In pictures: the long awaited View from The Shard

This morning we ascended to lofty heights, 800 feet to be precise, above the city to get an exclusive peek around the public 360° viewing platform at the top of west Europe’s tallest building. The View from The Shard is set to open in February 2013 and although we didn’t get the full ’experience’, which will includes playful Londontastic visuals at ground level, a London Symphony Orchestra soundtrack, 12 interactive telescopes, a ‘sky boutique’ and access to a partially open air view on level 72,  it was still pretty damn spectacular. 

From the 69th floor viewing platform, on a clear day you can see up to 40 miles across the entire city. Sadly today was a bit grey and drizzly but that didn’t make it any less eye-poppingly, vertigo-inducingly awesome. The trains moving in and out of London Bridge station look like tiny toys, the London Eye is reduced a hamster wheel and the Thames curves through the city like a grey serpent.

Tickets for The View from The Shard will cost you £24.95, (unlike the free skygarden over the river at the top of the Walkie Talkie) but you do get considerably higher and compared to other London attractions (London Eye, Madame Tussauds etc), this isn’t as steep as it first sounds. We got to play on the brilliant interactive telescopes today: each show info on 200 sights around the city in both night and day. They are currently asking for the public to submit their favourite ‘secret’ London landmark – the top 10 (as chosen by historian Dan Snow) will be included on the telescopes for the launch and winners will get tickets for the opening day.

Buy tickets now for The View from The Shard; enter the competition before November 2 at facebook.com/theviewfromtheshard.

Ok, so you might not be able to go up there just yet, but these photos should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect…

Firstly, there’s three floors of mega windows to gaze out upon our fair city

Or if you would prefer, you can use one of their fancy interactive telescopes (or just pose by one)…

You can even try and find your office like we did below (ahem, losers)

For those afraid of heights, looking down isn’t recommended

And don’t even think about what it feels like yo be one of these guys…

It really is all about the view though…

And feeling like you are Queen of the Shard!

Tags: skyscraper, thames, the shard, tourists, view, view from the shard, walkie-talkie