A walk from Wapping to Canary Wharf

INTRODUCTION TO WAPPING

Originally Wapping was marshy land onto which the Thames would regularly overflow, but it was eventually drained. It had always been an isolated place but this was made worse when the docks were built as they were surrounded by very high walls to prevent theft. Huge numbers of people were moved out of their homes, ripping the heart out of the community and creating further deprivation. The area had always been very poor, and this remained the case even after the docks had been built as the dockers’ wages were at little more than subsistence levels and when work was short they could go for weeks without any money. Never being able to put anything aside meant hunger was sometimes a serious problem.

The area was badly hit by bombing during the Second World War, and many of the warehouses were damaged, some beyond repair. The result was that for many years the area became a very neglected and forgotten part of London. However, in the 1970s and 80s developers began to restore and renovate the damaged warehouses and build on the derelict bombsites, resulting in the many new apartment buildings that are here today, which have made the area a very popular place to live, attracting an eclectic mix of new residents.

STARTING THE WALK

Having turned left out of the station, continue straight ahead as the road becomes Wapping High Street, passing Wapping Dock Street and Wapping Lane on your right, and then the enormous King Henry’s Wharves and Gun Wharves on your left. They were so named because this was where Henry VIII built a foundry to make cannons for his navy. Although now converted into luxury apartments, the exterior of these huge warehouses appears to have retained their original facades.

Turn right into the narrow Brewhouse Lane (also known as Brewhouse Place) when you reach it. It runs up the side of the New Tower Building. For years there’s been a plot of waste ground on this corner, one of the few undeveloped sites in Wapping, but that’s about to change as permission to develop it has been granted. If for any reason the lane is closed to pedestrians, then retrace your footsteps back to Wapping Lane and walk up as far as Watts Street and pick up the walk again as below.

A point of interest – before you leave Wapping High Street and turn up Brewhouse Lane, ahead of you on the left you will be able to see the Captain Kidd pub and the original Metropolitan River Police Headquarters. Details of both are in the Tower Hill to Wapping walk.

As you walk up Brewhouse Lane notice the Tower Building, another very early apartment block built by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company in 1864.

The company was formed in 1863 by Sir Sidney Waterlow. He was a printer and philanthropist who later became a Lord Mayor of London. The company was a ‘model dwelling company’ – one of a group of private companies set up to improve the housing conditions of the working class by building homes specifically for them. They were not charities and had to ensure that investments in them received a competitive rate of interest. The homes they built were of a higher standard than would normally be built for working men and women, with better sanitation and less overcrowding. The Improved Industrial Dwellings Company was one of the largest and most successful of such enterprises and by 1900 housed 30,000 people.

Follow Brewhouse Lane around to the right. Chimney Court, the building facing you, is a good example of a 1990s conversion into apartments; it was originally a soap factory. The court’s name no doubt derives from the prominent smokestack located on Green Bank.

At the end of the road turn left into Wapping Lane, a street that’s at the heart of the Wapping community and still has shops such as a traditional butcher (a rare sight these days), a fishmonger, greengrocer, general grocery store, newsagent, pub – and even a Pizza Express restaurant.

Cross Green Bank then take the next left into Watts Street, alongside the little triangle of ‘green’. Notice on the left the carefully renovated blocks of flats (I love the large windows) built originally by an early housing association in co-operation with the local authority.

Directly ahead, on the corner of Meeting House Alley, is the Turner’s Old Star public house, (with the rather unusual view of the Shard beyond, which to me seems strangely out of place here.)

The artist J.M.W. Turner converted two cottages that he had inherited in 1830 into a tavern to be run by Sophia Booth, a widowed landlady from Margate, who was one of his mistresses. He spent much of his time here, particularly as he was fascinated by the River Thames, the source of many of his paintings. However, he tried to keep it a secret, no doubt partly because he was said to have had several other mistresses at the time, so rather than use his own name when he stayed here, he used a pseudonym of Sophia Booth’s name. As a result of his short height and ‘portly physique’ he was soon simply nicknamed ‘Puggy’. Amazingly, the pub is still going strong today, having been renovated in the 1980s.

Walk up Meeting House Alley, which runs up the right-hand side of the pub, then turn right into Chandler Street and then turn left back into Wapping Lane.

Continue on up Wapping Lane for several minutes until you reach the bridge that crosses the Ornamental Canal – the same one you saw back in Hermitage Basin – and directly in front of you is the imposing brick-built Tobacco Dock.

In a dry dock between the ‘canal’ and Tobacco Dock are two sailing ships that are replicas named and designed after real ships. One was the 330-ton Three Sisters, which was built in the dockland’s Blackwall Yard in 1788 and used to sail to the East and West Indies to bring back tobacco and spices. The other was the Sea Lark, an American merchant schooner that was captured by the British navy in 1811. They were installed as part of the plan to create a major shopping and leisure complex here, which I explain shortly.

Tobacco Dock was designed by the London Docks’ architect Daniel Alexander and opened in 1814 as a safe and secure warehouse to store valuable cargoes, such as tobacco, wines and spirits, as well as furs and skins. To me it still looks more like a fortress than a conventional warehouse, which was probably how it was intended to look.

In the plan drawing shown below, Tobacco Dock is the large, almost-square building marked ‘Tobacco Warehouse’. Most of the docks have since been filled in.

Looking across the basin to the right you can see the spire of St Paul’s Church of Shadwell. It dates back to 1657 and is known as the ‘Church of Sea Captains’ as over seventy sea captains are buried in its graveyard. Previous church members have included Captain James Cook, who was baptised here, and the mother of US President Thomas Jefferson. Another claim to fame of St Paul’s Shadwell is that John Wesley preached here on a number of occasions and actually gave his last sermon in the church – he died less than a week later.

The original church fell into a very poor state of repair and was rebuilt in 1820, partly funded by a grant given by parliament to celebrate Wellington’s victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 (Wellington was a senior officer in the East India Company’s army, whose headquarters were close by.) Part of Shadwell Dock Basin was dug out of a large area of the church grounds.

Cross over the Shadwell Bridge and on the right you will see a sign for the Thames Path that runs down a lane alongside a sports ground which takes you into the King Edward Memorial Park. Don’t go through the first entrance that’s immediately alongside the lock, as it just leads into the Shadwell Basin Outdoor Activity Centre, but the one after it.

The park was established in 1922 to provide East Enders with much needed recreational space, as well as the opportunity of enjoying views of the Thames. Complete with a bandstand and park benches, it was a huge success.

Please note – currently large areas of the park are closed off, due to it being a major access point for tunnelling equipment for the Thames Tideway Tunnel. However, they have kept open the access through the park to continue a Thames walk. Whilst construction is underway, you will need to follow the possible diversion signs, but it’s best to remember that if there is a choice in paths, then always take the right hand one, which should be closest to the river.

The Tideway tunnel, otherwise known as London’s ‘Super Sewer’ is a huge project, rivalling in size the building of the Channel Tunnel and the Crossrail project.

Indeed, it will be nearly as long and wide as the Channel Tunnel and will cost over four billion pounds. When completed, which is estimated to be in 2023, it will carry millions of tons of raw sewage away from much of London to Beckton in the east, where it will be treated before being allowed to flow back into the River Thames. Here in King Edward Park is one of the principle tunnelling sites, and enormous 80ft shafts have been dug down to a depth of around 190ft, allowing giant tunnelling machines to bore this particular stage of the 23ft wide tunnel (sufficient to drive two London double-decker buses along, side by side).

More information on the Tideway Tunnel in the appendix.

Walk through the park but keeping to the path closest to the river – it leads out through a gate and you continue back along the riverside path. Pass a rather old wooden quay/jetty (despite my research, I still don’t know its history). However, it is now closed because of ‘health and safety’ concerns.

On the left are two enormous apartment blocks, part of a complex built on the site of Free Trade Wharf. Initially I thought they were unquestionably ugly, but each time I walk past I warm to them a little more. I have heard them referred to as the ‘Lego development’, because of their shape. They were built in the 1980s on the site of wharves that were originally owned by the East India Company, and though the site was purchased in 1977 by the Inner London Education Authority for a new London Polytechnic, it never happened, and the apartments were built here instead.

This was the site of a devastating fire in 1794 when many of the quayside warehouses were destroyed. It was the worst fire the docks had experienced between the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the German bombing raids in the Second World War. It was caused by an unattended kettle of pitch in a nearby barge builder’s yard boiling over. This then ignited a barge full of saltpetre, a major import in those days as it was used to make gunpowder as well as a meat preservative (hmmm). This set off a series of explosions that sent showers of burning saltpetre over a vast area.

The fire rapidly spread, consuming and destroying timber yards, ropeyards, numerous commercial buildings including inflammable sugar warehouses, ships as well as five hundred homes. To house the huge numbers of people made homeless, local churches erected over a hundred tents in nearby fields that were donated by the East India Company, Lloyds, the shipping insurer and the City of London Corporation. Some donations were even made by people who had simply come to see the devastation caused by the fire.

Next to the Free Trade Wharf is Atlantic Wharf and through a pair of iron gates set into one of the buildings you will see a couple of yards of railway track and a goods wagon, once used for taking goods from the wharf to the carts waiting to transport them along the Ratcliff Highway that runs behind and into London.

Another hundred yards or so further on is a little wooden bridge over another flight of ‘Thames Stairs’. Continue on along the ‘boulevard’ – it may look as though it is a ‘dead end’ as a block of apartments has been built out to the river’s edge, but keep going and follow it round – it may seem as though you are walking through the private rear terrace of the apartments – but it is a public right of way. The site was originally called Lendrum’s Wharf but later renamed Keepier Wharf because this was where the colliers from the Kepier mining area in County Durham unloaded coal.

You are now at the start of Limehouse’s historic Narrow Street.

Running parallel to you on your left is The Highway – a depressing looking ‘expressway’ that carries an enormous amount of traffic out of London and through the Limehouse Link Tunnel into Canary Wharf and beyond towards Essex. Its name came about because originally it simply was a ‘high way’- a built up bank or causeway that allowed travellers to pass through even when the river was in flood. For many years it was known as the Ratcliff Highway and had a terrible reputation, partly due to the notorious ‘Ratcliff Murders’.

Walk straight ahead down Narrow Street, but before you do, take a look at the renowned Ratcliff Cross Stairs. They are adjacent to the Keepier Wharf building you have just walked around. There’s no sign – just a worn metal gate with blue railings, but if the tide is out it’s worth taking a look. It might not look much today, but this is a very historic and onetime very busy place. Many people have walked down these old stone steps – their last dry land for sometimes up to a year or even more. Some were setting off by sailing ship to explore, whilst others to start a new life in Australia, America or other ‘far off parts of the Empire’. Boatmen would pick up both the passengers and crew and row them out to their ships that would be moored close by.

Another warning though – as with all these old Thames stairs, be careful – the steps are always very slippery, even when they appear dry. At low tide there is a little sandy beach where you can get an unusual view of the river.

The first building in Narrow Street after the Ratcliff Cross Stairs is Phoenix Wharf (Number 14–16), a modern and plain apartment building, but next to it at No. 18 – 22 are the Ratcliff Wharf Apartments. These were built in the late 1950s on the site of bombed warehouses and unless you are an architect or builder, I doubt you’ll be interested to know that the one on the left was the first building in London to be constructed on piles rather than traditional foundations.

I do find it fascinating to discover the various uses that some of these wharves have had over the years – for example, at the end of the 19th century Phoenix Wharf was once a sail-maker’s; it then became a biscuit bakery and finally a tea chest maker. And I have to say at this point I am grateful for some of this information, which I couldn’t find anywhere else, that I found in a book called London’s Changing Riverscape – a collection of ‘then and now’ photographs and commentary. The book is still in print and well worth buying.

Commercial Wharf, at No. 24, the building with the ‘greenery’ on the outside, is original and I understand that for many years it housed the Corporation of Trinity House’s Ballast Office, where ship captains paid the toll for taking on board the ballast that was needed when sailing out of London without cargo. London imported considerably more than it exported and without the ballast, ships would be very unstable.

Look to the left up Spert Street – the unusual modern structure is the entrance to the Limehouse Link Tunnel that opened in 1993, part of the Docklands Regeneration Scheme to improve transport links with Canary Wharf.

The huge brick-built Sun Wharf at No. 28 is another original building – still with the hoists and hauling way doors on each floor.

Carry on walking alongside the lock – and here you have two options. One is to simply walk along the right-hand side of the basin, whilst the other is to walk around the basin in a clockwise direction. If you have the time and energy then you do see a little more on the latter and it only takes an additional ten minutes.

You are now in a park called Ropemakers Fields, so named as this was the site of the George Magget’s Ropeworks, and the ropes would have been laid out here to be twisted whilst being made.

Ahead is a small bandstand that was built using columns reclaimed from a 19th century St Katharine’s Docks warehouse and here we take the path to the right into a little street also called Ropemakers Fields. The first house on your right (Number 27) used to be a pub called ‘The House They Left Behind’ and until recently you could see where the old pub sign once hung, but all references to it have now been removed. And the reason for the unusual name? A light-hearted reference to the fact that all the other houses in the street were damaged or destroyed by bombing in the Second World War and later demolished, leaving just the pub still standing.

Just a little further down on the same side there used to be a brewery owned by Taylor Walker, whose speciality from 1830 onwards was the brewing of Pale India Ale. This used to be exported to satisfy the needs of Londoners living and working in Australia and India. Although badly damaged in the war, it continued brewing until 1960 when it finally closed down and houses built on the site.

This short street takes you back into Narrow Street. On the corner is a statue of a herring gull standing on a pile of coiled rope. It was created in 1994 by sculptor Jane Ackroyd, who specialises in working with metal.

At Number 92 there was once another illustrious old pub – Booty’s Riverside Bar, which finally closed in 2012 and the house has since been restored. Booty’s was originally called the Waterman’s Arms and for a long time was run by a legendary East End character known as Tugboat Annie. Her real name was Annie Fisher, and she ran a fleet of over twenty Thames barges. She must have been one hell of a tough character to be doing this in what then was even more of a “man’s world”.

Next is the Duke Shore Wharf – follow the Thames Path sign (opposite the main entrance into Ropemakers Fields Park), through a gated ‘archway’ back to the Thames Path.

(This is currently closed for building works, so if that’s still the case then simply continue ahead and pick up the walk further down.)

However, if it is open then from the rear you can see back up to the wooden jetty at the rear of the Grapes pub. Looking further back up the Thames are the skyscrapers of the City; the Gherkin in the foreground and just to the left the Cheesegrater and Walkie Talkie buildings, whilst higher than them all is the Shard. On the other side of the river you can see the well-preserved Columbia Wharf.

You are now on what was once the extensive Dunbar Wharf, owned by Duncan Dunbar & Sons, who ran a fleet of fast sailing ships that operated to Australia, India and the Americas. The first voluntary (i.e. not convict) emigrants to Australia sailed from here.

Pass through the next gate (again unlocked during daylight hours) and you come to one of the oldest and best preserved parts of the district – Limehouse Wharf, which we see again shortly when I give more information about it.

Don’t cross the bridge, but instead turn left and follow the path under the arch and back onto Narrow Street then turn right.

• If access to the Thames Path I mentioned above is still closed when you do the walk, continue on down Narrow Street and pick up the walk again here.

This is a fascinating short stretch as many of the frontages of the early 19th century warehouses along here have been well preserved. Some have been rebuilt in a more modern style, though others – like my favourite, the ‘Sailmakers House’ at Number 136 – still look like the warehouse it once was. (And notice the number of the ‘house’ next door – 136½.)

An elderly resident who I once chatted with told me that the original Gordon’s gin distillery was based here but I can’t find any reference to that – everything I have read about Gordon’s talks about its original distillery being in Clerkenwell. However, I have a feeling the story may have more to do with the fact that juniper berries were once stored at the adjacent St Dunstan’s Wharf – juniper is of course used to make the famous London gin.

I asked about the doors of the buildings here all being painted green, and whether correct or not I was told that this was a planning requirement. Apparently, the particular shade of green should be ‘Buckingham Green’ – but it would appear that this isn’t strictly enforced.

A couple of doors down, at Number 148, is another favourite of mine – the lovely old brick building with the ‘hauling doors’ on first and second floors and a sign on it saying, ‘J & R Wilson’. We see the waterside of it shortly, where a sign on it says ‘Ship Stores Merchants’. I looked it up in a 1921 street index and it was still that then.

We will turn right down Three Colt Street (here Narrow Street becomes the Limehouse Causeway), but before you do, look to the left and you can see the lovely St Anne’s Church, the parish church of Limehouse.

St Anne’s Church was built in 1725 by Nicholas Hawksmoor (who also built several others in the area). Queen Anne, the monarch at the time, said that as it was so close to the river it would be a good place for ships’ captains to register important events that were taking place at sea. As a result, it was given the right to display the White Ensign at all times (the second most senior ensign of the Royal Navy, which can normally only be flown at special times). It is still flown on the church tower and the maritime connection continues to exist as its current rector is honorary Chaplain to the Royal Navy. And notice the church clock – it was designed to be seen by ships on the river and as a result is one of the highest in Britain. The face of its clock is particularly large and clear in order for it to be seen by ships on the river and it was made by the company who built the clock faces for Big Ben.

Although the church is not strictly a part of the walk, it is very interesting, so I have put more information in the appendix.

We turn right now down Three Colt Street and in fifty yards or so, just after the bend and the Poplar Children’s Centre, on the right-hand side you’ll see a double-gated entrance into what appears to be a private courtyard between the buildings. However, it is not private and to the left of the double gates is a smaller gate with a keypad – press the button marked ‘Trades’ to enter. (There’s a sign beside the gate that explains this is the correct way to enter.)

Walk through and you find yourself on the other side of the Limekiln Dock and the rear of the row of converted warehouses you passed just now. The one we saw the front of just now, ‘J & R Wilson & Co (London) Ltd, ship stores’ – has been particularly well restored, as was its frontage.

Boats would sail in from the Thames and unload their cargo straight into the rear of the warehouses. And if you wonder whether the inlet floods, then just look at the height of the water marks on the wall opposite! When there is a high tide – especially one of the monthly ‘spring tides’ linked to a strong easterly wind blowing up the Thames, then it can become a problem.

According to old maps, a stream that rose in Stepney in London’s East End flowed into the Thames here. Like most of London’s small rivers that did this, over the years it became an ‘open sewer’ and this one was known locally as the Black Ditch. Then in the mid-18th century, this was the site of limekilns and Britain’s first soft paste porcelain factory – hence the name ‘Limehouse’.

Follow the path around the side of the dock – there’s another gate and you just need to press the green button on the left of it and pull the gate towards you to pass through.

Continue around to the left, passing under the ‘legs’ of the unusual apartment building whose iron gantries and walkways provide residents with access to its terraces. Built in 1997 on the site of the Dundee Wharf, the unusual design gives it a sort of ‘dockside feel’. Having said that, it also reminds me of something out of HG Wells’ novel ‘War of the Worlds’.

Dundee Wharf used to be owned by the Dundee, Perth and London Shipping Company. I have an old photograph that shows an enormous warehouse on the site with a sign saying, ‘Dundee Wharf – Dundee, Perth & London Shipping Company – Steamers Twice Weekly’. The company owned a number of wharves all along here called the Dundee; Aberdeen; Caledonia; and Dunbar Wharves – and in the 1800s they had two paddle steamers – the SS London and SS Perth – which operated a twice-weekly service carrying passengers and freight from here to Dundee and Edinburgh’s Leith Docks. Apparently, the last ship to use Dundee Wharf on a regular basis was the Lockett Wilson, which ran a service to Paris via the River Seine.

Follow the broad riverside path around to the left that becomes more of a promenade as it gets closer to Canary Wharf. Wharves and warehouses ran all the way along this stretch – one was for unloading and storing bananas, whilst next to that was the ‘River Plate Wharf’, the departure point for ships to South America. Some of these wharves were upgraded in the 1930s, but then badly damaged during the Second World War and although partly rebuilt afterwards, most had finally closed by the late 1960s. One of the last that we pass – and there is a stone plaque to commemorate it – is the site of Aberdeen Wharf. This was once used for shipbuilding and then from the 1820s until 1948 was the base for the Aberdeen and London Steam Navigation Company’s regular weekly or twice weekly services to Aberdeen. It carried livestock for the London markets and general cargo whilst in the summer months, passengers travelling to and from Scotland.

Looking further down river you can see the more recent developments along the west side of the Isle of Dogs (this will be the basis of a separate walk that starts at Canary Wharf and takes you right around the ‘island’).

On your left is the Four Seasons Hotel, with restaurants and a gym on the ground floor, whilst on your right is the Canary Wharf Thames Clipper Pier. If you haven’t used the Clipper service before and you are heading back to London after the walk, then it’s a great way to return. Stops include the Tower of London, London Bridge, Blackfriars, Embankment and Westminster. They accept Oyster cards as well as credit cards and cash. (There’s also a shuttle service that operates just across the river to the Doubletree Hilton Hotel opposite.)

Ahead of you is a wide flight of steps, which we climb to reach Canary Wharf – but notice first the ultra-thin 130-ft high carbon fibre sculpture called ‘Windward’, which despite its height is not spotted by most people.

To the right of the steps are four excellent (but rather pricey) restaurants, however if you are in need of a drink or sandwich then on the left at the top of the steps is the Cafe Brera, and with outside seating it is a lovely spot to enjoy a coffee whilst looking back over the river. (Across on the other side of the river is Columbus Wharf and the Doubletree Hilton Docklands Hotel.)

To reach the centre of Canary Wharf, climb the wide flight of steps that lead up to Westferry Circus. (If you’re feeling a little weary by now, then there’s a lift in the right-hand corner.)

At the top of the steps, cross the road and walk straight ahead through the attractive circular gardens (there are nice toilets on the left-hand side) and carry on into West India Avenue.

And I’ll just mention here that as you look ahead and see the various skyscrapers, still the tallest of them all is the 770-ft high, 50-storey One Canada Square. It was built as the centrepiece for the new Canary Wharf development that actually opened as far back as 1991. The architect Cesar Pelli chose the particularly striking stainless-steel cladding as he wanted a material that could be seen through the London mists and fogs. The building cost £624 million.

While you’re here you might want to see a little more of Canary Wharf before you leave. If so, I suggest that you continue across the North Dock bridge to West India Dock quayside.

Once across, if you wanted to take a look inside the Museum of London’s Docklands then turn to the left – it’s almost at the end of the line of warehouses. Be warned – there’s a lot to see!

You’ll notice a couple of boats moored to the left – one of these is actually a church. It’s run by St Peter’s Docklands Church, which we saw in Wapping Lane at the beginning of the walk.

Canary Wharf lies within the parish of St Anne’s Church in Limehouse. As more and more businesses relocated to Canary Wharf, the church began running lunchtime meetings and mini-services in pubs and wine bars in the area for those working there, supported by St Helen’s Church in Bishopsgate. Land and property prices were simply too high to consider building a new church, so the result was the setting up of the St Peter’s Canary Wharf Trust and in 2003 the purchase of a Dutch barge. This barge now has a permanent mooring here in West India Quay. A full-time Church of England minister was appointed to head the clergy and the ‘floating church’ now has regular lunchtime meetings and services for local Christians.

If you still have time, then after crossing the North Dock bridge, I suggest you turn to the right, and walk past the restored cranes and the huge Marriott hotel.

Ahead you’ll see the bridge that carries the DLR line across the dock – and what you see on the bridge is actually the West India Dock station. So if you need to head back to central London on the DLR then simply go up the steps and onto the platform.

However, if you still want to carry on or if you’re going back by the Elizabeth or Jubilee lines, then walk under the bridge – we’re heading for the unusual structure you can see in the dock on the other side of the bridge. The large, strange looking grilles where it says ‘Big Easy’ are actually the ventilation units for a station underneath.

To take a look around the garden I suggest you start by walking to the right; follow the right-hand path to the end where you’ll find The Giant Robot, a large, open-plan bar and restaurant. Looking out from the open terrace at the rear of the Giant Robot you can see how much land is still waiting to be developed here. And the long building that runs adjacent is currently the Billingsgate Fish Market. It moved out from it centuries old position on the bank of the Thames, close to the Tower of London, to here in 1982, but it looks like it’s on the move once again, this time to a new market development area further out of London to the east. It’s currently on a thirteen-acre site that’s now extremely valuable, so I’m sure developers will be fighting to get their hands on it once the market has gone.

Walk back down on the other (right-hand side) and when you reach the far end, you’ll find the ‘Big Chill’ – an enormous restaurant, with a small bar.

When you’re ready to leave, take the escalator or stairs back down to the floor below and turn left, walking through the interestingly designed covered Adams Plaza Bridge that brings you out on the opposite side of the road where One Canada Square, Canary Wharf’s principal building, soars 770 feet above you.

Cross over the road and walk to the left and then walk up the short flight of steps or ramp and you are in Canada Square Park. This large open space has a multitude of uses throughout the year. In the winter it’s a huge ice rink; in summer they erect giant cinema screens and show many sporting events such as Wimbledon, as well as live concerts and much more.

As you can see, there are plenty of bars and restaurants to satisfy the needs of local office workers and on a summer evening you’d be amazed at how busy it all is. In the building overlooking the square on the far side is a Waitrose store, said to be their largest in Britain, whilst on the higher floors is the Plateau Restaurant; its floor to ceiling windows give diners some great views of what’s going on below, particularly when events such as the ice skating rink are taking place in the square below.