On May 17, 6:22*pm, TimB wrote:

On May 17, 3:48 pm, Mr Thant
wrote:

On 17 May, 00:56, Mizter T wrote:
Not so quick - there is another reason, namely that North Quay will be
the worksite for the Crossrail station. The Canary Wharf Group (CWG)
can't begin construction of the new office development on North Quay,
which already has planning permission, until the Crossrail station box
has been finished - which it should be by summer 2012. So the shops
aren't the driving force here.

Ah, that makes sense.

So the station is CWG's 'baby', which perhaps explains the addition of
the four floors of retail (is this element really such a late addition
though?).

Yes. Original design with two separate islands (see drawing page 336):
http://billdocuments.crossrail.co.uk...1.Environmenta...

Announcement of new design (July 2008):
http://www.canarywharf.com/news/ns_news_t.asp?id=344

(it may have always been envisioned something might go in the middle,
but certainly it was only as an optional extra)

There's something else big happening in the Stratford area in 2012
(can't immediately think what...) which might feed a desire to get
worksites cleared away, retail open etc.

Hmm, whilst "ready by 2012" is the magic phrase in London planning, I
can't really see this being particularly connected - I think it's
really more to do with dovetailing in with the overall Crossrail
construction timetable.