Why Canary Wharf has just topped the list of UK retail destinations

The phrase ‘London retail’ tends to conjure up images of crowds on Oxford Street, boutiques in Marylebone or Chelsea, maybe a Westfield.

Green Street, however, has just rated Canary Wharf as the number one retail destination in not only London, but the UK as a whole.

Canary Wharf is certainly having a good year: In 2024, more than 70 million guests visited the area, up 7.5 per cent year on year. In the last 12 months Canary Wharf has opened more than 40 new stores and leisure offers, bringing its total venues to 320.

How has the glass-fronted wharf gone from pure financial district to fully-fledged retail destination in its own right in just a few years?

“First and foremost, you’ve got to give people what they want,” managing director of retail, leisure and hospitality and Canary Wharf Group, Stuart Fyfe, said.

“Whether it’s competitive socialising, whether it’s leisure, whether it’s restaurants, whether it’s food or retail, we’re constantly looking at each individual retailers’ performance [and] what we believe will be the next hottest brands.”

Plus, Canary Wharf is a natural contender for a leisure destination, Fyfe explained. Savills have gone so far as to call it a “readymade entertainment district”.

“London is a huge population and there’s a limited number of sites and potential spaces that people can occupy, so therefore Canary Wharf is beautifully placed to be able to take advantage of that,” Fyfe said.

With the combination of a large office population during the week, the residential population, and the huge amount of visitors and tourists, it has the ability to give people the “best of both worlds, so that all four of those sectors are able to come,” he added.

The arrival of the Elizabeth line has helped, too, with visitors able to utilise swift connections to Liverpool Street, Paddington, and London Heathrow.

Fashion over finance?

Canary Wharf Group’s office portfolio has been struggling with hybrid working as firms downsize: it has plunged by some £1.5bn to £4.27bn since 2021. Fitch and Moody’s both cut CWG’s ratings last year, and the latter firm itself plans to quit the Wharf for a new London office in the City.

Star tenants HSBC and law firm Clifford Chance are due to leave by 2026 and 2028 respectively as part of downsizing efforts, although Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley has added another decade to its lease.

But Canary Wharf Group has done exceptionally well at attracting non-workers: only 40 per cent of the people who went to Canary Wharf in 2023 were headed to the office, according to its data.

“If you look at our restaurant sector in particular, the most successful trading day for the majority of our restaurants is a Saturday… [people are] using their own leisure time to come to Canary Wharf as a retail and leisure destination,” Fyfe said.

Plus, lots of people come for a blended leisure experience, meaning that they won’t just come for a meal, but will combine that with shopping or a competitive socialising venue. The launch of immersive game experience The Cube, Fyfe said, was the “most successful I’ve ever been involved in”.

Canary Wharf is no stranger to change: from one of the busiest trading docks in the world, it was heavily bombed in the second world war before being unleashed by major reforms in the 1980s.

Now, it seems it is entering a new era once again.