London’s West End may have been turned into a ghost town by the Olympics, but Canary Wharf’s shopping centres were thronging, the major shareholder in the Docklands landlord said today.
Songbird Estates, which also appointed architect Sir Terry Farrell to oversee its masterplan for Wood Wharf containing Canary Wharf’s first apartments, saw a “noticeable increase” in tourists throughout the Games.
Company secretary John Garwood said visitor numbers were up 5-10%: “People were stopping off on route to the Olympic park to take a look.”
Despite the attractions of Westfield Stratford, footfall at Canary Wharf retail malls rose more than 1% in the first half of the year — compared with a 2.7% decline across the rest of the country — as luxury goods brand Alfred Dunhill, nail bar Blink Brow and restaurant L’Entrecote opened their doors.
Canary Wharf took control of the the 4.8 million sq ft Wood Wharf site next to its main nexus of towers and shopping centres in January, paying £90 million to buy out partners British Waterways and developer Ballymore.
Farrell, which is known for landmarks such as Charing Cross station and the MI6 headquarters, will oversee a plan involving around 3000 homes and 2 million sq ft of offices.
In the City, Songbird also confirmed insurer Kiln as the second tenant for the Walkie-Talkie skyscraper it is building in a joint venture with Land Securities.
