started reading his book Cotters and Squatters, extract here which is a kind of social histoy of people taking responsiblity for their own housing needs. He's written a number of other books on the urban enviroment. I like him because he's a unrepentant anarchist, but is very grounded historically at the same time, with a lot of practical solutions.
 
 
Kit-Cat Club
11:16 / 19.06.03
I seem to recall reading about some squatting movements in Italy which sounded very interesting and positive - I'll try and dig something out, but I don't remember very much more than that they took over (abandoned?) warehouses etc. and reinvigorated them by holding parties, setting up cafes, shops etc. on a community basis - it sounded great.

Canary Wharf and other developments like it are attractive, I sometimes think, because they tap into the romantic view of urban modernism and alienation that is a part of western culture - but a bit more 'Gattaca' than 'lost on the Westway'. Like a film set, rather than somewhere to live. Perhaps that's a result of it having been designed as a whole rather than having grown over time... lots of new developments feel very sterile, don't they? I grew up on a suburban estate which was only about twenty years old, and it had something of that osrt of feel about it.

I'm groping towards something here but I'm not quite sure what it is... perhaps it's something to do with the idea of communities? I think I ought to take issue with your 'traditional communities', Illmatic - what is a traditional community? I think communities are probably best served by being described rather than by having attributes prescribed - that way we might end up with the 'village pub, post office and melee-weapon shop' of Leaptopia as being essential attributes of a community. That's a bit of a reduction, and I know it's not what you meant, but... I'm trying to say that with something which develops over time, like a community, we can't try and set it in stone - you can never go back, after all, and really who wants to? We should be thinking about what we actually want from our local environment, and how to get there, in an organic fashion - rather than trying to impose a solution over the top. That's the problem with developments like Canary Wharf, I think - trying to impose a vision on an area. Things develop over time - you can't just plonk people into a fabricated development and expect them to be chatting down the butcher's the next day. Whether Canary Wharf has any facilities that might allow that to happen in time, I don't know...

Bit jumbled there, sorry...
 
 
illmatic
13:02 / 19.06.03
Perhaps not very clear there, sorry - when I said "traditional communities" what I had in (the back of) my mind were the people who were protesting against the orginal Canary Wharf development - I know once a working class area, filled with the people who worked on the docks. I'm sure by the 80's the community had begun to fragment - in a city as diverse as London we'd never find one area solely filled with cheky, chirpy cockneys - but there still were a large percentage of "local people" (however defined) who felt the development didn't serve their needs. This is who I had in mind. I don't really know what's happened to these peope either, might have to go back to the museum and check it out.

Notions of "community" in a large urban area are always going to be difficult. however, it'd seem like there isn't even the possibilty of this around Canary Wharf, it isn't in any way geared to anythign resembling a community, like a lot of the "luxury flat" developments we see all over London - where are the shops, schools, gardens etc? That's why I'm interested in any alterative models that people might be aware of.

Has the City totally been written off as a place to live and grow up?
Any thoughts?
 
 
waxy dan
13:32 / 19.06.03
Strangely this discussion reminds me a lot of Dublin where, due to poltical corruption, most large developments of the last 20 - 30 years have gone ahead with any real planning. Thus we have areas like Tallaght, which has a larger population than most cities in Ireland, yet only began to get things like pubs, shopping centres, and post offices in very recent years.

I've always thought the amount of public space in London was a real luxury. It appears as though the city has actually been considered as somewhere that people live, rather than simply an extended work-house. This is something that strikes me about other European cities as well, notably Paris. Some planning has gone into the city and it's continued development. Though this process is perhaps more organic and community-based in London than elsewhere.

I have to say, as was mentioned above, I really like Canary Wharf. I enjoy it's sterility, arrogance, and hyperreality. But if it's a model of how things will continue to develop I think that would be a great shame, as I don't see how someone could do more than subsist there.
 
 
_Boboss
14:36 / 19.06.03
iain sinclair's 'lazy yuppie advertorial shorthand for futuristic architecture' [paraphrase] seems hard to beat. wapping, shadwell ooh shudder. has anyone ever been to canada water?
 
 
unheimlich manoeuvre
15:33 / 19.06.03
yeah i did a course in new cross and so i have been to canada water
*shudders*

as was mentioned above there is something wrong with canary wharf. any area ought not to be zoned. it should combine housing, public spaces, shopping and recreation.

sorry slightly off topic but i'd like to recommend the death and life of great american cities by jane jacobs. it is fascinating... architectural anthropology and urban geography.
 
 
Saint Keggers
17:20 / 19.06.03
I love the name Canary Wharf...it sounds like the perfect Klingon drag name. Its what the trekkies go to see after the conventions.
 
 
ChrisDodo
17:17 / 20.06.03
Canary Wharf is funny - it is literally a middle-class island sitting atop of the unregenerated East End. I recently walked from London Bridge to Canary Wharf, and it is desolate pretty much from Wapping (or Eastside as really w*nky estate agents are noqw calling it) onwards. Lots of people in cars. No one walking.

It reminds me of Salford Quays, but in Salford they forgot to put the island on top of the problem, and make it really hard to get from one to the other (there's lots of very misleading architecture in Canary Wharf to prevent you from going places you shouldn't). So everything got nicked.

But I can't really talk, as I do all my shopping in the Waitrose there :/
 
  
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