Canary Wharf and the Docklands Museum

One Canada Tower - the original skyscraper

Dave has wanted to pay a visit to Canary Wharf since we moved here, it being an up-and-coming financial centre of London.  It is a strange place to visit, in fact the buildings present all date from the 1980's and later.  In fact the area used to be the docks of London, hence the Docklands Museum, and you can still see the canals as you walk around the massive skyscrapers which are now present.  The UK's tallest buildings are all located here, though there are a few being built closer to the City which will take back that crown.  The first buildings were all completed in 1991, and it must have been a very strange place back then, not that it is much more normal now.  To give you some idea, it is built on the Isle of Dogs, and historically it certainly hasn't been a pleasant place, full of marshes and biting insects.  So to see the gleaming skyscrapers and endless panes of glass it has certainly come a long way.  Though there are still back-lots which appear as if the money hasn't quite reached there yet.

Back-lots on Canary wharf, quite a contrast, still waiting re-development

Empty streets on the weekends - a land of zombies?

Whilst the skyscrapers are massive, and fairly plentiful, it doesn't feel like there's anyone living there.  Walking around on the weekend was like a ghost town, and whilst the City of London is not much better, there are at
least little pubs and churches thrown in to mix things up a bit.  Here it was all massive buildings and empty streets and not a lot of people walking around.  It was a bit like the Sydney, in that there were many shopping centres built under the ground.  Once you found them you saw there were actually a few people around, it's just they were mole people.  I wonder if the apartment blocks there have a direct route to both the underground station and the shopping centres, so that people never have to venture onto the streets?

Along the Thames towards the city

Outside the Docklands Museum

After reliving 28 Days Later we went onto the Docklands Museum, this, for us, was a trip down memory lane.  When we first moved here the Museum of London was 5 minutes away from our temporary accommodation, and they also run the Docklands Museum.  It was back to the beginnings for us.  I would recommend this museum, London is a city built on the river, and the docks were an integral part to it's history.  From the East Indian company, to the slave trade in the Caribbean, to whaling and pirates, it was all there.  In fact I think the section on the slave trade was really well done, though I think I also seem to have a fascination with the worst of humanity.

A slave collar and a whip, the idea being that the hooks of the collar would get caught in the trees

Before there were bridges, there were ferries, in fact the City had to pay the ferries compensation when the bridges were built

The Christmas lights of Canary Wharf