Visitors to the public gallery at the top of London’s Shard building will be rewarded with spectacular views stretching 40 miles. The platform, which will provide the highest open air viewing point in Western Europe, is due to open to the public early next year and is expected to become one of the capital’s leading tourist attractions.
Screens on the ground floor will show scenes from the capital accompanied by a soundtrack by the London Symphony Orchestra. Visitors will then walk past a series of panels showing figures from London’s history in unlikely situations. In one Karl Marx and Margaret Thatcher share a tandem while another shows George Orwell installing CCTV cameras.
Two high speed lifts will carry visitors to the 68th floor from which they will complete the journey to 72nd floor platform on foot. The viewing galley is equipped with digital telescopes that can be used to identify up to 200 notable landmarks.
If the visibility is poor the telescopes can be switched to provide a recorded clear day picture of the view. The gallery is expected to be completely shrouded by cloud for four or five days a year.
Tickets, which will cost up to £24.95, will be sold in half hourly slots but visitors can stay as long as they like. Besides the view they will be able to enjoy the restaurants situated on the 31st, 32nd and 33rd floors.
The platform, which is twice the height of the top of the London Eye, opens on February 1. Visitors will enter the Shard via a new entrance on Joiner Street next to London Bridge station.
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