Docklands - The Rough Guide to London - page 208

TRAINS, BOATS AND SORT OF PLANES A TOUR OF DOCKLANDS
The best, all-weather way to get a sense of the scale and architecture of Docklands is to use
the driverless, mostly elevated Docklands Light Railway or DLR. Arriving by DLR at Canary
Wharf (from Bank or Tower Hill) is particularly spectacular, with the rail line cutting right
through the middle of the of ce buildings, spanned by Cesar Pelli's parabolic steel-and-glass
canopy. At this point, you could switch to Canary Wharf's tube station , which has its Norman
Foster-designed, stingray-like entrance on West Plaza, amidst a forest of public clocks, and take
the tube one stop to North Greenwich, home of the Dome (or O2).
From close to the Dome, you can leap aboard the most recent (and unusual) addition to
London's transport system, the £60 million Emirates Air Line, a Swiss-built cable car (Mon-Fri
7am-9pm, Sat 8am-9pm, Sun 9am-9pm; £3.20 single with Oyster card), which will whisk you
silently over the River Thames to the Royal Docks , the last remaining swathe of Docklands
that has yet to be fully developed. Take the return trip to North Greenwich, and you can catch
a boat into central London and enjoy a great river view of Docklands and Greenwich.

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uneasy, socially divided community comprised of drab council housing, encompassed
by a horseshoe of crass, super-rich, riverside developments.

Canary Wharf
The strip of land in the middle of the former West India Docks, Canary Wharf was
originally a destination for rum and mahogany, and later tomatoes and bananas (from
the Canary Islands, hence the name). It's the easiest bit of the Isle of Dogs to explore
on foot, though the whole place feels a bit like a stage-set, a spotlessly clean business
quarter policed by security guards, with make-believe streets like Wren Steps and
Chancellor Passage. The most famous building is Cesar Pelli's 800ft-high stainless-steel
Canary Wharf Tower (closed to the public) - the highest building in the country for two
decades after it was completed in 1991. O cially known as One Canada Square, the
tower is flanked by Norman Foster's HSBC and Pelli's Citigroup skyscrapers, both of
which are 656ft high, glass-clad and rather dull.

West India Quay and around
North of Cabot Square, you can cross a floodlit floating bridge to West India Quay ,
probably the most pleasing development on the Isle of Dogs. Here, two Georgian
warehouses (out of nine) have survived and now house flats, bars, restaurants and the
Museum of London Docklands (see p.212). On the water, among other boats, is
London's only floating church, St Peter's Barge (talks Wed & Thurs lunchtime &
services on Sun), a Dutch freight barge that's run by St Anne's Church, Limehouse
(see opposite).
Immediately to the west of the warehouses is the old entrance to the West India
Docks, heralded by the Ledger Building (now a pub), which sports a dinky Doric
portico and, round the corner, a splendidly pompous plaque commemorating the
opening of the docks from 1800. Opposite, across Hertsmere Road, stands a small,
circular, domed building, the lone survivor of two guardhouses that flanked the main
entrance to the docks; behind it lies the former cooperage, now the Cannon Workshops .
To the northeast, behind the Ledger Building, are more little-known remnants of
the old docks, among them the stately Dockmaster's House , built in 1809 as the
Excise O ce and now a restaurant, with a smart white balustrade. Behind here, on
Garford Street, there's a prim row of Dock Constables' Cottages , built in pairs in
1802, with the one for the sergeant slightly detached. Before you reach them, you'll
pass Grieg House , a lovely yellow-and-red-brick building, built in 1903 as part of
the Scandinavian Seamen's Temperance Home, with a little cupola and lovely
exterior mouldings.