Docklands - A Private City?

On May 28th, 1992, the company of Olympia and York, developers of Canary Wharf in London's Docklands, went into administration owing the banks £550 million and in need of a further £600 million to complete the first phase of construction which included the Jubilee Line extension. The failure sent a frisson of fear through the financial world as a property Goliath was felled. Coverage of the 'disaster' appeared daily in the media as analysts conjectured as to the effect the company's collapse would have on the property world, stock market and international financial scene. Little was made of the socio-economic impact the failure would have on the local community, but then its plight was not the stuff of headlines. Docklanders were there, as they always had been, to be used and abused by the forces of trade and finance, by the needs and whims of the market and society.