Canary Wharf, 1983

In 1983, Canary Wharf was a very different place from today, as the aerial photo below illustrates (click for larger version).

The view is looking approximately north-east, with the Thames in the foreground and Poplar at the top of the picture. The three visible docks are the former West India Docks, which occupied the northern part of the Isle of Dogs.

Just above and to the left of the top dock are the warehouses now known as West India Quay, and home to the excellent and now free Museum of London in Docklands. At the end of that terrace is the old ledger building, now a Wetherspoon pub called the Ledger Building.

Within the docks, two wharves jut out into the West India Docks; the larger of the two was Canary Wharf.

The view below from yell.co.uk shows the staggering change in the course of a quarter of a century; the last large site which is as-yet unbuilt can be seen by the Thames in the foreground, just below the two-level Westferry Circus roundabout. This is the site of Riverside South, a mammoth development of new offices up to 236 metres high, owned by and planned for JP Morgan. The basement levels are under construction at the moment, although it is unclear as yet whether JPM will go through with the full build, given the financial pressures on the financial sector at the present time.