The Shard

The Shard stands in Southwark on the south bank of the Thames, directly above London Bridge station. It was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano and developed by Irvine Sellar with Qatari investors. Construction began in 2009, and the building was inaugurated in July 2012.

Piano described the design as a spire rising from the river, inspired by the masts of ships and by church spires in old views of London. Its tapering form is covered in about 11,000 angled glass panels that reflect the changing sky. At about 310 metres with 95 storeys, it is the tallest building in the United Kingdom.

The tower contains offices, restaurants, the Shangri-La hotel, private apartments and The View from The Shard, the public viewing area. The indoor gallery is on level 69, and a partly open-air gallery on level 72 sits about 244 metres above the street. On clear days the view stretches up to around 60 kilometres, taking in Tower Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral and the City skyline. Restaurants and bars on levels 31 to 33 offer views without a viewing ticket, subject to their own booking rules.

Entry to The View is by timed ticket, cheaper when booked online in advance. The entrance is usually on Joiner Street, next to London Bridge station, and visitors pass through security screening; check the official site for any temporary change of entrance.

The Shard replaced Southwark Towers, a 24-storey office block from 1975 that was taken down by early 2009. In January 2008 a group of Qatari investors paid £150 million for an 80 per cent stake in the project, and the contractor Mace agreed a fixed price of up to £350 million, which had risen to almost £435 million by October 2008. The building used top-down construction, digging the foundations while the core rose above, a method used for the first time in the UK.

Five cranes lifted the structure, four of them climbing upward as the tower grew. In 2011 workers found a fox, later nicknamed Romeo, living near the unfinished top on scraps left by builders. The owners won a court order in 2012 to keep the urban climber Alain Robert off the building, and in July 2013 Greenpeace volunteers climbed it in a 16-hour protest against Arctic oil drilling.

For the best visit, check the weather forecast and book a slot around sunset, when the city lights come on. The View sells timed tickets at prices that change by date and time, so compare slots on the official website before you book. The tower has a screen life of its own: it appears in the video games Starfield and Microsoft Flight Simulator, and a building of its shape even turns up in the 2006 film Children of Men, released before construction began.