The Shard
Western Europe's tallest building — near the top, its deck opens straight to the sky, wind and all.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk London offline.
The 72nd-floor open-air level sits at 244 m, near the top of the tallest building in the UK and Western Europe — a 309.6 m glass tower Renzo Piano shaped like a spire, rising over London Bridge in Southwark.
What to look for
- The open-air deck on the 72nd floor (244 m): not a sealed observation box but genuinely exposed, so you feel the wind at height.
- The 11,000 angled glass panes, set to catch the sky, so the tower's color shifts with the weather — rarely the same twice.
- The tapering top: a 66 m, 500-tonne spire narrowing to a needle, modelled by Piano on ships' masts and the London church spires Canaletto painted.
The View from The Shard viewing gallery spans floors 68-72, reached from London Bridge station (Jubilee and Northern lines); it opened to the public in February 2013.
The Shard is one of 40 sights worth the detour in London, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the London pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in London
- British MuseumThe room where a dead language got its voice back — and you walk in for free.
- Buckingham PalaceThe balcony where a whole country turns up to watch a family wave — with 775 rooms behind it.
- Westminster AbbeyNearly every English monarch since 1066 has been crowned on the same worn patch of floor.
- Big BenThe clang in a thousand establishing shots comes from a cracked bell that's rung slightly off-key since 1859.
- Tower of LondonWilliam the Conqueror's keep turned royal prison, where two queens lost their heads and the Crown Jewels still sit under guard.
- Tower BridgeA Victorian drawbridge dressed as a Gothic castle, its roadway still splitting open for passing ships.