The new and the old financial centre

London is the world's financial centre. Hence a visit to London would not be complete without seeing the financial centre itself. London has two financial district now. The square mile, also known as the City, is the traditional financial centre, while Canary Wharf, which was intensively developed in the last decade, is rivalling City's status. The 3 tallest building in UK are all located here - One Canada Square, HSBC Tower and Citigroup Centre.

I finally brought Johanna to visit these two areas yesterday evening. Actually it was also an adventure for me since I've never really visited the Canary Wharf area during my undergraduate days in London. We took Jubilee line to Canary Wharf from Waterloo, possibly the smoothest tube route in London. Upon exiting the tube station, we were greeted by blocks of modern skyscrappers around Canada Square. Johanna was really impressed. I was happy to know that since she has been disappointed with quite a number of things in London - stuffy tube, crowded and dirty areas and tedious procedures in opening bank accounts, renting house, etc.

We decided to be more adventurous - took Docklands Light Railway (DLR) train to Lewisham and then back to Canary Wharf again. We discovered that one DLR station is near the flat we are moving in in October. Hence we took another DLR train to Devons Road and find our way to the flat. Not bad. Only 10 minutes walk from the DLR station.

We took a DLR train to Bank after that. Yet again Johanna was impressed, this time with the City. I showed her the Bank of England, London Stock Exchange and of course Lloyds. She wasn't impressed with the controversial design of Lloyds.

We went back to Canary Wharf again today. This time around, I brought along my camera. Unfortunately, we have the typical London grey sky today, hence most of the photos look quite dull. In the end I've decided to desaturate some of them. To view more, please visit http://jihying.com/photos/canary_wharf/.