Basic HTML Version
28
City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
ONE TO DO ON YOUR OWN
The View at The Shard
The website is
www.viewfromtheshard.com
. You can
only book up to 8 tickets on line so for a group you
must call them on their (premium!) number 0844 499
7111. Tickets cost £24.95 per person for advance
bookings, there are no group discounts, no concession
rates and you have to pay for the tickets in full at the
time of booking. There are no refunds available.
Groups are offered tickets for 11.00am time slots.
The alternative is to book though one of The Shard’s
Preferred Suppliers.
This doesn’t change the price of
the tickets, you still have to cough up in advance and
there’s still no refunds (I think
Preferred Supplier
must
mean,
We’d prefer someone else to give you the bad
news
) but it might give you more flexibility with visit
times. Call Adele at Hospitality Line on 0208 295 8385,
she’s got some afternoon slots and she’s also offering
The Shard plus afternoon tea at Brigade on nearby
Tooley Street for £34.00 per person. The other
Preferred Supplier
is Encore Tickets on 0207 492 1500.
Where to Get Off the Coach on The Day
You can arrive by train into London Bridge Station and
The Shard is right there on the new concourse, almost.
Coming by coach the best bet is to set down on English
Grounds, off Battlebridge Lane which is off Tooley
Street. You can step off the coach in bays in front of
Southwark Crown Court (you can’t see it from Tooley
Street). From here it is a five minute walk to The Shard
if you cut through the passage way under the railway
arches on Tooley Street by London Bridge Underground
Station pictured below, this is next to where the London
Dungeon used to be before it moved to the South Bank.
The passage under the station emerges on narrow St
Thomas Street, turn right and you are at the foot of The
Shard.The only public loos at The Shard are 5 unisex
loos on the ground floor by attraction entrance.
There’s no visitor café at The View From The Shard
and you won’t be able to just stroll into the hotel inside
The Shard for a cuppa. There’s a Macdonalds and a
Starbucks opposite the entrance, both of which get busy
so tea or lunch and a comfort stop at Hays Galleria
(entrance via Battlebridge Lane) might be your best bet
with Schulers Café (no loos, but public loos nearby) or
a Café Rouge and the Horniman at Hays pub.
Don’t arrive too early for your timed entrance as there’s
nowhere warm to wait or sit and the wind howls through
here (see photo below). There’s airport style security
but you don't have to take off your shoes or belt. Before
getting in the lift there’s an obligatory tourist photo
shoot with prints starting from £25 available in the shop
at the end of your visit. You take two lifts with a few
steps in between, changing at Level 33. It only takes
about a minute to get to the top, barely long enough to
enjoy the elevator music supplied by the London
Symphony Orchestra and the Joyful Company of
Singers. Free
tell-scopes
let you zoom in on points of
interest and also show you the view as it would be in the
dark. There’s a small shop here, guide books are £9.95.
Then it’s about 20 steps or another lift to Level 72
which is the open air tip of the building with only the
sky above you. You can take photographs to your hearts
content but even up at the top it’s difficult to avoid
reflections from the glass. There are no seats on any
level here for visitors so anyone with problems standing
for too long might want to take a wheelchair to be on
the safe side. We think an hour is plenty for the visit.
Combine your visit with any of the fantastic free
London museums to keep a lid on costs or five minutes
walk away is Southwark Cathedral offering guided tours
from £5.00pp, (www.cathedral.southwark.anglican.org)
The cathedral also offer a choice of group tea packages
from £4.95pp, speak to David Payne. Visit The Shard
on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday and enjoy the nearby
Borough Market with it’s specialist food stalls which is
good for lunch plus an hours browsing.
The photos below aren’t pretty but they are practical
and are designed to show organizers what to look for.
You walk under London Bridge Station
The entrance to The View From The Shard is not very glamorous