The Shard

About The Shard

Skyscraper in London, England

The Shard is a glass, pyramid-shaped supertall skyscraper in Southwark on the south bank of the Thames, rising directly beside London Bridge station. Designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, it was begun in March 2009 and inaugurated in July 2012. At 309.6 metres it is the tallest building in the United Kingdom and Western Europe and the seventh-tallest in Europe, with 72 habitable floors of offices, restaurants, a luxury hotel and apartments. It is 95 per cent owned by the State of Qatar and anchors the Shard Quarter redevelopment around the station. It replaced Southwark Towers, a 24-storey office block of 1975. Its skin is formed of eight sloping glass facets that do not meet at the top, leaving the summit open like splinters of glass, a design Piano intended to recall the spires of London's churches and the masts of the ships that once crowded the river. Since opening it has become the defining landmark of south London's skyline, visible from most of the city. Floors 68 to 72 hold the observation deck, The View from The Shard, opened in February 2013: high-speed lifts rise to an enclosed gallery and then a partly open-air terrace at 244 metres, giving the highest panorama of London on offer, with the Tower of London and Tower Bridge directly below and views along the Thames to Greenwich and out to Wembley on clear days.

Where:

London, United Kingdom