糖心传媒

Boom and bust

That George Iacobescu was even in London in 1986 was itself nothing short of  remarkable. Born and educated in socialist Romania, he had emigrated to Canada in 1975 after he was 鈥渟old鈥� by the authorities to an aunt who lived in Montréal for US$5,000. 鈥淚 left legally, so I didn鈥檛 escape,鈥� says Sir George. 鈥淏ut I escaped in a moral way.鈥�

A fish out of water, he went to a party one Saturday that would change his life. 鈥淚 was lucky enough not to know anybody there,鈥� he remembers. 鈥淚 met a gentleman on the steps of the house and we talked about construction all night. On Monday, I got an offer to be the assistant to the executive vice president of his company.鈥�

That company was Olympia & York, which by then had built First Canadian Place, a 300-metre skyscraper in Toronto that remains Canada鈥檚 tallest building. Unsurprisingly, smart-thinking and hard-working as he was, Sir George rose quickly through the ranks, and by 1988 had joined the London Docklands鈥� regeneration team as a senior vice president of construction.

He wasn鈥檛 the only one landing in the British capital at the time. 鈥淪uddenly the world鈥檚 banks flocked to London to try this new elixir,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut there was no infrastructure and no development.鈥�

Olympia & York surveyed the City of London and found it was woefully unsuited to the demands of this burgeoning new era. 鈥淲e discovered that 85 per cent of the buildings there did not have the technology,鈥� says Sir George. 鈥淭hey had no power, they had no communication, they had no air conditioning and no floor plates. That created the need for Canary Wharf.鈥� Olympia & York accepted Mrs Thatcher鈥檚 invitation, and took it on.

The vision was the stuff of science fiction 鈥� and targeted squarely at the financial sector. Towering buildings would service the new high-speed digital age with dual power sources and state-of-the-art communications infrastructure, all buried with waste and drainage outlets in eight-metre deep concrete boxes installed under new roads, future-proofing them for hundreds of years. Building floorplates would be almost 30,000 square feet, roughly six times greater than the NatWest Tower, the City鈥檚 totem at the time.

The final flourish was that rents would be half what was on offer in the Square Mile, London鈥檚 historic commercial centre, just four miles away. 鈥淭hat was what the financial services industry needed,鈥� says Sir George. 鈥淎nd this was a new product for that industry.鈥�

Construction began in 1988. With no roads and no rail, 90 per cent of the first phase of Canary Wharf 鈥� 4.5 million square feet 鈥� was built by bringing the thousands of tonnes of material needed in by barge from Tilbury, something that had never been done before. Meanwhile, the construction workers were bussed as close as possible to the site and then walked in the rest of the way, as there were no roads. Concrete, sheet metal and rebar plants were built on-site to speed up building. One thousand uniform trees were shipped over from Germany for landscaping. And up sprang Canary Wharf.

On 26 August 1991, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh opened One Canada Square, a gleaming stainless steel monolith with a pyramid-shaped tip, London鈥檚 new tallest building. In phase one, Olympia & York had overseen the construction of 4.5 million square feet and spent £2.5bn, one billion of it on infrastructure. The scale of the achievement still hasn鈥檛 left Sir George. 鈥淭he first thing you learn at university is that if you want to develop something, first you do the roads and the transport,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hen the development comes around it. Here it was the other way round.鈥�

But the timing was terrible. By late 1991, the UK had entered a recession, and the global economy was in turmoil. In 1985, Sir George remembers, London office vacancy had been at three per cent. Come 1991, the figure was 20 per cent. Canary Wharf also had competition. Seeing its potential to lure talent and money away from the Square Mile, the City of London had opened its doors to developers, too. London鈥檚 traditional, conservative financial services sector was not in the mood to move, particularly not to the Isle of Dogs.

Moreover, there was still no way to get there. The Limehouse Link wouldn鈥檛 open until 1993 (鈥渢wo months ahead of schedule and three years too late,鈥� says Sir George), the same year the DLR finally became operational. Thatcher鈥檚 Jubilee Line extension, promised in 1986, was finished in December 1999. In 1992, with One Canada Square empty, Olympia & York went bust.

Beyond a bankers' paradise

Thirty years on, Canary Wharf鈥檚 initial failure belongs to another age. Now, it鈥檚 a global financial powerhouse, home to thousands, and a destination for around 49 million visitors a year.

What happened? 鈥淚f you want to know the history of Canary Wharf, it鈥檚 the history of transport,鈥� says Sir George. 鈥淐anary Wharf equals infrastructure and transport.鈥� The upturn began in 1995 when an international consortium, seeing links to the site improving, acquired what had become Canary Wharf Limited, and appointed Paul Reichmann as chairman. In 1997, Sir George was appointed CEO, and then Chairman and CEO in 2011, his title today.

His pride at what he and what is now known as Canary Wharf Group have realised is tangible. 鈥淲hen we started, everybody was worried Frankfurt would take over London,鈥� he says. 鈥淭oday, Canary Wharf is 50 per cent bigger than the financial centre of Frankfurt. Just Canary Wharf, not including the City of London.

鈥淗e鈥檚 keen to impress that Canary Wharf is more than just a banker鈥檚 paradise. In recent years, residential towers have been built to accommodate a new generation drawn to Canary Wharf鈥檚 clean streets, buzzy atmosphere and entrepreneurial culture. Sir George says around 4,000 people now call it home, lured by new developments like Wood Wharf, and that around 70 per cent of the 120,000 people who worked on the site pre-pandemic have already returned. The disaster of the early 1990s is long forgotten.

鈥淧eople are discovering that there is a lot more than banking here,鈥� says Sir George. 鈥淐anary Wharf is becoming a hub for people to come and have a nice life, as opposed to just coming to work.鈥�

He says there are now more than 300 shops and restaurants in Canary Wharf, as well as four health clubs (including the largest in the capital) and 20 acres of outdoor space. The site hosts 200 cultural events every year. Canary Wharf鈥檚 Waitrose is the retailer鈥檚 number one UK outlet, he insists, describing the area as a 鈥�15-minute city鈥�, where everything a resident needs can be reached on foot in a quarter of an hour or less. 鈥淚t takes 30 years to become an overnight success,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 think we鈥檙e past that point.

鈥淎s the group looks to expand the site, it faces new challenges. 鈥淏rexit has damaged the [construction] industry, no question,鈥� says Sir George, lamenting the spike in the price of raw materials and the loss of labour since the 2016 referendum. He sees the current government鈥檚 levelling-up agenda as a threat, too. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 help London to grow and bring it to the same level as the rest of the world鈥檚 capitals, you鈥檙e levelling down,鈥� he says.

Sustainability is a major challenge, too, but one he says Canary Wharf is meeting, having accelerated its green agenda five years ago. 鈥淲e will hit net zero much sooner than 2050, probably 2030,鈥� he says, confirming there will be no carbon off-setting involved.

A new 鈥済reening鈥� initiative led by Shobi Khan, his successor as Chief Executive, and supported by the Eden Project, is a flagship, while the group is funding the refurbishment of older buildings, such as One Canada Square to make them more sustainable. 鈥淚t鈥檚 much easier and cheaper to make an old building sustainable than to make a brand new sustainable building,鈥� Sir George says, citing the regulations now attached to the supply chain.

A new Georgian era

But what about the future? Working from home and the prospect of a four-day week appear not to have diminished Sir George鈥檚 optimism. He recalls conversations led by the group more than 20 years ago that catalysed the Elizabeth Line. 鈥淐rossrail acts like an elastic,鈥� he says. 鈥淓ither it pulls the City towards Canary Wharf, or vice versa. Canary Wharf will thrive. In time, close your eyes, and Canary Wharf and the City will be one connected piece.

鈥淟ooking back, he鈥檚 under no illusions as to what Canary Wharf has done for London. 鈥淧eople understand that Canary Wharf, the City and the Square Mile created the power of London,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut without Canary Wharf? Even the City of London says Canary Wharf was the release valve that helped us over all the other cities.

鈥淭oday, Canary Wharf is a base for the world鈥檚 largest banks, including Credit Suisse, Barclays, HSBC, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, BNY Mellon and Northern Trust. 鈥淲ith the exception of Goldman Sachs and UBS, they鈥檙e all here.鈥�

鈥淲hen we started,鈥� Sir George continues, 鈥淐anary Wharf was something completely different to what existed. Look at the Square Mile. Today it looks just like Canary Wharf. It鈥檚 not Canary Wharf that imitated the Square Mile. It isn鈥檛 a servile imitation, it鈥檚 a creative imitation. But it鈥檚 an imitation.鈥� He sees the two as being 鈥渋n friendly competition鈥� 鈥� two sides of the same coin.

That said, he has little time for the priapic obsession with tall buildings, insisting there are no plans to regain the title of the UK鈥檚 tallest building, held by One Canada Square until 2012, when it was overtaken by The Shard. 鈥淵ou have to create buildings so people can work and live and have a pleasant life,鈥� he says. 鈥淎rchitecture for the purpose of architecture doesn鈥檛 stand the test of time.

鈥淣ow 76 years old and a British citizen, the first Romanian-born businessman to become a Knight of the Realm shows no signs of stopping. 鈥淪uccess is hard work and there is no shortcut,鈥� he says. He does two days a week as Canary Wharf Group鈥檚 chairman, devoting much of the rest of his time to charitable projects, such as sitting on the advisory board of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and on the board of trustees of the Royal College of Music. 鈥淩etirement is overrated,鈥� he says, a broad smile spreading across his face.

Robin Swithinbank is a contributor to the New York Times, GQ and the Financial Times, and is former editor of The Jackal