Unseen influences at Canary Wharf

I went to Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs recently for a seasonal get-together with a former workmate.  I arranged for us to meet outside the tall obelisk at One Canada Square, otherwise known as the Canary Wharf Tower.

Things started badly: I became very confused and disoriented after coming out of Canary Wharf Station by the wrong exit. I waited outside the wrong building for a while. I had to send texts and find another meeting place, a big store that we could both see from where we were standing.

I know that many people have problems finding their way around the area, especially when visiting it for the first time. They rightly say that the signposting is inadequate and the multiplicity of levels and station exits makes navigation difficult. The tall corporate buildings and their huge entrance halls with all the plate glass and marble look much the same at ground level, which doesn’t help either.

Although I have been to Canary Wharf several times, I always have trouble finding my way around - even with a map. It is as if something inside me is reset and I go back to square one each time I go there; previous visits have done nothing to familiarise me with the area. My inner compass often goes haywire; I set off in the wrong direction and sometimes get so lost that it takes a while to get back on track.

Two recent fires in Central London: areas with masonic connections

There have been two fires in Central London recently that are of great interest to people who study unseen influences: one was an underground electric cable fire in Kingsway, the other was in the lift motor room on the roof of a building in Great Portland Street. 

The second fire broke out this afternoon. Both fires caused black smoke to rise into the air over Central London.

Both areas have masonic connections: Freemasons’ Hall, the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England, is in Great Queen Street, just off Kingsway; Great Portland Street is close to Portland Place, where No. 33 has some interesting associations:

"The Holroyds were a very well connected family and often had influential guests to stay. For a period after 1835, for instance, Lord Charles Townsend, an immensely wealthy gentleman and Grand Master of the Freemasonic Lodges, inhabited the premises. Many residents have since chanced a glimpse of Lord Charles’ ghost drifting down the main staircase clad in Templar robes!"

Read more about No. 33 Portland Place here.