Head for Heights

 View from the Shard

For once in my life I’ve been lucky. I decided on a whim during a weekend spent sight-seeing in London (or in my case site seeing) that I would try my luck and see if there were any tickets available for the opening weekend of the Shard. I got lucky. Despite the tickets changing hands on the street for more than five times their face value, on blagging my way into the main reception, I found there were still four spaces left for the 8pm slot.

Now for those of you who live outside the UK or indeed outside of London, the Shard is the latest addition to the London skyline and at an eye watering 1,016ft or 310m high is the tallest building in Western Europe. Designed by the renowned architect Renzo Piano it not only boasts a combination of retail, hotel, offices and residential space but also two viewing platforms, one on the 68th floor and a second open air section on the 72nd.

The official view from the Shard website describes the visitor experience thus; ‘On arrival at Level 00, you will be drawn into the tapestry of London with glimpses of the city laid out before you. 

Travelling skyward in two high-speed ‘kaleidoscopic’ lifts, you’ll swiftly reach Level 68 – a cloudscape above the world.

Then journey to Level 69 where the view is revealed and London opens out before you. Here, in the sky above London, you’ll experience an astonishing 360 degree, 64km (40mile) view over the city and beyond where the past, present and future of London will be unfurled beneath you, brought to life in multimedia displays.

For the best view in town, ascend to Level 72, at 244m, the highest public level of The Shard. You’ll be exposed to the elements with sounds of the city around you. Looking up, you’ll see the shards of glass that form the top of this skyscraper as they disappear upwards into the sky’.

That pretty much describes the experience and despite the constant requests by tourists to take their awkward arm in arm cheesy grinned pictures and the repeated calls of ‘I can see my house!’, the view is mesmerising.  Equipped with the 21st century version of the old seaside telescopes it’s possible to zoom in on landmarks throughout the city and even make a selection via a touch screen console between live feeds, day, noon and night shots and call up details about the target of choice.

There are however three things that have unsurprisingly been left out of the slightly flowery description of the Shard experience. The first is the airport departures style security check you have to endure on proceeding to the lifts and yes I do mean all metal objects in a tray through a scanner and walk through the detectors and be frisked type of experience. Closely followed by a photo opportunity where you and your loved ones are snapped in front of a green wall where computers will later superimpose your bewildered faces against a pre-selected view from the gallery and then try and relieve you of an extortionate amount of money for the privilege. And finally the carefully directed exit route will channel you through the buildings visitors shop where you will be bombarded with every conceivable Shard branded knickknack from cuddly toys to his and hers t-shirts, jigsaw puzzles to pencil sharpeners.

Overall though it is most definitely an item to add to your life experiences although the equally eye watering £29 per ticket could hasten the untimely conclusion of your bucket list.

#londonshard #shard #londonskyline #londonarchitecture