The View from the Shard

When I was living in London, I watched the Shard being built, slowly growing taller and taller until it left all of the other surrounding buildings in its shadow. Working in the City I loved the London landscape and had rather beautiful views of it from my office window.

The Shard opened its doors just before I left for Newcastle.  I was desperate to climb the 1016 foot building but was a little too busy relocating to buy a ticket. 

So on a recent trip to London I was very happy to finally get the opportunity to venture to the top of London's tallest building with my friend Lauren. 

There are a few ways you can enjoy views from the Shard. The Shang Ri-La hotel is situated on floors 34 - 52, offering spectacular views whilst you have afternoon tea or there's the Aqua Shard on the 31st floor where you can also drink and dine.  

For my first trip I decided to go all the way to the top for the full experience and we booked tickets for "The View from the Shard". These do not come cheap at £24.99 for advance bookings and £29.99 for tickets on the day. This is surely the world's most expensive tower to climb?

Once we'd handed our tickets over we entered the lift and began our journey up the tower.   Our ticket gave us access to two floors.  Floor 69 is completely under cover and also has a small champagne bar and Floor 72 is the highest you can go and is open at the top. 

Whilst there is floor to ceiling windows the whole way round the viewing platform, the roof is open so I should imagine it can possibly get a little chilly. Luckily for us the December day we visited we were blessed with Winter sun that kept us toasty.



 

The views from the top were incredible and on the clear day that we had we could even see the arches at Wembley Stadium. 

 

I loved seeing all the landmarks in miniature below us - Tower Bridge, the Eye and of course the City where my old office stood out next to the Gherkin as the only blue building!

Our ticket allowed us to stay for as long as we liked and we were up the tower for a good hour enjoying the views. 

To finish off such a lovely day we decided that afternoon tea was needed so headed to the London Bridge Hotel, a very short walk away. This is a great tea to do if you're climbing the Shard as you get a free glass of bubbly included when you show your Shard ticket.

Our tea was taken in the Quarter Bar & Lounge, which was a lovely space of comfy sofas and of course a rather spectacular Christmas tree.  

Unfortunately after being given our prosecco we were then waiting for around 40 minutes for our cakestand to appear. Not ideal when we hadn't eaten all day. 

When it did arrive shortly after we chased we were happy with how lovely it looked. Lauren is vegetarian and they bent over backwards to accommodate her by presenting her with her own plate of cheese and egg sandwiches. Add this to the collection of ham, salmon and cucumber sandwiches already on the stand and we had enough sarnies to feed a small army.

Our table was beginning to get a little full (tables are never big enough for afternoon tea!) which lead to bit of a mini disaster when the waiter knocked over Lauren's drink. The half drunk Prosecco went everywhere! But before it turned into an episode of Fawltey Towers he'd quickly mopped it up and brought her a fresh glass. When I joked that I might "accidentally" drop my glass he also filled mine up. Result!

The most disappointing part of the tea was our scones which were a little burnt. As a result they were hard and not all that tasty so we only had one each and made sure we'd smothered them in jam and cream to cover the burnt bits.

Luckily the cakes were far more impressive with Orange Chocolate Tarts, Macaroons and Mini Cupcakes.  Each one was delicious and the perfect size. Being an afternoon tea diva I did have to go and ask for a fork to eat my cakes with (they only had knives and spoons on the table) but I can forgive that as everything was delicious. 

The tea cost us £18 each which is very reasonable for a London afternoon tea. If you're thinking of visiting the Capital to climb the Shard, then make sure you follow it with a spot of tea at the London Bridge Hotel.