Recently, I visited London’s Canary Wharf district to report on its hotel offering, which is varied and imaginative.
Canary Wharf Group, a joint venture of Brookfield Property Partners and Qatar Investment Authority, owns much of the land in this district, reclaimed from what not too many years ago was abandoned or underused docklands.
Its growing number of hotels is pinned by Tribe London Canary Wharf, a 312-room hotel from Accor, and Vertus Edit, which has 378 rooms. Together, the two hotels serve both leisure and extended-stay guests in Canary Wharf. And just recently the district welcomed the House of Gods hotel, the third in that chain that has sister properties in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Canary Wharf Group has designed the district in a space that is contained, allowing the partners to add green space, art, attractions, excellent restaurants and innovative residences that let people to be in the heart of a very happening locale.
In early September, I was invited back to the area for the inaugural Run the Wharf 5K road race, in which 4,000 runners took part. The event was organized by Canary Wharf Group and running groups Friday Night Lights and London Marathon Events, which also puts on the London Marathon.
Adding to the step of organizers was that banking giant HSBC had recommitted to the area with a lengthy lease, despite much newspaper speculation that it was due to commit to office space in the City of London, a couple of miles to the west.
The course weaved around four of the district’s squares over two laps, and it was a celebration of the district, athleticism and health. It all finished in Canada Square, the district’s principal plaza where the post-run party under bright lights, fueled by DJs, was continuing when I left at 10 p.m., some two hours after the last runner crossed the finish line.
At the post-race pizza party above this square I chatted with Shobi Khan, Canary Wharf Group’s CEO. He said when the idea for a 5K run came about, it was important for him, the group and the district to make it open to all.
That is made easier if one owns all the land the race is held on, but there must be a limit of how many runners can gather there if one wished to make the race viable — both for runners who run sub-4-minute kilometers and for those who jog-walk the entire way, but who still have as much fun as everyone else.
Inevitably the faster runners on their second loop had to maneuver around the slower runners, but that all seemed to go smoothly.
I joked with Khan that perhaps to include more runners, the Canary Wharf Group might have to build a footbridge cross the River Thames and acquire some of the land in Greenwich on the south side of the river that contains the O2 Arena and the cable car to the ExCeL Arena.
There will be a second event of this race/run in 2026, so keep that on the agenda.
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