How HSBC Quitting Canary Wharf Tower Could Help Fix UK Housing Crisis

The HSBC headquarters in Canary Wharf, London.

HSBC’s plan to leave its Canary Wharf tower for a smaller site shows the global challenges ahead in repurposing unwanted office space for a post-pandemic world.

Two bronze lions, each sitting atop eight lucky coins, flank the entrance to the HSBC Tower in London’s Canary Wharf, meant to bring prosperity and good luck to the bank and roughly 8,000 workers inside its global headquarters.

But the building’s fortunes are changing — much for the worse — with the bank relocating in 2027 after more than two decades in the Norman Foster-designed tower. Its new home will be a space roughly half the size in the City of London.