Canary Wharf: The Visit

There had been somewhere in London that I have wanted to go for a while but it was one of those places that I just hadn’t got around to visiting in such a long time. Canary Wharf is a guilty pleasure to me. I have no need to go there yet I just love visiting because I find the place so beautiful. When I visit Canary Wharf it is like I have been taken out of the London that I have been living in for all these years and taken into a new, perfect, architectural paradise where everything sparkles, is equally spaces and just planned to be exactly how it is suppose to be. I know that many people will not agree with that statement but it is just the way I feel about the place. What is also great is that it changes depending on the time of the week and the time of day that you go. If you go during the week then it is full of shirts and ties, the money and there is a very professional feel about the place. If you go during the weekend then you will see that it is full of tourists and that the place is much more relaxed. For my birthday week I decided to go on a Sunday. Last time I visited Canary Wharf, it was known that if you visited over the weekend then it would be dead and completely silent. Oh how things have changed and it was nice to see that this area is now being used seven days a week. There were tourists everywhere, the shops were open, restaurants buzzing and it just had such a different feel compared to the times that I have been during the week. Architecture in Canary wharf as you will already know by know is mainly glass towers. What I love is that this is a contrast to the towers in the main city. Whilst I love buildings like the Shard and Leadenhall, it is lovely to go to a place where all the buildings work together to create a space because none of them are fighting for attention. Apart from One Canada, Citigroup and HSBS, I think it is almost impossible to think of a tower that really stands out of the crowd (and even Citigroup barely manages to do that) By the towers all being similar and merging together it creates a place rather than split buildings and this is what really gets my creative juices flowing. The day that I visited the area was the day that many tourists were going on the London egg hunt. I decided that I would join in with my friend and have a look around for these eggs. There are some great designs out there and these are very picture worthy. There are also some horrible ones and some of these should be pushed to one side. It was freezing and we must have picked the coldest and wettest day to go. Taking photos did not last as long as I would have hoped but when your hands are falling off there really is nothing you can do. I could not even press the shutter button to take the photos so after a few hours me and my friend decided to call it a day. I did on my way home, manage to make one more stop off and that was to the O2 arena. I had not been here for years so I wanted to see how everything was progressing as buildings and areas seem to shoot up all the time around this place. I was surprised to find some new buildings, restaurants and shops that had opened up, one of the buildings being rather photogenic so as you can see by some of my photos, it is in there! (the one with the tiles!) Sadly it had gotten to the point where I needed to leave because it was the most unfriendliest day and my body was shutting down due to all the rain and wind. I really loved the visit and I can not wait to visit again when the sun is shining. If it is a place that you have never been then I would recommend that you go. Its very different to normal London and even if you do not like it, its an experience and a taster of a very different side of London.