{"id":11927,"date":"2013-04-16T12:10:42","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T11:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=11927"},"modified":"2013-04-17T00:33:14","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T23:33:14","slug":"view-from-the-shard-a-trip-to-the-top-of-the-tallest-building-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/view-from-the-shard-a-trip-to-the-top-of-the-tallest-building-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"View from The Shard – a trip to the top of the tallest building in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"View<\/p>\n

After watching the skyscraper slowly rise in the London sky<\/a> from my Brixton flat, I finally made it to the top of the Shard tower, and was rewarded with some fabulous views of the capital.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Opened to the public on 1 February 2013 and standing 309.6 metres (1,016 ft) high, the 72-storey Shard is the tallest building in the European Union.<\/p>\n

Visitors are allowed in to access the\u00a0viewing gallery and the open-air observation deck \u00a0on the 72nd floor.<\/p>\n

At a height of 244.3 metres (802 ft), this is the viewing platform open to the public in the UK.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

The lift has a groovy ceiling video animation that plays as you whizz up the building.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Like the old WTC Twin Towers in New York, the journey to the top involves swapping to a smaller lift as you get near the top.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

The view from the top is truly\u00a0spectacular.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

A view of the Strata Tower, topped out with its\u00a0famously\u00a0non-moving wind turbines.<\/a><\/p>\n

The posh folks in the penthouse suites\u00a0apparently\u00a0 at the top didn’t like the noise, so there goes that particular eco initiative.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Looking over south London.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

The controversial Walkie Talkie tower<\/a> reaching completion in the City of London, with the stunning Gherkin to the right.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Tower Bridge next to City Hall.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

On the lower\u00a0observation\u00a0deck.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Canary Wharf in the distance.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

The open air observation deck where you can enjoy a wonderful panorama of London, only slighted spoiled by some\u00a0hideous cod-religious music that constantly\u00a0drones away.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

The 1677 Monument tower – see photo feature here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Brixton from The Shard!<\/p>\n

The distinctive block of flats with the zig zag pattern (centre, behind the white tower blocks on Barrington Road) is the Southwyck House<\/a> (aka the Barrier Block).<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Telecom Tower<\/a> with the Wembley arch in the distance.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Looking up to the top of the tower.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Self portrait.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

St George’s tower<\/a> at Vauxhall.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Posing for photos.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Bridges across the Thames, with the slender Millennium\u00a0Bridge near the top (forever nicknamed the Wobbly bridge\u00a0after its\u00a0inauspicious opening<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

These hi tech viewers let you view the scene at different times of the day as well as zoom in and have\u00a0buildings\u00a0and landmarks\u00a0labelled.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

A snap for the album.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

Going down!<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

A final view of The Shard from Borough High Street.<\/p>\n

[Official site<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After watching the skyscraper slowly rise in the London sky from my Brixton flat, I finally made it to the top of the Shard tower, and was rewarded with some … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[194,17,193],"tags":[199,1191,10,359,358,351,591,592],"class_list":["post-11927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-london-features","category-photos","category-places","tag-architecture","tag-brixton","tag-london","tag-london-bridge","tag-shard","tag-skyscraper","tag-the-shard","tag-tourist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/trip-up-the-shard-26.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-36n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11927"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11959,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11927\/revisions\/11959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}