A story could be told at this juncture, of King Henry VIII hunting here, and his dogs escaping and running wild in packs, but it is probably apocryphal, so it had better not be mentioned. The Isle of Dogs contained the main London Docks until the 1939 - 1945 war, when the area was severely pummelled. Although the docks continued operation right up to the 1980s, they have been well and truly dwarfed now by office developments. This is London Docklands. When the development started in the 1980s there was much talk of mixed developments, the Billingsgate Fish market was brought here, factories and houses were going to be built. All that was overwhelmed in the 1990s by office developments, the largest of which, Canary Wharf, is the highest building in London with two almost equally tall towers nearing completion next to it. Few architectural risks have been taken with the exception of the splendid new tube station at Canary Wharf, and only token attempts at housing, shops and factory units. As a result, the area is a desert at night and on the weekends. The one redeeming feature is the dinky little railway which runs at some height through the buildings, and makes an interesting ride.