See the point?
And so it opens. Europe’s tallest building, The Shard by Renzo Piano. As of today you can get yourself a £25 lift ride to the top. Nice day for it.
Did you know it’s actually 10m shorter than The Eiffel tower? The ET is unenclosed and thus doesn’t effect the Europe’s Tallest Building status. Woop to us London.
As you probably do know, it was officially opened last night with a Laser light show that Daily Mail said ‘dazzles London’ but that Twitter chat suggests was a bit more underwhelming than that. Sample review: ‘Mailda and Rock Of Ages combined have a better light show than The Shard.’ What a wag.
What else do we know….it makes the Gherkin look like a bit of a tiddler now and of course we know that for every fan of it, there’s an incredulous hater. Or just a disappointed Bermondsey local whose window view has been highjacked by Sauron’s tower.
Me? I thought it a bit naff at first and a bit, well, male. But I do like that Renzo Piano chose a reflective cladding to throw images of London back at London – to soften the effect of it competing with the skyline we already have. And on a smaller level, I like that it has made London Bridge station ‘a destination’. Now, when I step off my train and go outside I’m craning to look up at it. Here’s how that space was before.
We love ol’ Renzo’s Central St Giles development, too. When The Shard is viewed from Hampstead at the end of Holly Mount on a sunny day (a what?) it lights up dramatically. But isn’t £25 a bit, er, “steep”? (The lift to the stop of the spire at Westminster Cathedral costs only £5 – not as high, but a great view nonetheless.)
Do you have to pre-book your lift ride or just form an orderly queue? Not that I’m planning to do either……just wondering.
I must admit, I’ve been craning my neck to look at how it’s coming along everytime I’ve been on the train. “Saurons Tower” – had crossed my mind during it’s early stages too, particularly when it was just the shell! The reflective cladding looks great on a (rare) sunny day, and honestly…it could have been a hell of a lot worse!