Blondie, Heart Of Glass (early draft)
The Shard Of Glass, or The Shard, is a large pyramidal building at London Bridge. It was still under construction when we left the UK, so we were interested to see how it had turned out. One of the criticisms levelled at it during the planning phase was that it would "ruin the South London skyline". Well, I saw the South London skyline before it was built and frankly, it wasn't up to much...the South Bank and the hideous Guy's Hospital being the two key features.
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| Look at that skyline...ruined! |
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| More ruination |
The Shard is open to the public (for a fee) so we booked online and went up to the viewing platform at the 68th floor, via two lifts. The platforms at the 68th and 69th floors are enclosed, and contain a number of virtual telescopes which can magnify the view in any direction. You can see much further than you can from the London Eye - all the way to the South Downs on a clear day.
A further three stories up is the open platform. It's open to the elements - if it's raining, you'll get wet - but there's plenty of glass to stop you from falling off. You can also look up to the top:
I'm still not sure about it. It just seems so - huge. Like addding bits to a city built of Lego using Duplo blocks. Or something.
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