# Canary Wharf **Canary Wharf** is a privately owned business district on the Isle of Dogs in east London, built on the former West India Docks. About 105,000 people work there. It is the place where the zone, a device first used in colonies and poor countries, was brought home to a rich democracy. ## How it was built London's docks had closed by 1980. [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s government, in office from 1979, responded with two tools. The first was the enterprise zone, an idea her ministers took from [[Hong Kong]]: her ally Keith Joseph wanted districts free of tax, labor law and health and safety rules. Eleven were created, and the Isle of Dogs became one in 1982. The second was the London Docklands Development Corporation, set up in 1981 with the power to bypass the elected local councils and the normal planning process. Plans for a financial district on the site were unveiled in 1985 and nicknamed "Hong Kong-on-Thames." The Canadian developer Olympia & York began building in 1988 and finished the central tower, One Canada Square, in 1991, a year before going bankrupt. In 1986 the government abolished the Greater London Council, the elected city-wide authority, which had fought her government over the city's future. ## Why it's on the map Canary Wharf is the modern sequel to the [[City of London]] and a chapter of Quinn Slobodian's *[[Crack-Up Capitalism]]*. It shows the method that [[Freedom Cities]] would bring to the United States: take land out of ordinary local democracy, hand it to a developer with special powers, and call the result renewal. It also shows that the method needs a strong central government willing to override the neighbors. ## See Also - [[City of London]] - [[Special Economic Zone]] - [[Hong Kong]] - [[United Kingdom]]