Anybody who has worked in Canary Wharf in the past will have been in no doubt that it is very much a place of office work.

Typically, there seem to be very few families, children or older people. Most people wear office gear and the lunch hour, pre-pandemic at least, is manic with workers bustling among the designer shops, cafes and chain restaurants and (getting lost in) the underground maze of a shopping centre.

This financial centre, created in the largely derelict Docklands as an overspill to the City of London at the tail end of the Thatcher years, still has a reputation as a place people commute to, work long hours in and then escape from. The streets of the glass and steel district are noticeably quieter at the weekends.

However, there is now a very real sense that Canary Wharf is entering a new chapter of its story as it looks to the residential market, accelerated by a drop in demand for large office space caused by shifting work patterns, the covid-19 pandemic and Brexit.

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