Wharfs in London

From Canary Wharf there is also the Jubilee Line- 5 stops (9 minutes) to Waterloo, 6 stops (10 minutes) to Westminster (for the Churchill War Museum).

Change at Westminster onto the Circle/District lines 2 stops (4 minutes) to Victoria or 4 stops (8 minutes) to South Kensington.

There is even a night bus- the N550 which takes just 30 minutes to Canary Wharf from Trafalgar Square- every 30 minutes all night.

The Thames Clipper/Uber Boats also run from Canary Wharf to Westminster (and way further as far as Putney), and to Greenwich (and beyond) in the other direction. Or the DLR direct to Greenwich.

One stop on the Jubilee line to North Greenwich for the IFS Cable Car over the Thames.

So Canary Wharf is quite a reasonable location to stay in, IMO.

What are you looking for or what sort of criteria?

I really enjoy Locke-at-Broken-Wharf. Their city studio with a river view is perfectly sized for a solo traveler and a great view of the Thames and Millennium Bridge. Their larger rooms are probably ideal for couples. Love the location, the area lively during the day and gets quiet at night. It's near St Paul's, Bankside. There's a Co-Op, Sainsbury Local and Tesco Express near by. St Paul's, Mansion House, Bank, Cannon St, and Blackfriars tube stations are all within a half mile walk.

Whilst as stated above Canary Wharf has all the facilities you need and you can access the rest of the city pretty quickly it may well not be what your vision of staying in London is. It’s an area redeveloped in the 1980s with large office and accommodation blocks and feels more like staying in Manhattan than London. I would recommend that you have a look at some pictures if you’re not aware. Apologies if you do know.

It is interesting to me that both the Locke@Broken Wharf and the Lincoln Plaza in Canary Wharf require pre-authorization if booking refundable rates! That is a first for me- just want to be sure that my cc isn't charged now since we aren't headed to London for 11 months! Is this a usual practice for London accommodations?

Not a universal practice, but common enough with many hotels.

With Locke, they're not taking the funds for the stay at booking, they're not pre-authorizing the rate for the whole stay, but they are insuring the card is good by pre-authorizing a charge that amounts to 1% of the booked rate. It'll appear as pending for a day or two and then quickly drops off. No money is taken until you check-in, and no problems with canceling a reservation.

Now we know the name of the hotel at Canary Wharf is the Lincoln Plaza in Canary Wharf, that for me personally, would swing the balance of convenience back to Locke @ Broken Wharf.

The reason is it's distance from Canary Wharf station which I think you would find inconvenient in relative terms. It is significantly closer to South Quay DLR station- 2 stops south of Canary Wharf, thus a change of train.
Yet not really far enough to justify a taxi- a difficult call.
If the rate was substantially cheaper (as some of the hotels out there are) there would be a convenience vs cost equation- for me that could balance me to Canary Wharf.

Ultimately it is your personal decision. That is just my 2 cents for what it's worth.

Using Hilton points and money, the Lincoln would be less money by at least 100GBP. Between my initial post and this I went to the library, returned with three London guides (RS, DK and Lonely Planet) and did a little more research on Canary Wharf and nearby Greenwich, which seems easy to reach from the LIncoln. We travel with carryons and personal item only, and after schlepping them last summer from Paris Metro Etienne Marcel-Gare du Nord-Amsterdam Centraal-river cruise dock, the journey to get to the Lincoln Plaza doesn't sound too stressful. At this point, I am thinking of waiting to book until after Thxgiving when a couple of Hilton- brand stays before then will yield more points and less per night cost.

isn31c's good info seals it for me. No contest. Locke @ Broken Wharf has had some very positive comment from contributors to this forum and the location is a good one. I like it around that south end of The City. Paternoster Square has all you need and is only a few minutes walk. I'm not a fan of privately managed public spaces, but that is a good one as far they go. That location puts you in a good place to see The City and it's only a short walk across the river into Southwark, one of London's most characterful boroughs.

To add a little prosaic hyperbole to Johnew52's post above, the phrase that springs to mind when I think of Canary Wharf is "corporate hellhole". Fine if you love the smell of dirty money, even though many there are doing their best to launder it to make it smell a bit nicer. It's low crime on the surface, but policed by rent-a-cops because it's also a privately managed space. Going into detail with regards to what's going on behind a lot of the closed doors in Canary Wharf apartment blocks is outwith the bounds of this forum and would be pure hearsay, not to mention offensive to the majority good people who live there.

Canary Wharf always just feels very soulless to me. It’s a purpose built development of flats, offices and shopping malls with all the open space privately managed and therefore very bland. I have stayed there when visiting London sometimes because it can be relatively cheap for a decent standard of hotel and the transport connections are good if you are close to Canary Wharf station.

To be fair Gerry, I suspect the majority of what you might be insinuating now goes on in the venture capital offices of equally soulless areas in the West End.

I suspect the majority of what you might be insinuating now goes on in the venture capital offices of equally soulless areas in the West End.

Yes indeed John. The City too. At least The City has some nice old churches to look at though.

I worked at One Canada Square for six weeks in 2002. It's quite exciting if you're going there for work. All the skyscrapers and what have you. It is quite an impressive modern place. The tube station is one of the best on the network I think and the DLR can sometimes be very cool to see. I was glad to be staying with a friend in Hackney to see some real life though.

It's way more developed now than it was in 2002, especially on the residential front. Definitely a seedy underbelly to that chrome and glass. The casual visitor may be able to remain oblivious though.