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Birmingham’s Public Art ISBN978 1 7396457 1 7
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Public Art of Canary
Wharf
By Jonathan Berg
In 1968 I went to secondary school in
Mile End with many classmates who had
been brought up on the Isle of Dogs. As
our train to school went past Poplar and
on to Fenchurch Street, I remember
looking across to the Isle of Dogs. Back in
the late 1960s the London Docks were
still working and you could see the tops of
the boats. This was just twenty five years
after the end of WWII, and the area was
still a mix of bomb sites, poor housing and
ageing industry.
In the 1980s along came Canary Wharf. I
had moved on to Birmingham and only ventured back to my roots
occasionally. I went to a conference at Excel around 2000. Taking the
DLR through Canary Wharf was eye opening. I spent an afternoon
looking round at the public art and modernistic architecture. What I
saw really impressed and now, 20 years later, on a cold and wet April
day in 2024 I I returned. It was incredible to discover just some of the
100 public art pieces now at Canary Wharf.
Bronze Castings
Abound…
One thing that struck
me was just how much
of the public art was
finished in bronze. The
overall feel is of no
expense spared public
art. In fact this fits with
the rest of Canary
Wharf, where the
quality of the materials
in the built environment
gives a feel that cost
containment was not an issue. Marble and granite paving and garden
enclosures and manicured surroundings - everything so clean and well
maintained, all a huge contrast to Birmingham.
Change on the Wharf
Canary Wharf has had an eventful life. The first Canadian owners saw
their project file for
bankruptcy in 1992. Then
in 1996 the IRA marked
the end of their truce with
a huge lorry bomb at South
Quay. Lehmann Brothers
financial collapse saw their
33 storey tower vacated in
2008.
Today sees another large
scale change in fortune.
Post covid, different ways of
working, together with a
drive to move head offices
back into the city of London sees the pressure is on
again for Canary Wharf. Before covid Canary Wharf station could see
120,000 passenger movements a day but this can be under 20,000
today.
Canary Wharf is seeing
major clients planning to
move out. For example
HSBC plans to move to
offices around half the
size in the City in 2027.
Its 8,000 staff have
enjoyed over two
decades in their Norman
Foster designed office
tower, travelling in and
spending money in the
shops and fast food
stores.
More Change
Canary Wharf is
adapting, by converting
some of their office
estate into apartments. However many of the
office blocks are not easy to convert with very
deep open floor plan offices and glass facades,
not ideal without expensive alterations. Some
even suggest that demolition of some of the
familiar prestige office tower is a pragmatic
way forward. Having said this the estate
agents have moved in and you can buy a studio
apartment for a cool £567k.
Alongside there are plans for schools to be
built as the area renews itself as a more mixed
mixed development.
It Takes Two
Bob Allen, 2002
A bronze of a yew wood carving.
An early piece by the artist who
went full time in 2000.
Centurione I
Igor Mitoraj (1944-2014),
1987
One of three pieces by this
Polish artist at Canary Wharf.
www.birminghamspublic.art