London's Canary Wharf district is poised for its next chapter.
Initially conceived as a financial center east of the City of London, Canary Wharf has evolved to incorporate apartment buildings, greenspace, restaurants and attractions. And hotels have played a key role in the district's development.
In the years since the pandemic, firms around the globe have been reevaluating their needs for office space, which led to some attrition among some office tenants at Canary Wharf. But the district's owner, Canary Wharf Group, which manages 128 acres of the site, has a goal to evolve the area from a pure business district to a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood.
“What we needed was a population of both employees and residents, not just offices served by restaurants,” said Stuart Fyfe, Canary Wharf Group’s managing director of retail, leisure and hospitality.
Canary Wharf Group is a joint venture of Brookfield Property Partners and Qatar Investment Authority, which bought the business in March 2015 for £2.6 billion ($3.6 billion).
According to CoStar data, Canary Wharf Group is the largest regeneration project in Europe and currently has an office vacancy rate of 17.7% across 14 million square feet, which is a 20-year high in the Docklands Core office market. Office tenants include Barclays, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Moody’s Analytics and Société Géneralé.
Patrick Scanlon, CoStar’s senior director of analytics, said in the report Dockland Core has one of the highest vacancy rates of any submarket in London.
“It will likely rise further as more large firms depart. Major occupiers HSBC and Clifford Chance have signed big pre-lets to move to the City of London. The latter will exit its 1.2 million-square-foot tower here for half that amount in the City [of London] during 2026,” he said.
Scanlon added firms such as Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Revolut and Zopa all have committed to staying, with some new to the market and others expanding their footprint.
Today, Canary Wharf has more than 300 restaurants and shops, and the area’s hotel offering is part and parcel of that ambition to reinvent the district, Fyfe said.
When Canary Wharf Group started to look for hotel brands and operators, it was already surrounded by seven or so "big-box" hotels affiliated with major brands. As part of the district's new push, Fyfe said its first hotel development is the 312-room Tribe London Canary Wharf, which opened in August 2022.
“Tribe put us on the hotel map,” Fyfe said. “Before it came, the brand only had two other hotels, and it now considers our hotel its flagship.”
Accor has grown its Tribe brand to 25 hotels globally including 18 in Europe — France leads the way with nine Tribe hotels, but the brand also has hotels in Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia and The Netherlands. Additional Tribe hotels are planned for France, Hungary, The Netherlands and Poland.
Philip Lassman, vice president and head of development for Northern Europe at Accor, said the Canary Wharf district is changing — and booming. He added Accor has been in this London submarket since 2002 when it bought a site at 40 Marsh Wall and built the 313-room Novotel London Canary Wharf.
“The area now is much more of a social and residential space, attracting people that have made it a seven-days-a-week environment with shopping and entertainment. The quality of the restaurant offering is fantastic,” he said.
He added Accor's Tribe brand gave Canary Wharf a different style of hotel than it was used to.
“It is a truly meaningful and exciting brand, one that supports the leisure environment. Every floor has a double-height ceiling, from where it is possible to see for miles, although the view is getting a little more interrupted,” he said.
Canary Wharf Group has been meticulous in the type of hotel and retail brands it has invested in, Lassman said.
“Historically, it has long-term money and can afford to be very careful. They did not go with the highest [earnings before investment, taxes, depreciation and amortization] brands but with those that can help shape the area in a particular way,” he said.
According to full-year 2024 CoStar hospitality data, hotel occupancy in the Canary Wharf and Greenwich market rose 1% year over year to 77.5%, average daily rate decreased 4.3% to £138.97 and revenue per available room dipped 3.4% to £107.68. Over the same period, the City of London market — which has a number of luxury hotels in its mix — showed a 2% ADR increase to £211.07 and a 1.8% RevPAR increase to £172.25 despite a 0.2% decrease in occupancy to 81.6%.
Hotel guests, whether they're traveling for corporate or leisure reasons, are increasingly realizing Canary Wharf provides greater value in a hotel stay, Fyfe said.
The Tribe London Canary Wharf retains a good mix of corporate demand with typical three-night stays, Lassman said.
“There is a need for leisure for the other four nights, and it is no secret that there are better rates at weekends. The market is much cheaper than the West End, and security is better,” he said.
Canary Wharf Group has done well attracting startups, both for its office and restaurant spaces, and this adequately offsets occupancy and pricing larger office tenants decides to vacate the area, Lassman said.
“One client having high volumes usually equates to large discounts, so now we have a larger number of client bases, so [average daily rate] is up. The sales teams are on the ball,” Lassman said.
The second hotel Canary Wharf Group opened was new brand Vertus Edit in two, almost adjacent buildings. The 378-room hotel is designed for leisure and extended-stay guests.
Canary Wharf Group is developing additional accommodation options, Fyfe said.
“In 10 years, we want to see a full spectrum of hotels and residential, including hostels, which we see as another lifestyle segment,” he said.
Other lodging properties in development in Canary Wharf include the 78-room House of Gods, which is due to open in October, followed by 297-room serviced-apartment brand Locke at Cartier Circle.
Infrastructure and strategy
Approximately 70 million people visited London's Canary Wharf district in 2024, Fyfe said. A major reason for that shift of visitors east of Central London is the development of the Elizabeth Line, which opened in May 2022.
“The Elizabeth Line is responsible for a 20% uplift in that number” of visitors, he added.
Scanlon agreed with Fyfe that there are additional silver linings, notably the success of the Elizabeth Line.
“Increased residential and hotel development means the area is busier than ever: Footfall [was] up 25% from a year earlier. This has been aided by the arrival of the Elizabeth Line, which has reduced journey times from central London and Heathrow Airport and could boost office demand here in the medium term,” Scanlon said.
The boost in numbers underlined Canary Wharf Group’s commitment to its goal of diversification, Fyfe said. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Canary Wharf only lost seven of its 300 tenants.
“I am proud to say we did not change our strategy. It was always our goal to establish a thriving residential neighborhood. It just took longer,” he said.
That said, Canary Wharf's office availability could look quite affordable to certain businesses and organizations looking to move, Scanlon said.
“The widening delta between prime rents for top space here versus the City [of London] and the West End could help the area attract cost-conscious firms or government bodies in time, following in the footsteps of the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development and National Health Service Property Services, who have moved here from the City,” he said.
Scanlon said diversification also is benefitting Canary Wharf.
“The Canary Wharf Group seeks to position Docklands as a life sciences hub. Genomics England, Kadans and hVIVO have all taken space here over the past couple of years,” he said.
Fyfe added Canary Wharf does not rely on tourism as much as London’s West End does. While the number of visitors to the district dipped in May — in large part due to the noise on tariffs — visitors returned in June.
“We have all the right ingredients for long-term success, and we will continue to engage with local stakeholders,” he said.
Canary Wharf has 125,000 square feet leased to independent business and restaurants, the kind of places he said exude hipness, community and style, Fyfe said.
Sixty percent of visitors to Canary Wharf are locals, he added.
“We already had some of the most successful restaurants in London. I tell my teams work hard on bringing more people and getting them to stay longer and spend more,” he said.
Hungry for more
As the restaurant scene has boomed in Canary Wharf, leisure attractions could be next, Fyfe said.
Interactive, immersive attractions include Fairgame, which features modern ways of playing nostalgic fairground-attraction games, and The Cube, which challenges visitors to solve tasks and puzzles within time limits.
In October, Canary Wharf will be home to The Hunger Games, a theatrical adaptation of the novels and TV series. The performances will be held in the Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre, a purpose-built, 1,200-capacity space.
“Visitors will play or see two of these games or shows when they visit, two hours apiece, a whole day, and interspersed with [food and beverage],” Fyfe said, who added 50% of the first six months of tickets for The Hunger Games shows already are sold out.
The success of shows such as ABBA Voyage in nearby Stratford — the principal site developed for the 2012 Summer Olympics — has every record label looking at their back catalogue, Fyfe said.