Glass towers stand over dock water on both sides, and Rogue One shot its Imperial base in the Underground station below.
What Canary Wharf looks like
North Dock and South Dock hold open water on either side of the estate, with the towers standing on the reclaimed ground between them. Footbridge crosses the south dock in a steel S shaped span, pivoting to let boats through the gap. , at the Thames end, is a roundabout built on two stacked levels. runs east from it toward .
rises 235 metres in stainless steel with a linen finish, its top capped by a pyramid. A cluster of glass and stone towers stands around it, six of them now among the ten tallest buildings in the country.
Cabot Square sits at the centre of the estate, a paved plaza with a fountain and four round vents disguising the car park below, clad in cast glass at the corners. A cast of Henry Moore's Draped Seated Woman stands in the square, facing Cabot Place on its east side. A row of five storey brick warehouses went up on the north quay in 1800, and one survives today at .
The Docklands Light Railway runs on a viaduct above street level, its stations sheltered under elliptical glass roofs. The Jubilee line station beneath the estate is a long glass roofed box sunk into a drained arm of the dock.
Shot in Canary Wharf
The Jubilee line station beneath the estate has done most of the film work here. Rogue One shot there overnight while the Underground was closed, using its chrome and glass for the Imperial base on Scarif. Its escalators carried outbreak survivors down to the platforms in 28 Days Later.
28 Weeks Later, 2007
A family reunites on the Canary Wharf DLR platform inside the reoccupied quarantine zone the film calls District One. Wide shots of the tower cluster from above establish the zone earlier in the film.
Skyfall, 2012
Played a hotel pool, Shanghai, China, present day
James Bond visits a hotel pool in Shanghai at the Virgin Active health club on Westferry Circus. The club sits on the Thames side of the estate, where the riverside path curves past the Canary Riverside towers.
Towers rise from a raised plaza built over a car park, with a paved esplanade much like Cabot Square's own. Most of the district's towers stand twenty five to forty storeys, close to the scale of Canary Wharf's own office blocks. The Grande Arche is visible from most of the esplanade and immediately identifies the location, so keep it out of frame or shoot with a long lens toward the towers instead. Try searching esplanade over a car park now.
MediaCityUK at Salford Quays converted the old Manchester Docks the same way, glass office towers set between dock basins and nicknamed the Canary Wharf of the north as it went up. Its own Media City Footbridge is a cable stayed swing span on raked masts that pivots to let boats through, the same function as South Quay Footbridge here even though the two look nothing alike. The towers here top out around ninety metres against Canary Wharf's own two hundred and thirty five, so a skyline wide shot gives the smaller scale away and street level or single tower framing works better. Try searching converted dock basins footbridge now.
Puerto Madero converted its old dock basins the same way, with glass tower blocks rising behind a line of refurbished brick warehouses along the water. The Puente de la Mujer, a rotating footbridge, crosses one of the docks. Even so, its white cable stayed form looks nothing like Canary Wharf's own steel footbridges. Keep the warehouse row and the bridge's white mast out of frame, since neither has an equivalent here. Try searching glass towers behind brick warehouses now.
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