unionjack.jpgThe subject of today’s visitation was the Canary Wharf Group, PLC. However in class, we went over the visitation to Barclays from yesterday and talked about the various banks and their niche markets. So far, class has been running like the seminar it’s supposed to be and we’ve been getting in some decent discussion during our mornings.

We broke from class around 11:30 and then reconvened at the hotel at 1. I took that time to call my mom and wish her a happy birthday, since it was about 6:30am EDT and I figured she wasn’t yet at work. We took the DLR out to Canary Wharf and got to go to the 30th floor, where the Canary Wharf Group has their headquarters. It was most interesting that Canary Wharf got the right to develop what was essentially abandoned land and turn it into a real estate prospect wherein the growth rate of prospective leaseholders is enormous. The entire wharf has been developed and maintained by the group, in particular the relationship with the London Department of Transport, which has allowed Canary Wharf the transportation means to incentivise companies to move their offices there. Major tenants include HSBC, Citigroup, Barclays, KPMG, Oglivy & Mather, and more.

Howard Sheppard, Planning Advisor, gave us a rather lengthy description of the Canary Wharf development occuring in the past decade, and we even got to seen the various models of London and of the buildings that have been sprouting up. The amount of capital investment in Canary Wharf has to be massive, so the building themselves are truly where the financial centre of London is located.

From Canary Wharf, we took the DLR and tube back to the hotel around 3:30 and I was able to get back here to the WiFi cafe, only to find out that Myspace was having a glitch with the 24 airings and I couldn’t catch last night’s 24. It’s alright though. Around 7:30, we’re meeting up with one of my old McGill roommates, Claire, and going to dinner and/or a pub. Not only will it be cool to get a chance to see her before she takes off for the Cannes Film Festival as part of her job (since I haven’t seen her in a couple of years), but also to know someone living here in London who can show us a couple of the cool places around.

We have no visitations tomorrow (though it’s my job to attempt to get us into Financial Times offices before the seminar is over), so the afternoon might be some presentations. Most likely, it will also be a good day (and trip midpoint) to pick up some postcards and start sending them out.