Canary Wharf Tower is the UK's tallest building at 235.1 m or about
800 feet.
Canary Wharf in Tower Hamlets, is a large business development on the Isle
of Dogs, centered on the old West India Docks in the London Docklands.
From 1802 to 1980, the area was one of the busiest docks in the world,
with at one point 50,000 employed. Canary Wharf itself takes its name from
the sea trade with the Canary Islands.
During WWII, the docks area was bombed heavily and nearly all the original
warehouses were destroyed or badly damaged. After a brief recovery in the
1950s, the port industry began to decline. Containerization and a lack of
flexibility made the central London docks less viable than out-of-town
sites like Felixstowe and Harwich, and by 1980 the docks were closed.
Thousands were out of work and a huge area of the Docklands lay in ruins -
a testament to the changing world economy.
The project to revitalize the eight square miles of derelict London docks
began in 1981 with the establishment of the London Docklands Development
Corporation by the government of Margaret Thatcher.
Photograph showing Docklands Light Railway and the
docks.