The Shard - A view from the top of London's tallest building

[Music] towering above London Bridge station it's the tallest building in Western Europe we're going up The Shard The Shard itself might be hard to miss soaring 300 M into the sky but the public entrance is trickier to find tucked away in a tunnel beneath London Bridge station up to level 608 okay great doesn't take very long 30 seconds yeah 20 20 right so we're heading up from um transfer level 33 to the first viewing gallery on floor 68 and we're going up a whole different series of things from three levels of restaurants to uh the

five star shangala hotel which includes a swimming pool on level 52 there's a series of 10 Apartments which allegedly set you back between 30 and 50 million 68 no so we're here at level 68 which is the Cloudscape um essentially they've put kind of buffles in the windows to stop crowds from accumulating here to begin with and creating a kind of bottleneck so you're asked to to come to your left and go up to the first viewing Gallery floor it's all lined in the same um Brazilian hardwood and this kind of um warm red glazing

which to me has a sense of a bit like kind of hotel lobby like you're going into a slightly corporate environment very different to what you would expect from a tourist attraction um even the uniforms the the guest ambassadors are wearing you know look like the kind of thing you would find in a hotel it's a slightly strange atmosphere so we're here at level 69 which is the first public viewing Gallery a three story high uh Atrium essentially with a 360 degree view across the whole city and we're so high that you know Railways look

like model train sets there are 12 of these digital telescopes or telescopes as they're called because they tell you stories about what you're looking at so you can zoom in at any landmark in the city for example St Paul's Cathedral press the button and lo and behold you're given about it what else have we got church for Scientology and there's an extra added feature given how unreliable London's weather is there's a pre-recorded setting for day Sunset and nighttime views and to me having this kind of Crosshair almost feels like a computer game like you can

select your most hated landmark and press the missile button so we're here in the triple height glazed space of the 69th floor viewing Gallery about to head up to the 72nd floor which is a partially open observation deck now about 244 M it's the highest observation deck in Western Europe but incredibly there's over 40 other viewing platforms around the world that are taller from the birds Khalifa in Dubai which is the tallest building in the world to the Tokyo Sky Tree and the Cen Tower in Toronto so we're here on the 72nd floor open viewing

deck where these famed shards of glass start slipping and sliding past each other like the top of a broken beer bottle and it's amazing actually being able to look up Beyond where you're standing it kind of gives an extra sense of vertigo seeing the building beyond the level where where you are there's a real difference being up on this open 7c floor compared to the sealed area below which to me felt a bit like an enclosed airless corporate Lobby I mean here you can feel the wind in your hair you can hear the sounds of

London it's a completely open experience and and quite exhilarating the viewing Gallery may be one thing but to my mind the best kept secret of The Shard is through here the L with the best view in London it's very easy to criticize The Shard as a totem pole of wealthy Elites and a kind of Monument to Qatari investment and of course it's both of those things but buildings like this are going to happen and in a way this is the best way of doing them it's a radically new form a brilliant addition in my opinion

to London Skyline this faceted structure which dematerializes and and looks completely different from different light conditions and different directions and and provides a completely new perspective on London that's never been seen before