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The Shard Story – Developing The Shard
he idea for The Shard was the brainchild of
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property developer, Irvine Sellar
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outhwark Towers, a 1970s office block, had
been purchased as an investment
It made poor use of a good site which had
excellent transport links
I n 1999, a proposal for a high building on the
site was put forward
Opposition came from English Heritage and
Historical Royal Palaces
Support came from the Mayor of London and
the local community in Southwark
riginally the building was planned to be
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400 metres high, but the height was reduced
following 9/11
Planning consent was obtained in November 2003
The architect, Renzo Piano, was appointed in
2000 – he had been suggested to Sellar by a
colleague who admired his work
Not known for designing tall buildings, Renzo
Piano saw the sense of a high-rise development
at London Bridge
The idea was to create a vertical city, a place
where people live, work and enjoy themselves
The ‘roads’ in this city are the building’s banks
of lifts and escalators
Having public access was seen as a vital
component of the project, but it is highly
unusual for a tall building in London
Investment in the project came from the Sellar
Property Group and the State of Qatar
he Shard is the centrepiece of London Bridge
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Quarter – a £2bn development to regenerate
and rejuvenate the area adjacent to London
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The Shard Story – Designing The Shard
he architect of The Shard is Renzo Piano, one of
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the most innovative architects in the world today
Piano achieved international acclaim when,
in partnership with Richard Rogers, he
designed the Centre Georges Pompidou
in Paris in the 1970s
The Renzo Piano Building Workshop was
established in 1981 and notable projects include
The New York Times Building in New York, Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and Central
St Giles in London
S itting on the banks of the Thames, Piano
designed his building to be a kaleidoscope that
responds to changeable London weather, to light
and shade – like a mirror, reflecting the city
ealising the vision of ‘a shard of glass’ meant
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the design of the façade was critical, with
large sheets of floor-to-ceiling glazing
providing unobstructed views of London
iano envisaged a building that would respond
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to the changeable English climate
Irvine Sellar met Renzo Piano for the first time in
2000 in a restaurant in Berlin to discuss the idea
of a tall building at London Bridge
he form of the tower itself is configured with
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views in mind, but equally to optimize climatic
conditions for its users
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iano sketched his initial design thoughts on
the back of a napkin in the restaurant – that
initial sketch bears a remarkable resemblance
to the finished building
Piano wrote on the sketch ‘To Irvine from
Renzo, May 2000 Berlin’
he mix of uses within The Shard meant that
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office workers, hotel guests and diners, residents
of the apartments, and the public visiting
The View from The Shard all had to have their
own points of entry to the building, with no
fewer than 44 lifts to whisk them to their
required levels
iano’s inspiration for the design of The Shard
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comes from the sailing masts of the ships that
docked in the river Thames and the steeples of
Sir Christopher Wren’s churches in the
City of London
he top of the building is a spectacular glass and
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steel spire
The dramatic design forms a new London landmark
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The Shard Story – Constructing The Shard
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he Shard took three years to build, with up to
1,500 people working on its construction
Nothing about the project was simple: the team
had to work on a constricted site, hemmed in by
streets and buildings, including a major hospital,
and overlapping one of London’s busiest
railway stations
The foundations began with 120 piles extending
54 metres (177 feet) deep into the ground
Each of these had to bear a weight of 2800
tonnes (3086 US tons) as the first 21 storeys
of the tower were constructed around a central core
he Shard has three basement levels used for
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services and vehicle access, the lowest extending
more than 13 metres (42 feet) below ground level
Excavating the basements was a tricky
operation, given the proximity of the Thames,
so a massive retaining wall was built to
enclose the site and provide a safe, dry base
for the tower
massive concrete raft was constructed at
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the lowest basement level, which provided
the structural underpinning for construction
of the upper levels
The 4-metre (13-foot) thick basement raft
was an operation of heroic proportions: it was
probably the largest concrete pour ever carried
out in Britain
In a space of 36 hours, 700 truckloads of
concrete were delivered in a military-style
operation
he core of The Shard was built ‘top down’
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– the strategy used to construct the basements
allowed the concrete core of the building to be
raised simultaneously
A rig on top of the core was used to pour
concrete as the structure rose
On top of the core a crane was installed,
steadily rising as the core itself grew
Four tower cranes were installed to deliver steelwork.
I n the final stages of construction, the site
boasted the tallest tower crane in Europe
The Shard is clad with more than 11,000
individual glass panels, assembled in
prefabricated sections to form a unitised
façade system
Assembled in a factory in Holland, the glass
panels incorporate two layers of glass, blinds
and the motors powering them
On site, they were raised by lift and installed
floor by floor – each panel typically took
15 minutes to install
The Spire contains some 1,300 individual parts
Assembling it at the summit of the tower was
always a challenge
A dry run at the steel-fabricator’s works in
Yorkshire was followed by the Spire being
dismantled and transported to the site and
assembled in sections
These were lifted into place and fixed into
position with the aid of a team of expert
steel erectors
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The Shard Story – Inside The Shard
he Shard contains a mix of uses and is a vertical
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city of offices, hotel and restaurants, apartments
and public viewing galleries
evel 34-52 is the Shangri-La Hotel,
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with 202 guestrooms and its own restaurant
The spa and infinity pool is on Level 52
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evels 2-28 are offices
Entered via a double-height lobby clad in white,
hand-chiselled Carrara marble
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evel 53-65 are exclusive residences with
unparalleled views over London
The penthouse on Levels 64 and 65 is rumoured
to have seven bedrooms
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evels 31-33 have some of the highest
restaurants in London
Aqua Shard on Level 31 serves innovative
contemporary British cuisine and features a
three-storey high atrium bar
Oblix on Level 32 features an aged cocktail
library and live music
Hutong on Level 33 serves Chinese cuisine
and features traditional Chinese decor and
hand-carved ‘Moon Gates’
The View from The Shard occupies Levels 68-72
and offers the highest viewing gallery in London
he building is crowned by the dramatic steel
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and glass spire, which occupies Levels 75-95
ravel up this vertical city is via the 44 lifts,
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some of which are double-decker, and the 306
flights of stairs
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Fast Facts – The View from The Shard
he View from The Shard sits 244 metres
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(800 feet) above London, almost twice as
high as any other view in the city
ouble-decker elevators travel at speeds of
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6 metres a second
The lifts have kaleidoscope ceilings, which
change as you ascend and descend to The View
The View has 360 degree uninterrupted views
for up to 40 miles
It is possible to see Windsor Castle on a
clear day
he View is a day and night experience,
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open from 10am - 10pm (in summer)
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uests can stay as long as they like,
taking time to appreciate the city from
this unique perspective
Iconic London landmarks are laid out before
you, including:
to the EAST: Olympic Stadium, Tower Bridge
and Canary Wharf
to the WEST: Big Ben and the Houses of
Parliament, Buckingham Palace and the BT Tower
to the SOUTH: Battersea Power Station, the
Imperial War Museum, Crystal Palace
and The Oval cricket ground
to the NORTH: St Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of
London, Alexandra Palace and the Monument
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evel 72, the highest public level, allows people
to stand in the open, exposed to the elements
and the sounds of the city beneath, and look
up to the shards of glass that form the top of
the remarkable building
The Tell:scopes on Level 69 are state-of-the-art
interactive telescopes with unique views of London
London can be viewed in real-time, by day,
by night, at dusk and going back through
the centuries
One Tell:scope also provides a view of London
in the future, taking account of planned
building work
The View from The Shard has the highest toilets
in London with the Loo with a View on Level 68
On average, the Loo with a View gets
through 700 rolls of toilet paper a month
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Fast Facts – The Shard
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he Shard is 309.6 metres tall (1,016 feet) and
is the tallest building in the European Union
Level 72 is the highest floor the public can go to
he highest floor you can stand on (only open to
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maintenance staff) is 87 and the highest piece of
glass is officially the 95th floor
he Shard was originally named ‘The London
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Bridge Tower’
mong the buildings Renzo Piano has designed
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are The New York Times Building in New York,
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston
and Central St Giles in London
The developer was The Sellar Property Group
he Shard’s principal contractor was Mace who
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worked in conjunction with WSP (engineers)
and Severfield Reeve Structures (steel)
ore than 900 consultants and construction
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workers were on site everyday
uilders worked 24 hours a day six days a week
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to raise the tower at a rate of 390cm an hour at
its peak
he total piles supporting the building would
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measure 13.7km if laid end to end
The earth and rubble removed was 65,000
cubic metres The tower is made up of 11,836 tonnes of steel
The volume of concrete used was 54,000 cubic
metres, equivalent to 22 Olympic swimming pools
The Shard has an equivalent floor space
of 31.4 acres
Construction cost £400m
he tower’s external surface is the size of
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eight football fields
1,000 glass panels were cut by a specialist
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factory in Holland – no two panes are identical
which makes the building shimmer with
56,000 square metres of glass
44 lifts have been installed and 306 flights of stairs
Levels 1-26 are offices
L evels 31-33 house three different restaurants
with at least two separate bars
he Shangri La Hotel is on Levels 34 and 52,
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and has 202 guestrooms and suites with enclosed
balconies plus a spa.
There are 10 luxury apartments on Levels 53–65
– the penthouse takes up the whole of Levels 64
and 65
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Fast Facts – The Shard Weather
scar Wilde said “England has four seasons.
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But do we have to have them in one day!”
I t rains when warm moist air cools and
condensation occurs
Warm air can hold more water than cool air,
so when the warmer air is cooled the moisture
condenses to liquid – and it rains
There are different types of rain
Frontal rain occurs when a warm air mass
meets a cold air mass
Orographic rain is rainfall produced as a result
of clouds formed from the topography, or
shape, of the land
Convective rain is produced by convective cloud,
formed when the ground warms up, causing
moisture in the ground to evaporate and rise
louds are made of tiny drops of water or
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ice crystals that settle on dust particles in
the atmosphere
now is formed when temperatures are low and
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there is moisture, in the form of tiny ice crystals,
in the atmosphere
When these tiny ice crystals collide they stick
together in clouds to become snowflakes
If enough ice crystals stick together, they
become heavy enough to fall to the ground
he snowiest winter of the 20th century in the UK
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was 1947 – between 22 January and 17 March
snow fell every day somewhere in the country
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ind is caused by differences in atmospheric
pressure, the rising and sinking of air in
the atmosphere
Window cleaners at The Shard have to stop
working when the wind exceeds 25 mph
I n 1953, 58 people died on Canvey Island, Essex
when the North Sea flooded – this tragic event
ultimately led to the creation of the Thames Barrier
he official definition of fog is a visibility of less
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than 1,000 metres
London Particular or Pea-souper was the thick
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fog or smog that used to cover London
Caused by coal smoke from millions of
chimneys, the Clean Air Act in 1956 banned
the use of coal for domestic fires in urban areas
and drastically reduced the number of deaths
from respiratory problems
I n May 2014, The Shard was hit by a bolt of
lightning during a sudden storm – neither the
building nor its occupants were affected due to
the lightning protection system installed
during construction
L ondon generates its own microclimate, known
as the Urban Heat Island (UHI), caused by the
urban landscape where roads, buildings and
pavements absorb and trap heat
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Fast Facts – Thames Top 20
he Thames is 215 miles/346km long and runs
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from its source near Cirencester in Gloucestershire
to the Thames Estuary near Southend-on-Sea
he first bridge over the Thames was built by the
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Romans in the 1st century – now there are 104
bridges along its length
he Thames is tidal from the sea to Teddington
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Lock – the tidal stretch of the river is known as
The Tideway
he non-tidal part, from its source to Teddington,
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is 147 miles/237km long and falls approximately
342 feet/104.2 metres
There are 45 locks on the non-tidal river Thames
here is a 23 feet/7 metre difference between low
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and high tide at London Bridge
The Thames is 870 feet/265 metres wide at
London Bridge
rost fairs used to be held on the Thames as it used
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to freeze over – the last frost fair was held in 1814
he Thames has featured in many literary works,
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including Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K
Jerome, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth
Grahame, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
he river Thames may take its name from the
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Sanskrit Tamas meaning “dark” as its waters are
often dark and cloudy; another school of thought
is that it is named after the Roman Tam meaning
“wide” and Isis meaning water
In Oxford the Thames is known as the river Isis
The Thames Path follows the river for 296km
(184 miles) from its source, making it the longest
riverside walk in Europe
agna Carta was ‘signed’ by King John on the
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banks of the Thames at Runnymede in June 1215
(in reality he put his seal on the document)
he “Doggett’s Coat and Badge” is the oldest
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continuously run single sculling race in the world,
founded by Thomas Doggett in 1715 to celebrate
the accession of the House of Hanover (George I)
to the throne of England. The race takes place
between London Bridge and Cadogan Pier,
Chelsea and is 4 miles 5 furlongs (7,400m) long
ver 30 million years ago, the Thames was a
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tributary of the river Rhine, as Britain was not
yet an island
he RNLI’s Tower Lifeboat Station, now
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based near Somerset House (it used to be by
the Tower), is the busiest lifeboat station in the
country, launching over 500 times a year
he Thames Police (now part of the Metropolitan
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Police and called the Marine Police Unit) were
formed in 1798, making them the first policing
body in the country
he Thames contains seawater and freshwater so is
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home to a variety of fish and marine life, including
brown trout, perch, pike, flounder and eels
L ondon Bridge once had a public toilet (in the
medieval era) that showered its contents directly
into the river below!
he Great Stink of 1858, when the Thames was
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heavily polluted, resulted in the creation of the
sewer system which in turn led to the narrowing
of the Thames by reclaiming land to build
the embankments
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9A
Thames Timeline – A Brief History of the River Thames
AD47
The Romans sail up the river and found
Londinium on its banks
1014
London Bridge is pulled down by King Olaf of
Norway to help his ally King Aethelred
defeat the Danes
1209
The first stone London Bridge completed, built by
Peter de Colechurch. It remains the only bridge
crossing the Thames in London until 1750
1305
The first head, that of William Wallace is
displayed on London Bridge
1620
The Mayflower sets sail from Rotherhithe taking
the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’ to America
1701
Pirate Captain Kidd’s body is displayed at Execution
Dock, Wapping for the wash of three tides
1798
Thames Police are founded
1st century AD
The Romans build the first wooden bridge over
the Thames shortly after they found Londinium
1150
First recorded occasion of the Thames
freezing over
1275
The first Custom House is established to collect
import and export duties from ships
1422
The Lord Mayor’s Procession takes place on the
river for the first time. It would move back onto
dry land in 1857
1666
Londoners take to boats to flee from the Great
Fire of London
1750
Westminster Bridge is built, becoming only
the second bridge over the Thames in central
London since Roman times
1802
West India Docks open – the first enclosed docks
built to provide security for cargoes and to relieve
overcrowding in the Pool of London
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9B
Thames Timeline – A Brief History of the River Thames
1806
Admiral Lord Nelson lies in state in the Painted
Hall in Greenwich, before being taken by boat for
his funeral in St Paul’s Cathedral
1829
The first Oxford and Cambridge University boat race
takes place – it becomes an annual event in 1856
1858
The “Great Stink” – when the stench from the river
Thames becomes unbearable and leads to the
building of London’s sewer system by
Sir Joseph Bazalgette
1894
Tower Bridge opens. A ‘bascule’ bridge that
opens to let ships pass
1951
The Festival of Britain takes place on the South
Bank as Britain gets back on its feet after World War II
1988
Building of Canary Wharf begins on the
old Docklands
1814
The last Frost Fair is held on the Thames
1843
The Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel in the world to
be built under a river, opens for pedestrians
1858
The SS Great Eastern, Brunel’s huge sailing
steamship, is launched from the shipyard at Millwall
1940 / 1941
London’s docks are heavily bombed during the
Blitz. 7th September 1940 becomes known as
‘Black Saturday’ as 430 people die and 1,600 are
seriously wounded in the bombing
1982
The Thames Barrier becomes operational to
protect London from flooding
2000
The Millennium Bridge opens and earns its
nickname of ‘the wobbly bridge’ due to the
unexpected sway of this suspension bridge
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London’s Timeline – A Brief History of London
AD47
Londinium founded on the banks of the river
Thames, following the Roman invasion by
Claudius in AD43
AD180
The Romans build a wall around the city, parts of
which can still be seen today
AD604
First known church on the site of St Paul’s
Cathedral is founded by Bishop Mellitus in AD604
1065
Edward the Confessor builds a palace and abbey
at Westminster. He becomes the first king to be
buried in Westminster Abbey
1078
Construction starts on the White Tower
(Tower of London)
1348
The Black Death sweeps across Europe
and half of London’s population die
(approx. 40,000 people)
AD61
Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni, burns Londinium
down, but the Romans rebuild a greater city
AD410
Londinium grows and flourishes, but the Romans
withdraw and Londinium is abandoned
AD886
Alfred the Great re-establishes London back
inside the walls of the old Roman city
1066
William, Duke of Normandy, invades and defeats
King Harold at the Battle of Hastings.
William I is crowned in Westminster Abbey
on Christmas Day
1209
The first stone London Bridge, built by Peter de
Colechurch. It remains the only bridge crossing
the Thames in London until 1750
1381
The Peasants Revolt, led by Wat Tyler, sees riots
in London and a confrontation with Richard II
at Smithfield
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10B
London’s Timeline – A Brief History of London
1397
Richard “Dick” Whittington becomes Lord Mayor
of London, a post he will hold four times
1571
The first Royal Exchange is opened by Elizabeth I
1649
Charles I is beheaded at Banqueting House
in Whitehall during the Civil War and England
becomes a Commonwealth
1665
70,000 Londoners die during the Great Plague
1694
Bank of England is founded to provide
funds for the king
1817
Robert Peel establishes the first police force
in London. The Metropolitan Police will be
established in 1829
1837
Queen Victoria becomes the first monarch
to live in Buckingham Palace.
She goes on to reign for over 64 years
1476
William Caxton’s printing press is established
at Westminster Abbey
1605
Guy Fawkes fails to blow up James I and
Parliament in what becomes known as the
Gunpowder Plot
1660
Following the death of the Lord Protector, Oliver
Cromwell, the monarchy is restored and Charles
II takes the throne
1666
The Great Fire of London breaks out in a baker’s
shop in Pudding Lane on the night of Sunday 2nd
September. Two thirds of London burns down
1732
10 Downing Street becomes the official
residence of the Prime Minister
1834
The Houses of Parliament burn down. All that
remains is Westminster Hall and the Jewel Tower
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10C
London’s Timeline – A Brief History of London
1858
The “Great Stink” – when the stench from the
river Thames becomes unbearable and leads to
the building of London’s sewer system by
Sir Joseph Bazalgette
1888
Londoners are terrorised by Jack the Ripper,
who murders and mutilates at least six victims.
He is never caught
1922
The BBC transmits its first radio broadcast
from London. Daily transmissions follow from a
transmitter on the roof of Selfridge’s
1951
The Festival of Britain takes place on the South Bank
as Britain gets back on its feet after World War II
2012
London celebrates Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond
Jubilee and hosts the Olympic Games for the
third time
1851
The Great Exhibition takes place in Hyde Park.
The brainchild of Prince Albert and Henry Cole
is housed in the Crystal Palace
1863
The Great Metropolitan Railway opens and
London’s Underground is born (the world’s first
underground railway)
1915
Zeppelins (airships) appear over London and
drop the first bombs during World War I
1940 / 1941
London is devastated during the bombing
of the Blitz
1988
Building of Canary Wharf begins on the old
Docklands