(Bloomberg) -- If there’s a London neighborhood that personifies the UK’s roller-coaster commercial real estate market, it’s Canary Wharf. The district’s growing pains have been well documented, since it was first envisioned as an alternative financial center to the City in the early 1980s. The year after its tallest building, One Canada Square, was completed in 1991, Canary Wharf’s developers filed for bankruptcy.
Three decades on, the challenges continue. Canary Wharf’s highest-profile casualty is the giant HSBC Holdings headquarters, the 45-story building at 8 Canada Square, that’s due to be vacated before the building’s lease expires in early 2027.
Undeterred, owners Canary Wharf Group are looking for an audience in the face of empty office buildings. Stuart Fyfe, managing director of retail, leisure and hospitality, says the goal is to turn Canary Wharf into a destination that thrives in the evening and weekends. “We’ve seen a huge increase in both visitors and residents: 67.2 million visitors last year, up 25% from the year before, and 3,500 people already live in Canary Wharf, with that number set to double over the next few years.” He adds, “the vast majority of our restaurateurs say that Saturday is their best trading day.”
Canary Wharf is now home to more than 70 bars, cafés and restaurants, including 30 that opened their doors since the pandemic. New to residential neighborhood Wood Wharf is Roe, a 500-cover waterfront restaurant from the team behind Fallow. Marceline, a two-story, glass-walled French brasserie on a floating pavilion, opened in early August. The groovy Mediterranean restaurant and late-night music venue Hovarda is slated to open in late September: “Their target crowd won’t be back from the beach clubs until then,” Fyfe says, laughing.
Another project slated for the not-too-distant future comes from seasoned restaurateur Des Gunewardena, former partner in the D&D group. He’s earmarked a 9,500-square-foot space for a concept with bars, restaurants and terraces with notable views of Canada Square Park.
Liam Nelson, operations director at Marceline, says a mix of workers, visitors and residents are filling his 9,000-square-foot brasserie: “CWG is building thousands of residential units over the next few years, and we really want to get a lot of regulars, which is what gives a great brasserie its neighborhood buzz.” He calls the Elizabeth Line, which has a stop there, “a game changer, even on a Wednesday night,” In 2023, there was a 25% increase in journeys to Canary Wharf from a year earlier.
However, Fyfe points out that “you can’t just keep opening restaurants. We need to offer a whole range of options.” In the next 10 years, he says, a 1,200-seat theater is slated to open and he envisions there will be five or six hotels at varying price points. Fyfe also notes the rise in competitive socializing concepts, like the popular Fairgame with digitally enhanced carnival games, and drinks and street food for sustenance. “It’s easy to fill the spaces with chains, but we want operators who can disrupt the market.”
Back at 8 Canada Square, CWG are partnering with property owners Qatar Investment Authority to convert sections of the vacated building into bars, restaurants terraces and leisure facilities. If approved, visitors will be eating and drinking there by 2030.
Increasingly, Canary Wharf is the place to be. Here are five new and upcoming places to put on your list.
Marceline
Chef Robert Aikens, twin brother of celebrity chef Tom, oversees the menu at this bright, breezy new brasserie. The décor and menu are inspired by Paris’s classic art nouveau watering holes, but there are modern twists like elegant beige banquettes that replace standard red velvet. Aikens’smenu has trendy, Comté-filled ravioli Dauphiné for £14 ($18), cheeseburger “à l’Américaine” alongside a nostalgic dish of trout tossed in brown butter with toasted almonds (£28) and classic steak frites oozing with beurre maître d’hotel (£19.50). The £5 “two-sip martini” is properly bracing, while the mainly French wine list is mixed with a range of English sparkling wines.
Roe
The second restaurant from the trio behind Fallow in St James’s, Roe occupies prime waterside real estate between Wood Wharf and South Dock. The vast space is broken up with riotously quirky décor, not least a huge, 3D-printed tree, and the menu is quirky too. A scorched, puffy, not-so-flat flatbread is topped with snail vindaloo and raita (£11); tender skewered octopus and spicy sausage are grilled and draped in samphire (£13). The “Blooming Onion” is a whole bulb carefully chopped and floured so it explodes in the fryer, then festooned with edible flowers and garlic mayo; likewise, the caramelized banana parfait with toasted vanilla is a tour de force. There are impeccably sourced steaks and fish, and a good venison and dairy cow burger (£16), but go for the creative small plates and desserts; there’s nothing else quite like it in London.
Hawksmoor
It’s just over two years old, but Hawksmoor in Wood Wharf feels like the granddaddy of the new-wave Canary Wharf dining scene. The B Corp-certified business, with outposts in Dublin, New York and Chicago, offers sustainably reared beef and bespoke cocktails. It’s attracted a loyal crowd to the eco-friendly “floating pavilion” in E14. New this season are the Wood Wharf Terrace on the restaurant’s lower deck, and a well-priced lunch menu that features a 55-day dry-aged rump steak and Basque-style, charcoal-grilled chicken with roasted garlic, lemon and olive oil, each for £19.50. The BYO Mondays are a good opportunity to shop your cellar: Corkage is just £5.
Kricket
In 2015, Will Bowlby and Rik Campbell started Kricket in a Brixton shipping container, serving modern Indian cuisine to 20 diners. Their new 80-cover restaurant, overlooking North Dock, is their fourth permanent site. Next door is Soma 2.0, an iteration of the Soho branch’s speakeasy-like bar, which stays open until 1 a.m. on weekends. Executive chef Bowlby’s menu is strong on southern Indian specialties, like Keralan pork neck curry, with fragrant fried ginger and the crunch of peanuts (£16), while grilled quail pandhra rassa, cooked in a spiced coconut gravy is enriched with smoked chicken fat (£18). But there are also northern-influenced dishes like grilled trout Himalayan-style, spiked with tangy green tomato chutney, and a seekh kebab made with beef and ox heart, paired with horseradish (£14).
Opening Soon: Hovarda
Coming in late September, Hovarda Canary Wharf is the cool younger sister of Hovarda Soho, a knocked-through pair of townhouses with Aegean-inspired, seafood-centered dishes and a late-night, DJ-driven lounge bar. The new outpost will be expanded, with a 139-cover restaurant and an 8-meter (26-foot) bar: Interiors are by Cousi Interiorismo, designers of chic bars and restaurants in Madrid. Expect orzo with red prawns, slow-cooked lamb kleftiko, cocktails mixed by white-jacketed bartenders, plenty of ouzo and raki flowing at the bar, and a free-spirited crowd dancing till the small hours. A night in Canary Wharf is about to get later and louder.
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