Canary Wharf in London and my little suit and tie obsession.

in #photography6 years ago

In my earlier days as a student, my friends would always be telling me their stories of London, particularly the way that the gentlemen all seem to wear suits and ties, looking very tidy all the time. I will admit, I was a little obsessed to see for myself if these stories were true and my first few days in London, I would just gasp as I walked around the streets and people watch as they went about their daily lives. I expected to see men wearing tuxedo's with top hats and walking sticks and I will say, I was a little disappointed because that is of course, not the reality of London.

I will say however, that there area few places where I think this "dream" is more of a reality than other places. You might think that somewhere like Harrods would be full of upper class people like that but it's not. Upper class maybe, but definitely not the suit and tie wearing working man. Around those areas, it's all about looking trendy, sporting the latest street where etc.

Canary wharf became my salvation because it was really the only place where I felt like the suit and tie ideal was actually real (to some extent) and I got my much needed taster of the gentlemen society there!

Canary wharf is a very distinct place because there are few areas in London with quite so many tall buildings. Traditionally known as the "banking" district, Canary Wharf has turned from being a kind of rough area otherwise, to a rather developed neighbourhood. As you can imagine with so many rich bankers working there, the surrounding neighbourhood demands a certain degree of development to accommodate.

It feels very exclusive in a way because not everybody can just drive into the main square, there's lots of barriers and security people. It feels like you need to be part of an exclusive club to roam around freely in Canary Wharf. My own entrance was masked by the fact that my friend IS actually part of that small demographic of people.

To me, the buildings which stand out the most are HSBC and Citi Bank towers. HSBC likes to put big logos on pretty much everything, and their logo tends to stand out quite a lot anyway. It's amazing that the HSBC Tower is the global headquarters of HSBC, which was previously in Hong Kong. I'm not sure what the Brexit will bring but my friend tells me a lot of the banks are thinking of reducing their headquarter presence in London and already shifting some operations abroad.

Not a good sign!

Semantics aside, I'm really glad to be able to come up close and see this place for myself. It ticks my suit and tie box, and I get to see London from some of the tallest buildings in the city.

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