The Shard

더 샤드

Renzo Piano's 95-storey 'vertical city' at London Bridge, the tallest building in the UK: eight sloping glass shards that never quite meet, opening into a jagged crown at the top.

See it on the 3D globe →

At a glance

Country: United Kingdom
Location: London, UK
Built: 2012
Height: 310 m
Type: Skyscraper

Quick answers

Where is The Shard?

The Shard is in London, UK, United Kingdom.

When was The Shard built?

The Shard was built in 2012.

How tall is The Shard?

The Shard is about 310 m tall.

The Shard is a pointed glass skyscraper in Southwark, London, next to London Bridge station. It has 95 storeys and stands 309.6 metres (1,016 feet) tall, which makes it the tallest building in the United Kingdom and in Western Europe, and the seventh tallest in Europe. The Italian architect Renzo Piano designed it. It replaced Southwark Towers, a 24-storey office block from 1975.

Its shape looks like a shard of glass or a spire rising from the River Thames. Construction began in 2009, the tower was topped out on 30 March 2012 and it was inaugurated on 5 July 2012. The public viewing platform, The View from The Shard, opened on 1 February 2013. The Shard mixes offices, restaurants, a hotel and homes in one tower.

Where did the idea come from?

The developer Irvine Sellar wanted to replace the old office block on the site. According to Sellar, he met Renzo Piano for lunch in Berlin in spring 2000, and Piano sketched a spire-like sculpture rising from the Thames on the back of the menu. A planning inquiry was held in 2003, and the government approved the tower because its design was judged to be of exceptional quality.

A tower made of glass

Piano was inspired by the railway lines next to the site, by the church spires in paintings by the Venetian artist Canaletto, and by the masts of sailing ships. A heritage group criticised the plan as a shard of glass through the heart of historic London, and that is where the name came from.

The tower has about 11,000 panes of glass, angled so they reflect the sky and change with the weather. They cover an area equal to almost eight Wembley football pitches.

What is inside?

The glass-clad pyramid has 72 floors that people can use. The viewing gallery and open-air deck are on the 72nd floor, at a height of 244 metres. The Shard is owned by the State of Qatar (95 percent) and Sellar Property Group (5 percent).

It was designed to save energy, with its own combined heat and power plant that uses the heat from the engine to make hot water.

Fun facts

It is the tallest building in the United Kingdom.
The first sketch was drawn on the back of a restaurant menu.
The name started as a criticism: a heritage group said it would be a shard of glass through historic London.
The glass covers an area equal to almost eight Wembley football pitches.
It has 95 storeys but only 72 of them are floors people use.