Shard - View From

dacouch

It's my day up the Shard today at 2.30pm. The weather is clear blue sky at the moment but has been similar all week and then clouding over in the early afternoon.

I'm hoping the clear blue sky stays until I get there!

hethmar

Have a lovely time Son said something about there being two levels - you go to one and then can go up again to the top?

Enoy

dacouch

Went up this afternoon, great experience.

The lifts cover 6 metres a second, 33 floors in about 30 seconds which impressed me.

Had fairly clear weather and really enjoyed the views, the digital telescopes are worth trying.

The upper viewer deck has no proper roof so you experience the feel of the outside.

The guy in this pic is 70 floors up, he's on two wires so very safe but what the pictures does not show is that it's a sheer drop of 70 floors with no breaks. He must have nerves of steel...

[IMG][/img]

angieamme

dacouch wrote: »

There's plenty of free parking at the weekends a short walk from the Shard.

Hi would you mind pointing me in the right direction for free parking as hoping to visit my mum in kent and take my sons to the shard so woul dprefer to drive up on a Sunday.
Thanks

dacouch

There's loads of free parking in the area on a Sunday in that area.

You can park on Union Street from lunchtime on Saturdays until Monday morning on the single yellow lines. The resident bays have specific times on them so check those before using them.

Union Street is fine and is a short walk to the Shard.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.42553238,d.d2k&ion=1&biw=1366&bih=643&q=union+street+se1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x487604a63dab264b:0xc4857b75627fdd94,Union+St,+London+Borough+of+Southwark,+London+SE1&gl=uk&sa=X&ei=vU8hUcWCPYjIswbL7YH4BQ&ved=0CC0Q8gEwAA

There's no congestion charge to pay on a Sunday in central London.

If you drive from Kent, it's normally quicker to ignore the Sat Nav and stay on the A2 and go under Blackwall Tunnel then left into Cotton Street and then along The Highway which will bring you to Towerbridge. Check the traffic first but providing there's no problems at the Blackwall Tunnel this route is about 20 mins quicker than driving through SE London.

Take a good quality camera with you.

angieamme

Thank you dacouch very much appreciated x

dacouch

P.S I took my friend who is new to London, so I took her for a bit of a walk by Tower Bridge and along the river before going up the Shard.

It gave her some perspective when looking down from above.

If Borough Market is open pop in there for an amazing lunch, if you fancy a coffee, Monmouth in the market has the undisputed best coffee in London but there will be a queue.

dacouch

So here are my tips.

There will be a small queue outside, it does not really matter if you queue as when your time comes up the queue will disappear and you can go in.

If you join the queue ask the Steward if you can collect your tickets, they will allow one of you in to collect your tickets while the other stays in the queue.

Your bag will go through an xray machine and you will go through a metal detector. They will not ask you to remove your belt or shoes, if the alarm goes off they have hand held scanners to check your belt or false hip etc.

The lifts are very impressive, they travel at 6 metres a second, it takes two lifts to get to the top and they take about 30 seconds to cover 35 floors.

Look up at the ceiling of the lifts which have visual displays on them.

There are two viewing floors, the first is enclosed, the one above is glazed but has small ventilation slots so you can feel the elements from outside.

The upper viewing dec is open top, you can look up to the peak of the shards of glass.

The telescopes are worth waiting for (It won't take long). You can use them to view live images or they have stored digital images. You select the style eg sunrise, night time or daytime and point the camera wherever you want to view and they seamlessly show the view in that style.

When you're looking, also have a look down as you may see one of the riggers working on the outside of the building 70 odd floors up.

As well as the usual sites, have a look along the river to the East, you can see it meandering to the sea and on a good day can see the sea.

There is no limit on the time you can spend up there, so don't rush there's plenty of time to have a good look around.

There's a gift shop at the entrance / exit and one on the viewing deck, the prices are not to bad.

The staff are very proud of the building and will be happy to answer questions / help.

withabix

I'm taking my wife up the Shard on Friday.

I'm sure there's a joke there somewhere....



(I really am, by the way. 5.00pm tickets!)

dacouch

withabix wrote: »

I'm taking my wife up the Shard on Friday.

I'm sure there's a joke there somewhere....

Lol.

When I asked about the toilets with the floor to ceiling glass on the viewing deck, I was told they are no longer open. Not sure if it was because I was with a lady friend and they got the right idea or whether they have genuinely shut them now.