The Shard: How Tall It Is, Who Built It and What's Inside

Renzo Piano's glass spire at London Bridge is the UK's tallest building, 309.6 metres and 95 storeys, finished in 2012 and home to offices, restaurants, a hotel, private flats and London's highest viewing gallery.

Visit

Timed entry to levels 68 and 69 and the skydeck on 72. The Shard Tickets.

Location

Joiner Street, London SE1 9QU, beside London Bridge station. Directions.

Visit duration

Around an hour is typical, with no time limit until closing. Plan your visit.

Highlights

The viewing galleries, the level 72 skydeck, the restaurants on 31 to 33 and the Shangri-La.

Nearby

Borough Market, Southwark Cathedral and HMS Belfast.

A vertical city at London Bridge

The Shard rises straight out of London Bridge station on the south bank of the Thames, a narrowing pyramid of angled glass that ends in open, splintered points 309.6 metres up. It was built to hold a whole neighbourhood in one tower: offices at the bottom, restaurants and a five-star hotel in the middle, private homes above them and a public viewing gallery at the top. Most visitors only ever see two parts of it, the restaurants on levels 31 to 33 and The View from The Shard on 68 to 72, but the story of how it was drawn, fought over and paid for starts more than a decade before either opened.

The Shard facts and figures

The Shard is the tallest building in the United Kingdom, at 309.6 metres (1,016 feet).

It has 95 storeys, of which 72 are habitable floors; everything above level 72 is the glass spire.

For a year, from 2011 to 2012, it was the tallest building in Europe.

Its skin is 11,000 panes of glass covering about 56,000 square metres, roughly the area of eight Wembley pitches.

The View from The Shard sits 244 metres up, almost twice as high as any other viewing platform in London, and welcomed a million guests in its first year.

The Shangri-La on levels 34 to 52 has the highest hotel pool in Western Europe.

While the tower was going up, a fox the builders nicknamed Romeo was found living near the top, surviving on their scraps.

Who Designed The Shard? A Sketch on a Berlin Menu

The Shard began as a lunch. In the spring of 2000 the developer Irvine Sellar flew to Berlin to meet the Italian architect Renzo Piano, who spent the meal explaining how little he thought of conventional tall buildings, then turned the restaurant's menu over and sketched a spire rising out of the river.

Piano took his cues from what surrounded the site: the railway lines running into London Bridge station, the church spires in Canaletto's 18th-century views of London and the masts of old sailing ships. Instead of a flat roof, the tower would taper away to nothing, its top left open in a cluster of glass points.

The glass was the other half of the idea. Angled panes would reflect the sun and the sky, so the building changes its look with the weather and the seasons. To make room for it, Southwark Towers, a 24-storey office block that had stood on the site since 1975, came down.

From Public Inquiry to Topping Out: When The Shard Was Built

Planning was the slow part. English Heritage and other heritage bodies objected to a tower of this height next to the historic city, and in July 2002 the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, called a public inquiry. Consent finally came on 19 November 2003, more than three years after the Berlin sketch.

Construction started on 16 March 2009, with Mace as main contractor. The builders used top-down construction, digging the foundations while the concrete core was already climbing, a first in the UK. Five cranes worked the site, four of them jumping upward with the tower, and by early 2011 the core had reached the 72nd floor, 244 metres above the street.

The last piece, a 66-metre steel spire weighing 500 tonnes, was winched into place when the tower topped out on 30 March 2012. The Shard was inaugurated on 5 July 2012, the viewing gallery opened to the public on 1 February 2013, and the construction contract alone came to around £435 million.

Who Owns The Shard, and Where the Name Came From

The name started as an insult. English Heritage warned that Piano's design would be "a shard of glass through the heart of historic London", and the phrase stuck so firmly that it became the building's name. Few people now call it anything else, and the insult reads more like a description.

Money was the next fight. The financial turmoil of September 2007 threatened to stall the project, until in January 2008 Sellar announced a consortium of Qatari investors, among them Qatar National Bank, QInvest, Qatar Islamic Bank and Barwa Real Estate, who paid £150 million for an 80% stake.

By 2009 the State of Qatar had bought out the private Qatari investors and consolidated the holding. Today the State of Qatar owns 95% of The Shard, and Sellar Property Group, the company Irvine Sellar built, keeps the remaining 5%. The tower that nearly died on paper twice is now one of the best-known pieces of London's skyline.

What Is in The Shard, Floor by Floor

Offices, a clinic and private homes

Most of the tower is private. The lower floors are offices, 26 of them, HCA Healthcare runs a clinic on levels 4 to 6, and levels 53 to 65 are private residences with no public access. The lifts to the viewing gallery carry you past all of them.

Aqua Shard, Oblix and Hutong, levels 31 to 33

The Shard keeps three restaurants on levels 31 to 33. Aqua Shard on 31 serves contemporary British food under a three-storey atrium bar, Oblix on 32 takes its look from the New York skyline, and Hutong on 33 serves Northern Chinese cooking modelled on its sister restaurant in Hong Kong. Each takes its own bookings, separately from the viewing gallery.

The Shangri-La hotel, levels 34 to 52

The Shangri-La starts on level 34, 125 metres up, and fills 18 floors with 202 rooms and suites. Its infinity pool is the highest hotel pool in Western Europe. The hotel also runs TĪNG, serving modern British food with an Asian twist, the Sky Lounge on level 34, the cocktail bar GŎNG on level 52 and an afternoon tea with an Asian accent.

The View from The Shard, levels 68 to 72

The top of the habitable tower is the public part. Two glassed galleries on 68 and 69 and an open-air skydeck on level 72 sit 244 metres up, with views of up to 40 miles on a clear day. Above them the glass keeps going: floors 73 to 95 are the spire.

The View from the Shard

Highlights

Enjoy sweeping 360-degree vistas of London from over 300 meters high.

Visit multiple viewing platforms including levels 68, 69, and the open-air deck on level 79.

Skip the regular admission queue with your entry ticket.

Optional add-ons such as a glass of Champagne and a digital photo package enhance the visit.

Marvel at famous landmarks like the London Eye, Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the Thames from above.

Going Up The Shard Yourself

The restaurants and the hotel take their own reservations, but the part of the tower anyone can simply book is The View from The Shard, right at the top. Pick a timed slot, ride the lifts to level 68 and stay as long as you like until closing. Arrive shortly before sunset and you get the city in daylight and after dark on the same visit, from the galleries and from the open-air skydeck on 72.

The Shard in Pictures

The Shard: What People Ask

How tall is The Shard?

309.6 metres, or 1,016 feet, which makes it the tallest building in the United Kingdom. The galleries of The View from The Shard sit at 244 metres.

How many floors does The Shard have?

95 storeys, of which 72 are habitable. Floors 73 to 95 form the glass spire above the viewing gallery.

When was The Shard built?

Construction ran from 16 March 2009 until the spire topped out on 30 March 2012. The building was inaugurated on 5 July 2012 and the viewing gallery opened on 1 February 2013.

Who designed and built The Shard?

The Italian architect Renzo Piano designed it for the developer Irvine Sellar, and Mace was the main contractor.

Who owns The Shard?

The State of Qatar owns 95% and Sellar Property Group owns the remaining 5%.

Why is it called The Shard?

English Heritage objected that the tower would be "a shard of glass through the heart of historic London". The phrase stuck and gave the building its name.

What is inside The Shard?

Offices, a clinic, three restaurants on levels 31 to 33, the Shangri-La hotel on 34 to 52, private residences on 53 to 65 and The View from The Shard on 68 to 72.

Can I eat or stay at The Shard without going up to The View?

Yes. Aqua Shard, Oblix, Hutong and the Shangri-La take their own bookings. A View from The Shard ticket covers only the viewing floors.

How much did The Shard cost to build?

The construction contract alone came to around £435 million.