Parts of CW are ok at night. It's improving. I went there for dinner with an old friend the other week and it was buzzing.

Come on, I lived on the Isle of Dogs (2 manilla st) for 2 years. That's right next to Canary Wharf (a literal 2 minute walk). While it's true the actual Canary Wharf area has its own private guards its not a typical gated community. Yes, there are clever underground car barriers(I don't think I ever saw them closed though), but there are no surrounding fences etc. I don't think it's a good example of a "private owned gated community" at all. Anyone can just walk in.

Also, Isle of Dogs is a great example of how private/public partnerships can lift an area out of poverty. The Tower Hamlets area which Isle of Dogs is a part of has been a very poor area with lots of drug/theft/poor housing problems etc. Then lots of high rises were built (including the one I lived in) and some petty crime remained, but the quality of life was pretty good there. The best things being really good access to public transport, access to the river, shops/restaurants an NHS health centre that isn't overwhelmed with patients etc.

Canary Wharf is absolutely soulless but it's neither dead or frightening. It will almost certainly be the safest place to live in central London due to the fact that it's private land and you can be expelled from it permanently and the cameras everywhere will help security find you.

I've heard stories of a person who worked at a certain bank getting into a fight for the second time in a bar and then getting banned from CW - they could not go to work anymore.

It is absolutely a place that sets narrow parameters for your behaviour and if you can operate within those parameters there are companies who pay well operating there, clean streets, no visible crime etc.