Has WFH brought Canary Wharflow?

Uncertain future lies ahead for London's docklands financial district as big firms quit

- Julia Kollewe

It's not happening." This is the blunt verdict on efforts to turn Canary Wharf into a shopping and leisure destination. "Mondays and Fridays are dead," said the frank shop worker. "This shop used to take a fair bit before Covid but now everything's changed."

It's an assessment that appears to be shared by other tenants in the vast east London financial hub. HSBC's decision to leave its "tower of doom" in the docklands and move back to the City of London after more than two decades has dealt a hammer blow to Canary Wharf's standing as a global financial centre.

The move has left onlookers examining landlord Canary Wharf Group (CWG)'s plans to raise the appeal of the former wasteland, at a time when hybrid working has reduced the throng of office workers descending on the area each day.

HSBC will ditch its 45-floor skyscraper at 8 Canada Square when the lease expires in 2027 and move to an office near St Paul's Cathedral that's roughly half the size, following in the footsteps of other companies such as the law firm Clifford Chance.

The decision says a lot about demand for office space post-pandemic, and the "sterile" perception of Canary Wharf that the developer's management is desperately trying to shake off. It has added shops, bars and restaurants in recent years, landscaped the areas between its glass and steel towers and created a public art trail, which it says is London's largest collection of outdoor public art. Over the summer, there are free events aimed at families.